Dutch servicewomen train in wartime Brisbane In 1944, members of the newly formed Women’s Corps of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army—the VK-KNIL—trained with American servicewomen at Yeronga Park in Brisbane. Their meeting brought together two separate military organisations: the Dutch VK-KNIL and the United States Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Read more
The story of the Burgers family brings together several important chapters in the shared history of Indonesia, the Netherlands and Australia: the Boven Digul political prisoners’ camp in Dutch New Guinea, the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies, Dutch military aviation from Australia, the controversial Colombo court-martial affair and Read more
The history of No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF is usually told as one of Allied cooperation and operational success. Yet during its formation in Australia, the squadron experienced a profound internal crisis that culminated in one of the most controversial military trials involving Dutch forces in exile during Read more
Following the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942, surviving Dutch and Indonesian air-force personnel, naval aviators, civilian aircrews and aircraft escaped to Australia. From Australian bases they reorganised, trained and returned to active service as part of the wider Allied campaign against Japan. Australia became the Read more
Shipwrecks, aircraft, Dutch East India Company history and Camp Columbia form part of an expanding program of Dutch–Australian heritage cooperation A new report from the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands highlights the breadth of Dutch-related heritage projects currently being undertaken across Australia. The International Programme for Maritime Heritage: Report Read more
Sophia Kruyswijk-van Thiel was both a member of the Vrouwenkorps Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger (VK-KNIL) and one of its most important historians. Her wartime generation had been among the first Dutch women formally admitted to military service, but its contribution was largely forgotten after the dissolution of the KNIL in 1950. Read more
In December 1946, the Curaçao newspaper Amigoe di Curaçao published the recollections of a young woman who had volunteered for the Dutch Women’s Corps, the Vrouwenkorps KNIL (VK-KNIL). Her article, “Ik ging naar Java als Vrijwilligster” (“I Went to Java as a Volunteer”), described an extraordinary journey from Curaçao through Read more
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