Island Traders – Four and Twenty Dutchmen

Author

Thomson, Max

Subjects

Ship histories and stories, WWII operations, History - WW2

Tags

Dutch island traders, convoy, East Indies

RAN Ships

None noted.

Publication

September 1987 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

With no radar to pinpoint each ship’s progress, the convoy vessels, in a long and miserable night, became separated. It was only with the help of RAAF Catalina aircraft that the convoy ships eventually were reformed into a steaming disposition to proceed northward again under the watchful eye of their Navy escorts.

Ultimately, satisfaction came for the Dutch ‘island traders’. Van den Bosch represented them when, in company with ships of the RAN, Brigadier L.G.H. Dyke accepted the formal Japanese surrender in Timor in September 1945. Once again the Dutchmen could return to the waters so familiar to them – temporary though it proved when ultimately Indonesia’s emergency changed the scene yet again for them.