Dutch Navy in WWII

[warspite1]

To all the oranges out there I am looking for some assistance please.

I want to find the following information about the Dutch Navy in May 1940 (just pre-Case Yellow):

- Location of all Dutch naval vessels (incl. subs)
- Locations of the main naval harbours in Holland, the NEI and any other territories
- High level detail about how the navy was organised (I am assuming there was an overall command in the Netherlands and a pretty important command in the NEI).

Thanks in advance

[AxelNL]

Sorry, that is secret.


PS: and I don't know. However, there must be a internet site with professional history buffs explaining that in english! If need be, I will translate.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: AxelNL

Sorry, that is secret.


PS: and I don't know. However, there must be a internet site with professional history buffs explaining that in english! If need be, I will translate.

warspite1

Thank-you.

I found a site and its in English

https://www.netherlandsnavy.nl/index.html

This gives me the location of the bases. I have the ships - so its really just the command structure and the key personnel outstanding [:)]

[AxelNL]

I do know that the highest commanding (Dutch) officer in the Battle of the Java sea was Karel Doorman. His name lives on many a Dutch navy ship after the war (I think also on our only carrier we ever had). I had his son Jaap Doorman as a teacher at TUDelft when I studied there, he was the best I ever had over there - so the link is easily remembered by me.

If you search for him you will undoubtedly find hits which might give you more research material.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: AxelNL

I do know that the highest commanding (Dutch) officer in the Battle of the Java sea was Karel Doorman. His name lives on many a Dutch navy ship after the war (I think also on our only carrier we ever had). I had his son Jaap Doorman as a teacher at TUDelft when I studied there, he was the best I ever had over there - so the link is easily remembered by me.

If you search for him you will undoubtedly find hits which might give you more research material.

warspite1

Thanks. Yes I know Doorman well from researching the write-ups for the Dutch ships. I will have a look at that line of research and see if anything else pops up on the wider command structure.

I see there is an Osprey book coming out in August on the Dutch Navy in WWII and this may help too. Shame its August though....

[Centuur]

The Command structure of the Dutch navy isn't that easy to write down. There were two ministeries in 1939 who were in control of the Dutch navy.

Paramount was the Ministry of defence, second however, came the Ministry of the Colonies for ships and all other armed forces which were in the West or the East.

In 1940 the command of the Dutch navy was split into three individual commands (Netherlands at The Haque, West Indies at Willemstad, East Indies in Soerabaya. The Chief Naval Staff at the Ministry of Defence allocated ships to the tree commands (most ships would be in the East Indies).

In 1940, all armed forces in the Netherlands (including the Navy) were under the command of General Winkelman. Vice-Admiral J.Th. Furstner was the commander of the Royal navy, with rear-admiral Jolles in command of the main naval base of Den Helder and rear-admiral van der Stad in Command of the province of Zeeland and the naval base at Flushing.

All armed forces in the Dutch East Indies were commanded by admiral Helfrich. He was also in command of the KNIL (the TERR), the "Indische militaire marine" (consider this to be a TERR at sea), together with ships of the Dutch Navy which were serving in the NEI. Second in command was rear-admiral Karel Doorman in 1941.

Also, there was a second naval structure in place in the Dutch East Indies, the so-called "Gouverments Marine" (governors-navy). This navy was mainly used to police the water between the islands of the East Indies, but was also used to move troops around the islands in case of uprisings or just to let the people see that the "Compagnie" (as people in the Dutch East Indies called the Dutch government there) was still around. This navy was commanded by the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies.

[CL55AMG]

These sites have some information you may find useful

http://www.niehorster.org/016_netherlands/__nl.htm
https://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/dutch_navy.htm