Dutch Submarines Gave Enemy No Rest

BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

This is largely the story of "special operations"- the story of gallant Dutchmen who, unswerving in their faith, fought on after their motherland and colonies had been overrun - and played a conspicuous part in the final victory. It is the story of the submarines of the Royal Netherlands Navy which carried on their honoured traditions from Colombo, then Fremantle, to the seas surrounding, and the land itself, of the Netherlands East Indies.

"SPECIAL operations" were a delicate mission designed to glean intelligence, secure prisoners, and sometimes, to land commandos to destroy special objectives. It was a task, for which the Royal Netherlands Navy was specially adaptable. They were operating in "home waters" along coasts they knew - and their story will become history.

How the submarines of the Royal Netherlands Navy continued the traditions of one of the world's greatest maritime nations after most of the surface ships had died with their flags flying, is a great epic. It has none of the spectacular glamour of the bigger services; it cannot produce the terrifying stastics of other fleets, but it does tell how a small nation can pursue with relentless fury a war to overcome her enemies, and the deathless courage of a comparative handful of men who faced tremendous hazards in their search for peace.

First it is necessary to get into perspective the mental outlook of these gallant Dutchmen. They were all men "without a country. " They fought through 5 1/2 years of war without any prospect of home leave. They fought with a gnawing anxiety for the safety of their families In Holland and later in the Netherlands Indies. They had to make their homes among strangers. They had constant worries regarding their craft -all of which were pre-war built, and none of which had parts or munitions capable of interchange with the Royal Navy, or later, the United States Navy.

The Dutch were comparatively late arrivals at Fremantle - because they had been extraordinarily busy elsewhere. Their patrols had extended from the Norwegian coast to Capetown, in the Atlantic, in the Java Sea, and eventually to the Pacific. Wherever there has been sea warfare there has been a Dutchman, but the beginning of Fremantle operations started with the arrival of H. M. S. Maidstone in the middle of last year, with Lieut.-Commander Bach-Kolling aboard.

The biggest number of submarines under his base command at any one time was six - and some were under operational orders from the Royal Navy and others from the U.S. Navy.

Loaded with fuel and provisions for a long patrol - one of them extended to 53 days - the submarines would set out from Fremantle with 10 to 15 picked intelligence officers or commandos of the Netherlands Indies Army and make for the Indies coastline. At selected points the submarines would land their "passengers" and provide a protective marine guard from the submarine crew.

Then would begin the long wait, depending on the nature of the operations. Sometimes it would be a few hours, sometimes a few days.

All the time the submarine was in danger of air and sea attack, yet she had to remain to keep her rendezvous and take off the landing party. In the course of the war hundreds of people were landed and taken off from the Netherlands Indies, and through these daring operations it was possible to maintain a constant stream of intelligence reports of enemy activity in conquered territory, and through these "special operations," much was achieved in keeping alive the flame of hope in the Dutch nationals who were left behind at the time of the evacuation.

One of the fiercest commando battles on Java took place only a few weeks ago, and it was then appreciated that the Netherlands Indies were still heavily held by occupation troops. The battle was won by the commandos, and every one of them was successfully taken off by K15, under the command of Lieut.-Cdr. van Boetzelaer. The casualties were all Japanese.

Many are the stories which could be told of this gallant little fleet. There was the O23, which, under the command of Lt.-Cdr. van Hoof, sailed straight into the brightly lit harbour of Padang, challenging the self-assurance of the Japanese. There were no ships in port, but within a short while the oil storage tanks were destroyed, and that night, despite a black-out as complete as the enemy could make, the blazing tanks provided a beacon from which the submarine was able to take her bearings far out to sea.

In offensive operations the R.N.N. made some spectacular attacks. At the time when the Japanese were carrying all before them and there was little between Java and the Japanese but the Dutch Navy, there were some heroic achievements. K14 sank four Japanese transports in a single night, K12 got two, O19 scored another double, and K18 hit a heavy cruiser at such close range that the explosion damaged the submarine, which limped back to Sourabaya under Catalina escort, where she had to be scuttled to prevent her falling into Japanese hands. Unfortunately, the Japanese were able to salvage the K18 and she was recommissioned by the enemy. Poetic justice was achieved when she was sunk by a British submarine with gunfire. K15 destroyed a 14,000-ton tanker.

K16 was lost after she had sunk a Japanese destroyer. Four Dutch submarines -the O16, K16, O20, and K17 -were lost within two weeks of the Japanese attack. The K10, K13, and K18 were all scuttled in Sourabaya at the time of its fall, when the naval installations were destroyed.

By circuitous routes the K8, K9, and K12 arrived in Australia. The K8 was decommissioned here, the K9 was lent to the Royal Australian Navy for training purposes, and last year was converted to an oil carrier. She went aground on her way to New Guinea and was eventually sold for £800. The K12 was engaged in special operations at Fremantle, but is now being dismantled in Sydney. The O19, after a gallant career, was lost in a navigational accident last month.

All the Dutch submarines, with the exception of the British-built Zwaardvisch (which, among other achievements, sank a German U-boat in the Pacific) and Tygerhaai, are pre-war ships, most of them built several years before the war. They have been fighting with few modern improvements and equipment, and under con- ditions of great discomfort.

Built for short range patrols, they have extended their area, and through all their operations they have been gravely handicapped by their inability to use a home base. Their machinery and munitions have had to be specially made, or they have had to adapt their own equipment to use British and American munitions. It has been a constant battle of adaptation and compromise.

When after years of struggle and manufacturing parts the Dutch were able to convert a merchantman into a depot ship and fill it with stores and spare parts, they thought that they had ended the first period of handicap, and, packed with equipment, the vessel left for Colombo, where she was to become a base ship. Within a short time of leaving the United Kingdom she was sunk off the African coast by a German submarine, and the battle of improvisation started all over again. But the Dutchmen mastered it.

[Photograph] The Dutch submarine K12, alter gallant work in "special operations," lying in Sydney Harbour. She has been purchased for exhibition purposes.