Mijn verzamelinteresse voor medailles draait met name om het verhaal achter de medaille of in dit geval oorkonde: de mens en zijn ervaringen in oorlogssituaties. Een enkele oorkonde van het oorlogsherinneringskruis is zelden interessant voor de gemiddelde verzamelaar. In dit geval gaat het zelfs om een versie zonder gesp, de meest basale variant van de oorkonde:
Toch blijkt het hier juist om een interessant verhaal te gaan dat in tegenstelling tot de meeste oorlogsverhalen niet verloren gegaan is in de tijd. Hendricus Stuifbergen heeft zijn verhaal zelf opgetekend, niet als officieel boek maar als een eenvoudig getypt verslag waarvan gelukkig een kopie bewaard is gebleven.
Stuifbergen in KNIL uniform. Foto van www.oud-castricum.nl
Het verhaal draait om “Mijn leve bij de Jappen” een dagboek van H. Stuifbergen zoals het document getiteld is en dat een duidelijk en schokkend beeld geeft van de verschrikkelijke tijd die de krijgsgevangen hadden bij de Japanners. Stuifbergen komt uiteindelijk in Japan zelf terecht in kamp Fukuoka 17B in de nabijheid van Nagasaki waar de krijgsgevangen ooggetuige zijn van de atoombom en de paddenstoelwolk die daarbij ontstaat en die hij ook getekend heeft in zijn manuscript.
Interneringkaart – bron Nationaal Archief
Zijn egodocument is daarmee een historische optekening van een zwarte tijd in de Nederlandse krijgsgeschiedenis die niet verloren mag gaan en ik daarom graag hier deel.
Stuifbergen overleeft de ontberingen en zal zijn werkzame leven als militair voortzetten, eerst nog bij het KNIL en vervolgens in Nederland bij de Koninklijke Landmacht.
In two seperate instances I was able to buy the logbooks and some related papers of the same naval aviator, T.W.D. Quiné. The papers and first logbook shows that he started in a Signals (Telegrafist) role in 1947 with a commitment for 6 years
In 1949, after only 2 years in this role he was already reassigned to flight school in order to become a naval pilot. He had to quit his old role an sign again for 6 new years in his new role.
The first logbook makes it possible to follow his training in different types of aircraft and his first solo flight on October 15th 1949.
As it seems he made a mistake during training that was bad enough to get a full page in his training logbook. He forgot to switch in time to the full tank due to which he had to make an emergency landing that badly damaged his (Harvard) aircraft. It also contains a sort of compliment: he completed the emergency landing relatively well….
The later part of the first and all of the second logbook that continues to the end of his naval career in 1956, after completing his 6 years, show his regular flights for the navy. Mainly he flew in Catalina aircraft both in the Netherlands and in and to the Dutch colony of New Guinea.
He also flew on the P212 that is now the last Catalina in the Netherlands and is currently being restored by the Military Museum.
The flights include all sorts of activities as shown on a few pages here:
After completing his naval period he became a regular civil pilot. First continuing to fly in New Guinea for a local airline, de Kroonduif, until the colony was taken over by Indonesia in 1962 and the company ceased to exist in 1963.
He did his civil pilots exam (B3) in the Netherlands in 1963 and continued to work abroad for several airlines as this letter from 1969 in Kenya shows.
So far I have not been able to find a photo or any information on the latter part of his career so I hope to add more information in the future!
This very nice grouping of Maschinen-Maat Hans (Johannes) Knoll of the Austro-Hungarian Navy was found in the Netherlands including his handwritten notes on the items and his service.
Maat is the name of the NCO rank he had and Maschinen (so a mechanic) was the trade in which he was active. A special arm badge was used the show the trade, woven or printed for NCO’s and in embroidered bullion for officers.
The white example from the white uniform in the photo below and the blue version for on the work uniform.
He was active on different ships during the 5 years (1913-’18) he served. In the picture below he is wearing the tally for Patrouillenboot Barsch of the Danube flottila but he also was active on regular navy ships that are listed on his note further in the blog.
The trade badge can be seen here on his left sleeve, also note the capbadge and the tally for Patrouillenboot Barsch.
And his cap badges from the Kaiser Franz-Joseph and Kaiser Karl period, each with a different cipher.
The group included his personal watch, a Doxa, a compass and a souvenir watch for the Jubileum of Kaiser Franz Joseph:
But for me as a medal collector the most important part is his medal group:
The silver bravery medal 2nd class was awarded in februari 1917, unfortunately I do not know yet for which action and on which ship:
And his notes on the items and his service!
