Dutch Army Forces

‘I was told: “There’s a plane taking off shortly after midnight. We want you to get on then. It goes to Australia where you can rejoin B25’s or whatever.”’

PIETER CRAMERUS, Oral history project, part 3

‘So he said: “We better spend the night here”. And he went and killed a kangaroo with that spear. Cooked it. And one thing I remember about it [was] that it didn’t taste very good.’

PIETER CRAMERUS, Oral history project, part 5

Spitfire pilot Pieter Cramerus was sent to Australia to join the American British Dutch Australian Alliance. Three Dutch submarines, one minesweeper, one cruiser and three auxiliary minesweepers berthed in Fremantle in March 1942. More warships followed. Read the full story on Allies in adversity.

_{Was one of your forebears a serviceman or -woman?}

Dutch Evacuees

‘My mother wanted me to get into the water but I wanted to take my shoes off first… I was very obstinate. I hated cold water. Mum kept screaming […] and the bullets were flying all around. The plane must have tipped a little bit then because I slid into the water.’

ELLY DOELAND (NEE KOENS), Interview The West Australian, 2012

The Koens family miraculously survived on 3 March 1942, when a number of flying boats with refugees from the Dutch East Indies was attacked by Japanese fighter planes.

_{Do you descend from an evacuee?}

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