One of the newest Osprey Men-At-Arms booklets is The Dutch-Indonesian War 1945-49. I discussed The Royal Netherlands Indies Army 1936-42 by Marc Lownstein almost five years ago. This is the third boolet by him covering Indonesia in WW2 and afterwards.

Booklet is 48 pages as per usual size for Osprey Men-At-Arms.

Contents

Introduction: Summary, chronology, revolution

Foreign Forces, 1945-46: Japanese army of occupation- Police and auxillary forces- After capitulation

British Indian Army

Dutch Recolonization: Political strategy, Civil administration, Police

Indonesian Forces: Successive reorganizations, Divided character, Equipment and training, Strength, Air Force, TNI order of battle June 1947, Laskar non-state armed groups.

Dutch Forces: Organization, Formations, Strengths

Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger (KNIL): Organization, Composition, Militaire Luchtvaart (ML-KNIL).

Koninklijk Landmacht (KL): Composition, Battalion organization, Equipment, Militaire Luchtvaart (M))

Koninklijk Marine (KM): Marine Brigade, Marine Luchtvaart Afdeling (MLD)

The Course of the War:

Dutch Strategy, The Bersiap 1945, Battle for the cities, 1945-46, Outer Regions 1945-46, The enclaves and ceasefire 1946-47.

Operation ‘Product’ 1947, Dutch order of battle, July 1947, TNI evacuations, Pacification 1947-48.

Operation ‘Crow’ 1948-49, Guerrilla warfare 1948-49, The End 1949-50

Further Reading

Plate Commentaries

Index

Indonesia declared independence a few days after Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945. The British sent Indian troops to supervise the Japanese surrender in September 1945. Fighting broke out between the British and Indonesians. The British used Japanese troops to restore order like they did in Saigon about the same time (“Mountbatten’s Samurai”). The Japanese were not given the status of P.O.Ws but as “Japanese Surrendered Personnel.” 1,110 Japanese were killed in the fighting with Indonesians whereas they only lost 596 in conquering the Netherlands East Indies in 1942.

The Dutch sent around 2 divisions worth of troops from the Netherlands (eventually 75,000) in 1946. the Royal Netherlands Indies Army was reconstructed and expanded to 66,000. Dutch troops were outfitted with Lee-Enfield rifles, British helmets, Bren guns, Sten guns, M-3 Stuart tanks, British 87.6 mm cannons. The KNIL had a mix of British and American uniforms and brought back the klewang cutlass! There was a Dutch Marine brigade of 6,500 men trained and outfitted like American Marines. They had American helmets, M-1 rifles, Browning Automatic Rifles, and M4 Sherman tanks. You see 1890s vintage pre-WW2 Dutch Mannlicher rifles used by both sides and Indonesians with Japanese Arisaka rifles. Lohnstein calls this a “poor man’s war” as both sides were using others nations equipment.

The Dutch did not have enough troops to knock out the Indonesians quick enough. The fighting dragged on with Dutch casualties mounting and conscripts terms of service running out by 1948. The Dutch public and government just did not have the will to keep fighting. I remember reading elsewhere that the Dutch just did not have it in them to be brutal enough to put down the Indonesians. Lownstein did not mention that U.S. President Harry Truman cut the legs out from under the Dutch by demanding the return of Lend-Lease equipment to stifle the Dutch efforts. He never did that with the Soviets. Sukarno’s Indonesian regime was a Japanese collaborator government and a case could be made that Dutch were fighting against an Axis ally. Sukarno’s Indonesian nationalists were fighting Moslems and communists so they were probably viewed as the best choice by the U.S. State Department. President Kennedy would later hand over Dutch New Guinea in 1963 which the Dutch had been preparing for independence after another Dutch-Indonesian showdown.