South-African volunteers in the Netherlands East Indies Army

[Stellan Bojerud (RIP)]

After that the Netherlands had been occupied by the Germans in May 1940 it became impossible draw reinforcements for the Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) from NL.

Instead the KNIL tried with some results to get Dutch-speaking (Afrikaans) volunteers from South Africa. There was a great shortage of Officers and NCOs.

Is there sombody who knows more about these SA volunteers?

The picture shows a class of SA volunteer NCOs in Bandoeng 1941, 1st Depot Bn. Sitting at the table their Instructor, Sergeant-Majoor-Instructeur J.F.H. Vanderheijden with wife.

I beleive they have just graduated as Sergeants.

Stellan

[nuyt]

A very interesting subject, Stellan. And one that has intrigued me for a while.

I think there were several batches of volunteers, totalling a hundred men.

Battle reports suggest these were well motivated, if not fanatical (Tarakan). Some lingered on to fight with KNIL in the Indonesian Independence war.

From the few names I have seen of these volunteers I would assume the volunteers were NOT Afrikaners, but (recent?) immigrants to SA or Dutch nationals living there.

There was compulsory service for all Dutchmen living in the world after May 1940. Volunteering for KNIL probably avoided getting drafted in the Dutch forces in the UK or Navy.

A substantial number of Dutchmen living in SA refused to join up, however, and were arrested and deported by SA. They spend the war in a working camp in Surinam/Dutch Guyana.

Suriname was also the site of a Dutch jungle concentration camp (Jodensavanne) for deportees from the Dutch East Indies: NEI Nazis (members of the NSB) as well as Indonesian Nationalists (Douwes Dekker, yes a relative of Multatuli), Germans of Jewish descent, all locked up together, some by mistake.

Conditions were appalling and the inmates were treated rather roughly by the Dutch guards (there was a case of murder of two alleged NEI Nazis by Dutch Marines).

I am not sure if the SA pacifists were locked up at the same place or elsewhere, but what I am sure of is that this was a black page in Dutch history.

Thanks for the picture!

Nuyt

[Boudewyn van Oort]

The First party of volunteers left Durban around May 24, 1940. A good friend of my family was on that ship. I think it was the m.v. Boissevain, but may be wrong. The volunteers came largely from the Dutch immigrant community in South Africa, and were motivated partly by patriotism , but also coming under the threat of conscription, imposed by the Netherlands government in exile and put into force by the South African Government. A number of Dutch nationals citizens were incarcerated. but that happened after we left, and the facts are murky.
Our party was the second one to leave , on 26 May 1940 from Durban , but also was the first party to arrive, on 11 June at Tandjong Priok, the harbour of Batavia (today's Jakarta. There twenty of us, passengers on the KPM ship Straat Soenda. The party consisted of seventeen men, three women and a child (me). The Boissevain's arrival was delayed by stops in various coast cities on the Indian Ocean. Our arrival in Jakarta caused a minor diplomatic row because it contradicted the assurance made by the Netherland's Government in Exile of strict maintenance of the Status Quo in the Indies. Our arrival suggested otherwise to the Japanese-- that the Netherlands Government was actively arming the Netherlands East Indies. I have a group photo of this party of volunteers and managed to identify a number of people. The story of the voyage , what led up to it and the fate of some of these volunteers forms part of the story in my book, Tjideng Reunion.
All told between 200 and 300 "South African" - Dutch volunteers sailed to the Indies.
My father was set to work for the army to help design and build the Royal Military Academy in Bandoeng, referred to as the "KMA complex. I have a group photograph taken as completion was nearing, but aside from my father, I have been unable to identify any of the other celebrants, a mixture of Europeans and Asians and of military and civilians.
A forgotten piece of history.
The KMA complex is still in use as a military training centre for the Indonesian army.

Boudewyn van Oort BSc, BA(Oxon), MA(Oxon), Victoria