The Dutch Are Ready To Defend The Indies

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13235, 10 January 1941, Page 8

The Dutch Are Ready To Defend The Indies

■ Writing fi'oa Batavia during a visit ati. Lite close of IV*4 9, E. -C. S. ; M,arshaiil. Eoreigu Editor of “The « Suu.” Sydney writes: — i A detach irie.ut of two-man tanks j lined up "somewhere in .Java. ' I Pis morning for a practice dus.ii across Mite riceiieids. Here I J earned a iit-first-hand about the ground ! ever willvit -these machines anay have | i.o light. and I viewed the -scenery for 'Luo first rime through bullet-proof : glass iu -a tank turret. Bocaliy known us sa tv a ns. the rteelields form so -large a pr.opoJttioa oi l.be culUrated area of .Java that in ■wartime tanks will constantly have to cross them. To do .this calls lor skill and local knowledge. An invader lacking the local knowledge will undoubtedly buy it dearly. Ba waits may at different times be wet or dry,; and ilie exercise before tlie .machines ibis morning was the •crossing -of wet sawaii—which means an area surfaced in the very best parts with slush, and in the worst with clay-coloured water.

Bow. narrow clay walls subdivide the ricefieMs into small rectangular patches, and from the air these patches, when wet, look for all the world like yellow bathroom tiles set iu irregular patterns. So I thought as I climbed into my tank, “This is going to be a journey from pond to pond, with an excellent, chance of being bogged/’ The tanks were lined up in threes. The turret-cover closed with a bang, From the port peephole the view was simple:: In the foreground, the nose of the next tanak. and a choco-late-coloured youngster marching a olatoon of ducks out of harm s way, in the distance, a bare-legged, skinny old native turning short furro-ws with a primitive plough in soft, muddy black soil. For all the ploughman or his si ow-l-reading water buffaloes cared, our steel herd might never have been there.

“Ko-IJ Out The Barrel!”

Waiting- for tiie command to go, the hefty Dutch driver at the controls whistled "Sell out the barrel!” Before 1 could snap out of the semi-trance produced by meeting that familiar cask in a two-man tank in a Java ricefield. the engine was racing and we were off. As we went over each little “hurdle"’ with a lurch, there were cheerful sounds like steel chains tumblingdown concrete stairways:; at the same time, one learned in a very mild way why tank-men wear leather crash-helmets.

Then one emerged to discover that the whole formation had done a perfect job—come through the swamp with flying colours.

So the captain in charge did it again, and the mud storm as those tanks roared through a second time was a sheer delight to watch.. It was almost incredible that even caterpiller treads could grip in such pea-soup. Dater I saw tanks perform on dry saw.ahs, but on a steep hillside — | still typical rice country. ■

Here the riding was over a succession of terraces, and the humping and lurching were fierce. When a light tank hustles in these conditions, a novice in the turret feels like a little playmate of Olympic wrestler, Eddie Scarf.

World’s Worst Terrain

To see the Dutch drivers at work, you woulld hardly suspect that foreign experts had pronounced important regions of the Indies the worst tank terrain in the world. It is a question of soil composition in relation to the power of the tanks to “dig their toes in.”

A good deal of the ground, wet or dry, offers next to no grip where it ■slopes steeply. Tank commanders, therefore, have experimented widely, in order to leave mistakes to the enemy. Mechanisation and motorisaiiou are .extending here from day to day.

There is no, .official pretence that the Netherlands East, Indies have all the equipment they want, but there is reason to think that progress to date has been more than satisfactory.

Among the excellent gear already bought is a four-wheel-drive tractor, that will drag light artillery up. down, or through almost anything. Its performance “in the rough” is a revelation, and it takes shallow rivers in its stride.

Compared with native infantry, •whom I saw later, some of the Dutch tank-men were Goliaths. Army physique in these islands falls broadly into racial categories. Of the 15 sizes of uniforms issued, we should probably regard more than one as boy's size. Europeans, in the main, take the top five sizes. Javanese the next, and Menadonese the next. The native infantryman's rifle and bayonet are smaller and lighter than ours. Hut lighting qualities can no more 3 b« measured by inches here than j elsewhere. j it happens that the dimimitivt • Menadonese. for example, are fam- ! ous for the courage and endurance they have shown in jungle warfare. In plain Australian, they're ‘“dinkum," and might be compared to the Ghurkas in India, Hardy Ponies Like the Menadonese, who have outsize hearts in undersized bodies, are the hardy pony stallions which the army employs to carry raachinej'guns and light mortars, j It is on the hills that they shine I saw many of them, heavily burIdcned. attack steep slopes with | fiendish energy, and mount them in | double-quick time, j These mettlesome little fellows arcj no trouble to hide. They were tuckj ed out of sight in a bamboo thicket. | while the weapons they carried were i rushed into action, i On a wide green plateau, with