A list of his medals and at the end his name.
A list of ships and locations in which he was active.
In this form it is a very nice and rare bravery group for the Austro-Hungarian Navy!
Sometimes “Pieces of History” can come from your nextdoor neighbour. In this case it turns out her (step)father was a marine in the Dutch East Indies during the war for indepence of Indonesia or during the “Politionele Acties” as it is called in the Netherlands.
A total of 200.000 soldiers participated in this “war” of which 100.000 were conscripts, 25.000 were volunteers and the rest were professional soldiers. Of those 200.000 around 5000 were marines or in Dutch “mariniers” the specially trained infantry of the navy, a classic elite unit.
Re established after the world war the first groups were trained in the US but following groups were trained by the new staff that had been trained in the US and most material the marines used was American.
Aart Aartsen was a conscript who served between 1947 and 1949 and rose to the rank of temporary sergeant. As he worked in an administrative job during his period overseas he would get the relevant medal “Orde en Vrede” but without the bars for the years he served as those were only awarded for field/action service.
He would be the administrator for the Signals Materials platoon (VINMATPEL) for the Marines during a period of almost two years.
A few pages of period pictures give a good insight in the daily live in a Marine encampment in Soerabaja:
But there was also live outside of the “wire”:
And a group of officers:
A parade of (US) material of the marines with a M3A3 Stuart tank, a Bushmaster Landing Vehicle (LVT3) and even an US Navy Fire Defense trailer:
And of course the boat trip, twice:
And a navy friend?
Thanks to his son and (step)daughter I could make this short blog to remember a marine’s life and his period in Indonesia. As it often goes there was not much knowledge of his service left within the family but with some documents and photo’s you can get an impression nevertheless.
Although the 1927 Nanking incident mainly involved the great nations of that time there also was a minor involvement of the Dutch Navy and a group of their landing forces. Two albums from an officer of the light cruiser Hr. Ms. Sumatra show many photo’s of the Dutch involvement in the incident that were previously unknown!
As it happened the Sumatra was taken into use in 1926 and it was planned to travel around the world and ending in the Dutch East Indies, starting in September of that year and completing the tour in 1927. It had a crew of just under 400 men including a few civlians.
The aim of this tour was to promote both the Dutch navy as a serious force and the quality of Dutch ship building. In modern words it was a marketing tour. Therefore it stopped in many places including some where very rarely a Dutch navy vessel would come otherwise.
The plan included China, Shanghai as the last big stop before going to its final destination the Dutch East Indies.
The plan for the entire travel as originally planned
Even a book was written about this tour around the world which was quite extraordinary for the Dutch navy.
In the book it is mentioned that some of the photo’s were made by LTZ3 H. Isbrücker and also these two albums were made by him. He is in several of the photo’s in the album.
LTZ 3 Harry Isbrücker in action with the sextant on the ship.
The photo below comes from another website about Harry Isbrücker and describes his daring escape from the POW camp Stanislau during the second world war. He has the same rank in both photo’s, note also the signet ring.
Most pictures in the albums and in this blog seem to be unique. Not used in the book which only has a limted amount of pictures and also not in any of the museum/archive collections. We will start with the Sumatra and some pictures from the locations it towent to during its travels:
During that trip the Sumatra stopped in many place like Hawai.
And Japan, the officers in front of the Great Buddha of Kamakura.
The ship arrived in Shanghai on the 19th of Februari, so before the Nanking incident about which you can read more here. The arrival of the ship was planned as part of the trip but that it coincided with the Nanking incident was purely accidental. It was nevertheless a reason to stay much longer in China than originally planned.
In the second photo album that is dedicated to the Nanking part of the trip of the Sumatra are also some newspaper clippings about the incident and many original photo’s. Some of the photo’s also appear in the book mentioned above. The main aim of the international forces was to defend the international settlements in Nanking against the civil unrest/war and the National Revolutionary Army that was nearing the city. The settlements were the locations were foreigners were located and from where the trade into China was established.
Below some newspaper clippings and photo’s from the album.
A Dutch naval landing detachment of 100 marines and officers would be stationed in the business district just like English and American forces in their settlements in order to protect the western properties. The Dutch also had a small colony with several banks and trade companies and the Dutch marines would be located in the buidlings of the Nederlandsch Indische Handelsbank and De Factory (Nederlandsche Handels Maatschappij).
