大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by (Helen Smith) on behalf of (H. Bernard Spencer) and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

1975...... Whilst reading a book on Indonesia, I came across a brief paragraph which referred to a clandestine operation carried out by the Royal Navy, in which they helped the Dutch re-occupy certain (un-named) islands in the Netherlands East Indies. Apparently, these landings took place after an assurance was given by the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia (Lord Mountbatten) to General Ahmed Sukarno, the Indonesian leader who had recently been proclaimed President by the outlawed nationalists, that the British in no way would assist the Dutch to re-colonise the islands. It implied that we went against our word. On reading this, I was determined to find out the true facts.

1997...... I made various attempts over the intervening years to get the whole story but always drew a blank. It was suggested on more than one occasion that the operation never took place! I later heard that it would possibly come under the 50 or 70-year rule for details to be released. I hoped it would be the 50 year. I might not make the 70 year!

In May this year I made another determined effort. I phoned the Naval Historical Branch in Portsmouth who had no information but suggested I contact the Admiralty Historical Library in Whitehall. I promptly phoned their number to ask their times of opening and was told they were not open to the general public and what was it I wanted to know. I explained the reason and was told that they had no record of this operation but went on to say that I should try the Public Record Office (PRO) at Kew as they might have something in their records.

On the 16th. June I visited the PRO for a two-day visit. I arrived in the afternoon and spent about three hours searching through various reference books including the SOE files which were quite interesting to say the least, but alas, nothing about my particular operation. I felt quite despondent. However, after another four hours or so the next day, I hit the jackpot. I came across the documents marked 鈥淭op Secret鈥� covering the entire operation. As far as I could ascertain, they had been released in 1996 under the 50-year rule.

I obtained photostat copies of the complete file containing 16 pages, and upon returning home, I was able to fill in the details I had sought for so long. The main landings took place at 0800 hrs. on the 2nd March 1946 at Beach 3 near the village of Pabean which is a few miles north of Sanur on the south east coast of Bali. This agrees with my past memory of a massive volcano inland to the right. It is Mount Agung 3142 metres high. Originally Beach 1 at Kuta and Beach 2 at Jimbaran on the west coast had also been chosen but as the operation coincided with the western monsoon they were later considered unsuitable. However, LCTs (landing craft tank) landed stores at Benoa jetty in the south.

At Pabean we landed two battalions of Dutch troops, one of which was subsequently moved to Lombok in the third week of March, which was after we had sailed to Balikpapan. Along with the various stores landed were six light tanks plus lorries and other tracked vehicles. A week before the landings, a British Mission went in first and landed at Kuta airstrip and proceeded to Denpasar. A senior Jap officer from HQ 16th. Jap Army accompanied the party plus a staff officer and interpreter. Total strength of mission about 20. The Japanese garrison was instructed to secure Denpasar airfield, Kuta airstrip and the perimeter around the main landing beach at Pabean against possible action by Indonesian nationalists. They also had to secure a bridgehead at Pesanggaran in order to protect the landing of stores at Benoa jetty.

The order that no British forces were to leave the beachhead was given to avoid any being seen by the nationalists beyond the Jap defensive perimeter, as the fact that we were assisting the Dutch could have caused a diplomatic crisis, for by now they had infiltrated the island in large numbers. After the landings, which went off smoothly, it was the task of the Dutch troops to disarm the Japs who numbered 3400 against 1800 Dutch (of which 900 were to be sent over to Lombok in phase 2). Apparently, it was after disarming the Japs that a fierce battle took place between the Dutch and the nationalists resulting in the many deaths previously mentioned. How the Dutch went on in Lombok, God only knows, because the island was in complete control of the nationalists, the Japs having already left, but that is another story.

In 1946 Burma was offered its independence (ratified Jan 1948) and India was to receive its independence in 1947, so it seemed inconceivable that the British would go against their word and assist the Dutch to take back their colonies by force. Particularly so, as from all accounts, the previous management of the islands by the Dutch was far from ideal. It would have been a difficult situation. The Dutch when all is said and done were our allies in the great conflict. They had no landing craft of their own and, more important, there were countless thousands of their countrymen spread about the islands. Also, had the British forces not taken over control, especially in occupying Java and Sumatra, the many thousands of Dutch and other European civilians in the Jap prison camps, men, women and children, who had already suffered unspeakable horrors, would have been slaughtered by the nationalists due to their "Merdeka" doctrine.

I have written this story on the 15th. August 1997, fifty-two years to the day after the surrender of Japan thus finally ending the Second World War. I am now 71 years of age. In March 1946 I was 19 years of age, coming up to 20 in the July. It has taken me quite some time to find the missing piece of the jigsaw which has finally ended my quest. I am overjoyed that I have been able to do so. To my grandsons I leave this message--If and when you marry and have children of your own, perhaps someday you might like to tell them a story about a seemingly forgotten episode in the history of the twentieth century when once upon a time a young Englishman stood on a beach on a remote island in the East Indies called Bali. He was watching three landing ships, with bow doors open, disgorging tanks, lorries and armed steel helmeted troops. The inhabitants of Bali were a simple people and the island was then virtually unknown to most Europeans, apart from a few wealthy travellers and of course the Dutch, to whom the island belonged for many years. Once upon a time........

H. Bernard Spencer ex Telegraphist, Royal Navy D/JX 538054 HMLST 3010

Appendix
Since writing the above details, I made an effort to locate a photograph, which had always stayed in my mind, showing the open bow doors of LST 3010 with members of the ship鈥檚 company, including myself, looking over the rails at the activities. I contacted all the usual sources, including the Imperial War Museum in London, and studied early copies and microfilm of every conceivable newspaper and pictorial magazines at the Central Library in Manchester. All I found was about a four-inch column in The Times dated Monday 4th March 1946 reporting the reoccupation but no photos. I had drawn a blank and I began to wonder whether my wife鈥檚 statement that the photo I had seen was either one taken by a shipmate or, indeed, a figment of my imagination. This all happened around 1998.

Towards the end of the year 2000, the bug began to bite me again, so to speak. Seeing that it had been a joint British/Dutch operation I decided to contact the Netherlands Consulate in Manchester. Why I hadn鈥檛 though of this before, goodness only knows. Having shown them my account and the declassified top-secret documents, they gave me the web-site details of ships involved. As a good friend of mine was already on the Internet, he downloaded them but, unfortunately, the one I was after was not shown.

However, unknown to me, he later sent an e-mail to the Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation in Amsterdam who forwarded it on to the Head Military History Section, Royal Netherlands Army in The Hague. They informed him that they had many photographs of the landings in Bali and some of these show the debarkation of landing craft by Dutch and British military personnel, including one which shows LST 3010 and its crew. My friend phoned me with the news and I dashed along to his home in Didsbury to view the Photostats which they had sent with the letter, and there it was. My search was over. I promptly replied to their letter and enclosed the necessary amount of guilders for two prints. One of LST 3010 and one showing the other two LSTs. They are now framed and hang proudly on the wall of my study.

So ends the story 鈥� or so I thought!

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