7 Feb 1942

Dutch East Indies
14 Feb 1942

Dutch East Indies
  • 360 paratroopers of Japanese 1st Airborne Division landed at Pangkalanbenteng airfield near Palembang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies; in response, ABDA command sent 5 cruisers and 11 destroyers to transport troops to Palembang; Dutch destroyer HNLMS Van Ghent in this force ran aground on Bamidjo reef in the Stolze Strait, forcing USS Stewart to back her engines to avoid colliding into her. Meanwhile, the British ship Vyner Brooke, escaping from Singapore with 300 on board, was bombed off Sumatra; around 100 survivors, including 22 Australian nurses, reach shore on Banka island; the men were marched away by the Japanese and bayoneted and shot, the wounded were bayoneted where they laid, and the nurses were herded into the sea and machine gunned; one, Sister Vivian Bulwinkel, was wounded but survived to tell of the atrocity; she died in 2000, aged 85. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Sumatra | Stewart | Palembang | AC, CPC]
25 Oct 1945

Dutch East Indies
  • 4,000 Indian troops of 49th Brigade, under the command of Brigadier General A. W. S. Mallaby, landed at Surabaya, Java and Palembang, Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies, tasked to escort recently liberated prisoners of war. They entered the city from the north and within 48 hours would secure various positions as far south as the Ngagel Industrial Estate. They faced nationalist fighters armed with everything from bamboo spears to captured Japanese machine guns. ww2dbase [Palembang, Sumatra | CPC]



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