A study of the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School Building Dutch Air Power in World War II: The Role of Lend-Lease and Aircrew Training in the United States, by Nicholas Michael Sambaluk, examines how Dutch military aviation was rebuilt after the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies. Published by Read more
Joan Butler grew up in a Dutch migrant family on a farm in Western Australia. During the Second World War, she worked as a Land Girl before joining the Women’s Corps of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. At Camp Columbia in Brisbane, she trained as a soldier and worked Read more
The Second World War transformed Ineke Thysse’s life. She arrived in Australia from the Netherlands East Indies intending to study architecture, but the Japanese occupation separated her from her family and prevented her return. She subsequently became one of the earliest members of the VK-KNIL and served as a medic Read more
The Vrouwenkorps Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger (VK-KNIL)—the Women’s Corps of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army—was established in Melbourne on 5 March 1944. Its members trained and worked in Australia before many were deployed to Netherlands New Guinea, Java, Sumatra and elsewhere in the Indonesian archipelago. This research portal brings together Read more
From the fall of the Netherlands East Indies to renewed operations from Australia The Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942 brought Dutch military aviation in the region close to destruction. Many aircraft were lost in combat, destroyed to prevent their capture or diverted to other Allied Read more
Johanna Maria van Bommel was born in January 1927 in Sabang, a small island NW of Sumatra, Indonesia. She is now 95 years old, widowed and living in a low-care unit of the Prins Willem Alexander retirement village in Birkdale, Qld. She moved here in 2018. I talked with Jo Read more
Antonius (Tony) Sanders met and married his wife Elizabeth (Liz) van Steijn in Indonesia after the end of World War II. Their migration journey took them from the Netherlands to Indonesia, Dutch New Guinea, back to the Netherlands, and finally to Australia. Their story is documented below. The Sanders Family Read more
Secret agents, submarines and intelligence missions into the Japanese-occupied Netherlands East Indies Among the most dangerous activities undertaken by the Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) during the Second World War were clandestine missions into the Japanese-occupied Netherlands East Indies. Small parties of Dutch and Indonesian agents were trained and prepared Read more
The little-known organisation that preceded NEFIS special operations Before the Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) developed its own special-operations capability, Dutch, Australian and Indonesian personnel were already being sent from Australia on clandestine missions into the Japanese-occupied Netherlands East Indies. Their activities were organised through the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) Read more
Rebuilding an intelligence service after the fall of the Netherlands East Indies When Japanese forces conquered the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942, the Dutch colonial government lost not only its territory but much of the intelligence network on which military and civil authorities had depended. Australia became the principal Read more