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 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 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. 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 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 Read more