The Forlorn Ally—The Netherlands East Indies in 1942

Abstract

The allied defence of the Nether lands East Indies (NEI) is one of the little known campaigns of the Second World War. Few histories of this campaign have appeared in English, and it is usually mentioned as an adjunct to the fall of Singapore. Because of this lack there has arisen a particular myth, especially in the non-Dutch military histories, that implies that the Dutch conducted an incompetent and half-hearted defence of the NEI. For example, in a book about the Australian 2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion that was captured in the NEI in 1942, the view is expressed that the Australians 'had [only] been forced to surrender because the Dutch had surrendered without a fight'. 1 Similarly a British volume on the NEI campaign states that 'the Dutch far from having a conviction of ultimate victory had a conviction of ultimate defeat'.2 The reality is far different. For 61 days, from 10 January to 12 March 1942, the Dutch fought a series of confused and desperate actions against the advancing Japanese. Japanese losses were not insubstantial, including 28' ships, most of which were valuable troop transports. Each battle for the Dutch was a rearguard action, while they waited for allied reinforcements to reach the NEI. Thus the NEI campaign is a story of misplaced Dutch faith in British and us promises of support. Dutch faith was displayed through the commitment of some of their best equipped forces to the inept Malayan campaign, and in the provision of Dutch facilities to the us Asiatic Fleet after it fled from the Philippines. Unfortunately this Dutch faith was not repaid in kind, with the result that they found themselves abandoned in their darkest hour by both the us and Britain. On New Year's Day 1942, the Dutch were in the unusual situation of being at war with the Japanese but the Japanese were not officially at war with the NEI. The Governor-General of the NEI, Jonkheer Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer, had declared war on Japan as soon as the news of the attacks on Pearl Harbor and northern Malaya had reached his military headquarters at Bandoeng, in Java. Thereafter,