English forces:
American forces
And finally the Dutch naval landing forces consisting of both marines and regular navy personnel! After the initial days an extra group of 40 naval men and an additional officer were added to the original landing force of 100 marines as due to some incidents more men were deemed necessary to maintain the safety of the Dutch settlement!
The men would defend the 3rd and 4th bridge over the Soochow creek from the Whangpoo river. This was the border with the French settlement that was defended by French troops. This location was close to the Main Post Office of Nanking. On the other side was a Chinese area, so not a foreign settlement, were part of the fighting and unrest took place.
The Sumatra would stay untill May in Nanking when the situation there was more or less stabalized. After this they continued the last part of the tour, the travel to the Dutch East Indies starting on May 11th of 1927.
Recently I picked up a small painting because of the combination of quality and theme, an oriental rifle. It turned out to be an easy piece of art for furher research.
The painting on a piece of wood was not signed but had an artists workshop stamp. This stamp is the type that is used when the estate of an artist that has passed away is cleared and all studies and unsigned pieces get a stamp as proof that these works indeed came from that artists estate.
As Marguerite Delorme is a quite well known orientalist and the theme of this piece fits well with the attribution to her.
After some research online I found a finished masterpiece by her. This small work must have been a forestudy for that piece.
The study shows a more loose, impressionist style with broad brushstroke than the final work which is why like it even more than the full size masterpiece.
In todays world doing research on the internet often delivers great info. This happened when I was looking into some photo’s of Captain Swoboda who was an engineering officer in the Austro-Hungarian army in WW1.
While his main task was building bridges and such there were also some photo’s of monument for a military cemetery in the group. He built these in the city of Berezhany (today in Ukraina) after the city was captured by Austro-Hungarian forces in 1916 from the Russians that had invaded the city before.
Searching for the cemetery on the internet I found some recent photo’s on Wikipedia with the current situation of these monument so here is a quick comparison – then and now:
Photo from Wikipedia
And the caption on the back of the original photo
Also the central cross still being built in 1916 and how it looks today:
And as the last one a grave for an officer (Oberleutnant Franz Volbrecht of KuK IR Nr 75) that still exists today:
Het verhaal achter een medaille maakt het een stuk geschiedenis in plaats van een voorwerp. Hier is het verhaal achter een Nieuw Guinea Herinneringskruis met gesp 1962. Dit kruis werd verleend aan allen die tenminste 3 maanden dienst deden in Nieuw Guinea tussen eind 1949 en 1962. Er is echter maar één type gesp, die met het jaartal 1962. Die gesp werd aan het kruis toegevoegd voor degenen die opgetreden hadden tegen “kwaadwilligen” in 1962. Het gaat dan om Indonesische infiltranten.
Medaille, oorkonde en mouwembleem van dienstplichtig marinier G.T. Rutten
Vanaf 1961 voerde Indonesië actief actie om Nieuw Guinea, toen nog een Nederlandse kolonie die onderdeel was geweest van Nederlands Indië, aan de Indonesische Republiek toe te voegen. Nederland probeerde dit met behulp van meer militaire inzet te voorkomen. In 1962 waren er op het hoogtepunt ongeveer 1685 Nederlandse mariniers in Nieuw Guinea.
Omdat de Nederlandse militaire inzet internationaal politiek gevoelig lag moesten de militairen die in 1962 met burgervliegtuigen als versterking naar Nieuw Guinea vlogen ook als burger vliegen zonder zichtbare militaire zaken. Die moesten in de ruimbagage opgeborgen worden. Met name vanwege de tussenstop in Japan.
Rutten die als marinier is opgeleid tijdens zijn dienstplicht vliegt op 2 januari 1962 met een groepje versterkingen naar Nieuw Guinea. In zijn brieven is te lezen dat de aanvullingen en de oudgedienden niet direct goed met elkaar overweg kunnen maar die stonden vlak voor hun terugkeer naar Nederland.