great peaks around it. I wtttc'necl imotorised mint!try at work. They were nippy., agile, keen. They i arrived by road In fast trucks, leapfed .out. cashed through a stream'. I came up the bank, .and opened blankj lire with automatic arms as well as i rifles. My "grandstand” was an unfeitcafi Mohammedan graveyard, lying on the edge of the rlceilelds —a cemetery in which the low. narrow mounds were marked, most of them, by only a border of rubble. But the hidden dead, one could be sure, all slept with their fac.es towards Mecca. A large proportion of natives in the army are Mohamme dan. and believe that the warrior falling in battle goes straight to eternal bliss. The motorised infantry whom I happened to see were natives with a sprinkling of Europeans. The average Australian, however, would have found it more than a little difficult to sort all the Europeans out.

Here the people of mixed Dutch and native blood are classed as Europeans, both legally and socially, and Europeans in this army, therefore, range in hue from white to deep brown. •CompaadsOTX With “IF’ I have beard discussions, outside army circles, about whether the native soldiers of the Indies are stronger, man for man, than the presumptive enemy. (In military company. it is said, the latter is always referred to as “X” —-an unidentified nation.)

A well-informed American, fresh from China, contended that in point of physical strength, the advantage lay with the men of the Indies. A travelled Englishman doubted it, but added significantly,: “If the X’.s came here, their liability to sickness in this climate would more than cut out the difference.” Army officers in the Indies .speak two languages. Regular words of command are in Dutch, but explanations to mixed units in Malay, This is no special trouble, because in civil life also the colonial Dutchman and Dutchwoman use the two tongues. For good measure, incidentally, a high proportion of the officers I have met speak English, and speak it well. A lieutenant-colonel of infantry o.uoted Kipling to me in the hot sunshine pouring down on a hill near Bandoeng. And by chance I heard one subaltern say to another, “I know what you mean—it’s from Romeo and Juliet.;” I made inquiries about him, but found him an exception even among the Dutch, clever linguists .as they are.:; he had lately held the Chair of Semitic Languages in the South African University of Pretoria. This is an army in green. Only the puttees are khaki. From his breeches to his broad bamboo hat. which he wears turned up at the right side, the soldier’s uniform matches the jungle. The army was nurtured on jungle traditions. With the single exception of a brief local struggle against the British in Napoleon’s time, it has -never fought in international war. It has been a colonial force. The short, wiry, brown-eyed com-mander-in-chief, Lieutenant General Berenschot, knows jungle campaigning well,; but he is also an expert on modern warfare, and was co-author some 10 years ago of an authoritative work on tactics.

Frugal living is one of the virtues he likes best in a soldier of the Queen. That is because in island campaigns he has learned the value of "travelling light,” If War Broke Out The numerical strength of the Army of the Netherlands East Indies is necessarily a military secret, and some of the figures which have been j published are, therefore, no more than estimates. Nevertheless, it is | certain that the present figure far (exceeds that of peacetime, t If war broke out to-morrow, the I Netherlands East Indies could pro- • bably at once place more than 100,- ; 000 men in the field, J These would fall into four main categories, namely, regulars, short'service men, auxiliary corps and European militia. i The regulars are by far the largest single category, and together : with the short-service men—whose 1 numbers, incidentally, are constantly • increasing—they would form a great j majority of the total forces. They j are about 80 per cent, natives and

dO per cent. Europeans, the majority of the officers being comprised In the European percentage.. The auxiliary corps consists of native legionaries belonging to two native rulers. That does not mean that either their arms or their training are primitive. They are wellequipped and are trained on modern lines by officers of the regular army. The European militia are raised on a basis of compulsory training. So far as the outsider can judge, the spirit of the army is excellent. Discipline is strict —that can be seen irom the meticulous saluting.; on the other hand, the infantry soldier on the job has the air of a man who is led, "not driven, and his cheerfulness could hard!?' be a sham.