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
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
On 12 September 1946, Dutch guards opened fire on Indonesian detainees at Camp Victory near Casino in northern New South Wales. One man, Soerdo, was killed, while two other prisoners, Parta and Lengkong, were wounded. The shooting followed months of growing tension at the camp and occurred only a day Read more
In 1950, a group of approximately 100 Dutch workers travelled from the Netherlands to Australia under two-year contracts to undertake dredging and maritime construction work in and around Port Phillip Bay. Many came from Sliedrecht, a town in South Holland with a long international reputation as a centre of the 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
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
When the Japanese advance through Southeast Asia and the Pacific forced Allied governments, military personnel and intelligence organisations back to Australia in early 1942, Australia became much more than a military base. It also became a major centre of the Allied intelligence war against Japan. Australian, American, British, Dutch and Read more