Tijdens zijn verblijf op Nieuw Guinea (vooral Biak) schrijft hij veelvuldig brieven aan zijn moeder die bij de groep bewaard gebleven zijn. Daaruit blijkt ook dat hij in de loop van zijn tijd daar een fototoestel overneemt van een andere militair die naar Nederland terugkeert. Zo zijn er zowel foto’s als beschrijvingen van zijn activiteiten aldaar. Een paar foto’s en fragmenten op het kampement en “onderweg”:
Wat fragmenten uit zijn brieven die een indruk geven van de situatie:
17-1-’62 Dat geval met die torpedoboot moet je ook maar niet zo ernstig nemen want hier is niks loos mam, wel hebben we gisteren 8 infiltranten gevangen genomen…
22-2-’62 Op het ogenblik heb ik de wacht op de “Oregon-trail” mam, dat is ‘n post zo’n 20km de boes in, er komt hier bijna geen sterveling. Hier moeten we ‘n paar kust batterijen bewaken die hier het vliegveld beschermen tegen aanvallen vanuit zee, ook staat er een luchtdoelgeschut.
16-3-’62 Ik ga direct weg naar Kaimana waarschijnlijk. Het is wel plotseling en zo is het op het ogenblik een paniekzooitje…
20-3-’62 Mam we zijn hier in bivak gelegd om eventuele infiltranten op te vangen en stellingen te bouwen.
2-4-’62 We zijn vorige week met spoed vertrokken naar kampong pronLo (?), dat ligt tussen Kaimana en Merauke omdat hier een infiltratie heeft plaatsgehad. Toen zijn we hier geland en hebben het strand over een lengte van 70km afgezocht. Nou mama dat valt tegen want ieder ogenblik kun je beschoten worden…bij de kampong aangekomen hebben we twee complete rubberboten gevonden en 3 automatische machinepistolen met munitie. We hebben toen een patrouilletocht gemaakt de kali op maar alleen sporen gevonden. Het aantal wordt geschat op dertig.
17-4-’62 Verders mam hebben wij in Tronga 10 infiltranten gepakt, ze waren helemaal uitgehongerd en de meeste wapens die ze hadden waren zo verroest dat ze het niet meer deden.
De laatste brieven in de groep zijn van mei dus mogelijk is hij in juni weer naar Nederland gekomen? In ieder geval gaat zijn groot verlof pas in november van dat jaar in.
Groot verlof na anderhalf jaar onafgebroken dienstplicht
During worldwar two the Dutch naval airwing was still using mainly embroidered (bullion) wings for its men in Europe. This was different for the tropics where due to the amount of washing needed metal wings were used that could be easily detached from the uniform.
According to a source on internet (could not confirm this myself yet) the commander of the colonial naval forces ordered a batch of metal wings from the Toye firm in England for use in the tropics (order BDO.12.GHJ/345944) probably in 1943. A total of five wings were authorized for the navy at that moment: aviator / navigator / aviator+navigator / gunner / signaller. The first three, shown in the picture below, are full wings the other two and the later additions are half wings.
When they were actually produced and delivered is unclear. So far I have seen only pictures of these wings being worn in the Dutch East Indies post 1945 and of course into the 1950s and 60s in the Netherlands.
The wings are all marked TOYE SILVER but the silver content is unknown and they do not have an actual silver hallmark. The combined wing for Aviator and Navigator is the rarest and was constructed of a regular Aviator wing plus the specific addition of the wreathed W for Waarnemer (=navigator). The amount made was not large enough to make a specific die for this wing as a whole it seems, only for the wreathed W that was manually added!
Some original but unused surplus examples have come to the market in recent years.
Siebe Staal, born 1904, was a quartermaster and combat helmsman on board of Hr.Ms. Tromp, a light cruiser of the Royal Dutch Navy.
Staal in 1938
This ship, Hr Ms Tromp, c804, was in 1942 part of the ABDA fleet, a cooperation between the American, British, Dutch and Australian navies in the fight against Japan and the defense of the Dutch East Indies between 1940-’42.
In 1942 it would have several confrontations with the Japanese enemy. During one of these confrotations in the Lombok Strait, February 19th and 20th of 1942 Staal would show courage and outstanding devotion to duty by remaining calmly at the helm of the ship when a grenade hit in close proximity and the rain of shrapnel from that would cause many casualties.
For this he would be awarded the Bronze Cross, the 3rd highest award for gallantry of the Netherlands, in 1943.
After the war he would remain in the navy until his retirement.
The three medals he earned by the end of his naval career.
The ship received an honorable mention (mention in despatches) for its activities during WW2. All crew members would receive this grand diploma for that reason.
A number of blank diploma’s have come to the market therefore I have blanked out the bottom part of the diploma in order not to make it to easy for fakers.
These items were part of the F. Riemersma collection/estate
