'Aussie Rick'’s Comments (group member since Jun 12, 2009)

'Aussie Rick'’s comments from the THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP group.

With ANZAC Day fast approaching I have decided to start reading this new Australian release which covers a famous battle that was fought on Anzac Day, 1951, in Korea:

Let the Bastards Come: The Battle for Kapyong Korea, 23 – 25 April 1951 by David W. Cameron

Same here Marc :)

"Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World" - The First Police Action (Dutch offensive operation in Indonesia during 1947):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operati...

https://historibersama.com/how-the-du...

"Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World" - The author also mentioned a massacre committed by Dutch troops that took place at Galung Lombok:

https://batarahutagalung.blogspot.com...

Thanks for those details Liam. I think I will need to keep an eye out for a copy of "Nationalism and Revolution in Indonesia".

"Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World" - The author also mentioned Raymond Westerling from the Dutch Army and the 'Westerling method' as used in Indonesia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond...

https://historibersama.com/filing-law...

"Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World" - Its 1946 and the Dutch have started conscription so as to be able to send forces to Indonesia, it was not a popular move:

"On the dock another brass band was playing the Wilhelmus to further encourage the troops and console those they were leaving behind. But the carriages of the trains still had 'Meat transport Amsterdam-Batavia' daubed on them."

And;

"In total no fewer than 120,000 Dutch conscripts would depart between 1946 and 1949, an enormous number that approached the general mobilisation before World War II (150,000). Six thousand recruits who were examined and judged 'fir for the tropics' refused to embark. Many of these were tracked down and hauled out of their beds by the military police. This hunt for deserters went on until 1958! Strict sentences were passed on 2,565 war resisters. Almost three-quarters received custodial sentences of up to two years, the rest remained in jail even longer. Altogether a total of fifteen centuries of prison sentences were pronounced, a remarkably large amount compared to the complete immunity granted to later war criminals. The conclusion was clear: those who refused to kill were locked up, those who murdered without reason went free."

Dutch War Crimes:
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/...

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2....

Marc wrote: "Some interesting posts, AR. My wife is Indonesian and I'm definitely going to put this on my list of books to buy so I can learn a bit more about Indonesia, especially during World War II and the t..."

Marc, I think you would find this book quite an interesting read. The story about your wife's father and his rice doesn't surprise me after reading the chapters on the Japanese occupation.

"Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World" - The fighting then began to escalate, with a large battle involving the British at Surabaya, where Mountbatten had to send in the 5th Indian Division to get things under control:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...

Talking about Japanese soldiers holding out after the war ended, historian/author Mike Dash has this very interesting article on this subject:

Final straggler: the Japanese soldier who outlasted Hiroo Onoda:
https://mikedashhistory.com/2015/09/1...

"Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World" - The author mentioned the story of the Japanese soldier Teruo Nakamura who only surrendered in 1974:

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat...

"Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World" - From the chapter covering the Japanese occupation during WW2:

"In one of the world's most fertile agricultural regions, an estimated five per cent of the Javanese population died of hunger, one in twenty people. In absolute figures, 2.4 million died. By comparison, 22,000 people died in the Dutch winter famine of 1944-5, 0.24 per cent of the population. Many dozens of books are devoted to the interment camps, but the huge famine in Java, one of history's most severe, has received much less attention. The only scholarly study of the subject is no longer in print."

Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanes...

"Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World" - The Japanese and the issue of 'comfort women':

"In Semarang, thirty-five young women were dragged from the camps to the brothel. In Banjubiru, near Ambarawa, the Korvinus sisters saw an unforgettable scene: 'Fifteen women were rounded up for service there, including four girls aged fourteen and fifteen. The camp rose up in outrage, but the Japanese crushed the protest. Then a few Dutch women offered themselves in the place of those young girls. They were ex-prostitutes from the port city of Surabaya. They sacrificed themselves and were taken away. We never saw them again'."

Women made to become comfort women - Netherlands:
https://www.awf.or.jp/e1/netherlands....

"Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World" - Some interesting information about Indonesians in the Dutch resistance during WW2:

"Of the approximately 800 Indonesians in the Netherlands at the time of the German invasion, sixty to one hundred were involved in the resistance: 7.5 to 12.5 per cent. In other words, they made a much larger contribution, relative to their numbers, than the Dutch community; even when the resistance reached its height in the final year of the war, it involved only 0.25 to 0.5 per cent of the Dutch population, 25,000 to 45,000 people out of a population of nine million. To put it another way, one out of thirteen Indonesians joined the resistance even by the most conservative estimates, as opposed to one out of every 360 Dutch people."

Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World by David Van Reybrouck

Yes MR9, something a bit different!

Found a brand-new copy of this book on the 'specials' table at a local book shop; "Bold Venture: The American Bombing of Japanese-Occupied Hong Kong, 1942–1945" by Steven K. Bailey.

Bold Venture: The American Bombing of Japanese-Occupied Hong Kong, 1942–1945 by Steven K. Bailey

Jonny wrote: "So, only a week or so after finishing the book, I've finally put together a few thoughts about Bomber Command: Churchill's Greatest Triumph; not perfect but an interesting look at ..."

Nice review Jonny, thanks for sharing your thoughts about the book with the rest of the group.

"Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World" - In January 1942 the Dutch authorities in Indonesia decided to remove all German citizens and Dutch Nazi Party members held on the Island:

The actual German detainees, however, were sent to British India. The first two prison ships brought the most dangerous individuals to Bombay; with the third transport, however, things went terribly wrong.

The SS Van Imhoff was to carry the last 473 Germans, none of them high-risk detainees: retired civil servants of the colonial government, former KNIL soldiers with a German background, elderly Protestant and Catholic missionaries, a few anti-fascist and Jewish refugees, a number of stranded German merchant sailors, a few mental patients and the painter Walter Spies. They were placed in cages on the lower and rear decks, surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by 62 soldiers. The Van Imhoff itself had a merchant crew of 84 men. As the ship was about to set sail, it became clear that there were enough safety vests on board, but not enough lifeboats. The captain reported the problem, but was ordered by the highest naval officer, Admiral Helfrich, to put to sea anyway. The decks of the prison ship were also not marked with any red cross or other sign to indicate its special status. For the Japanese bomber that caught sight of them off the coast of West Sumatra, it was a ship like any other. The Van Imhoff was hit. At first the damage seemed slight, there was no panic on board, but a few hours later the prisoners watched from behind their barbed-wire fences as the Dutch lowered the lifeboats and sailed off. That could only mean that the ship was doomed. To their dismay, they also saw that the lifeboats were not nearly full. As it took on water, the steamship started listing. A group of prisoners succeeded in freeing themselves and jumped into the sea, taking advantage of a few rafts and one lifeboat that had been overlooked, but two hundred others drowned. The next day, two Dutch ships appeared. The first one took no castaways on board, the second asked them whether there were Dutchmen in the group. Admiral Helfrich, our old friend, had radioed secret instructions in which he said to take only “reliable elements” on board and “prevent the remaining Germans from reaching land”. A Jewish jeweler who had escaped from the Nazis in his own country tried desperately to climb on board, but disappeared into the waves. Of the 473 prisoners, 66 succeeded in reaching the island of Nias in a sloop. They were the only survivors. Upon arrival one of them committed suicide: a former KNIL soldiers who could not believe that the Dutch Indies, the territory he had served for years, was doing this to him.

The Van Imhoff disaster was like a fire that went on smoldering for years. During the war itself, the Netherlands was required to pay the German occupiers some four million guilders in compensation, but in 1956 an Amsterdam court ruled that the captain need not be prosecuted. Yet the highest commissioning principal himself, Admiral Helfrich, never stood trial; his confidential missive came to light only later. A 1965 documentary about the whole affair, by the Dutch VARA broadcasting organization, was not allowed to be shown on TV. Holland was a victim, and the question of whether it had taken part in war crimes was not to be dealt with.

The Sinking Of The SS Van Imhoff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbDyd...

Pretty amazing footage, thanks for the link Jonny!

Tim wrote: "Only a month away now, looking forward to reading it
"

In my shopping basket ready to hit the buy button :)