BRITISH MILITARY INTELLIGENCE IN JAVA AND SUMATRA, 1945–46

Abstract

In the period immediately after World War II, British-Indian forces occupied the Netherlands East Indies – modern Indonesia. The occupation bridged the gap between the surrender of Japan and the brief resumption of Dutch colonial rule which preceded Indonesian independence. Though intended as a humanitarian intervention, the occupation soon assumed the character of a guerrilla conflict. Indonesian nationalists perceived the occupation force as paving the way for a return of their colonial masters and made strenuous efforts at resistance. This article deals with a single theme of the occupation: intelligence. It charts the inadequate state of intelligence prior to the deployment of the occupation force in the East Indies and the moderate degree of improvement thereafter, setting this in the context of continuing anxieties, resulting in large part from the British colonial experience.

Notes

¹The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA), CAB 101/69, letter from F.S.V. Donnison to H.J. van Mook, former Lieutenant-Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies, 5 October 1951.

²For an overview of the decolonisation process in Southeast Asia, see Stockwell 1992.

³For the negotiations between Mountbatten, Slim and Aung San, the leading nationalist in Burma, see Tinker 1983. Document 262 gives a verbatim report of a meeting held at Mountbatten's Headquarters at Kandy on 6 September 1945 (Tinker 1983).

⁴The high politics of the situation on the ground during the British occupation of French Indochina are covered in Dennis 1987.

⁵An older work is Wehl 1948; more recent works are McMahon 1978 and 1981 and Tarling 1998; Peter Dennis's book, which deals with both the British occupation of French Indochina and that of the Netherlands East Indies, has been mentioned already.

⁶Dennis 1987: 77–78. For Dutch military intelligence during the Japanese occupation of the Indies, see Graaff 1987: 563–84. Aldrich (2000: 354–56) deals with the British occupation of Indonesia. There is no mention of the intelligence available to South East Asia Command as to conditions in the East Indies or the use made of it prior to the military deployment.

⁷TNA, WO 203/2174, intelligence report, 24 August 1945.

⁸Ibid.

⁹Ibid.

¹⁰For the establishment of the Anglo-Dutch Country Section, see Graaff 1987.

¹¹TNA, HS 1/268, message sent by the Anglo-Dutch Country Section at Colombo to Southeast Asia Command Headquarters (SEAC HQ) at Kandy, 6 September 1945.

¹²TNA, WO 203/1114, ALFSEA Weekly Intelligence Review No. 50 up to 14 September 1945.

¹³‘Life and times of General Sir Philip Christison, Bt.’, unpublished memoir in the Imperial War Museum, London, p. 176.

¹⁴TNA, WO 203/1114, ALFSEA Weekly Intelligence Review No. 51 up to 21 September 1945.

¹⁵TNA, HS 1/268, report sent by Mackenzie to Director of Intelligence at SEAC HQ, 24 September 1945.

¹⁶Ibid.

¹⁷TNA, WO 203/1114, ALFSEA Weekly Intelligence Review No. 52 up to 28 September 1945.

¹⁸Ibid.

¹⁹Ibid.

²⁰TNA, WO 203/5772, minutes of a meeting held at SEAC HQ on 19 September 1945 to discuss the reorganisation of Intelligence Division.

²¹TNA, WO 172/7045, War Diaries of 26th Indian Division, War Diary for October 1945, ‘Personalities of the Indonesian Independence Movement in the Padang Area’.

²²Ibid.

²³Ibid.

²⁴Ibid.

²⁵Ibid.

²⁶Ibid.

²⁷TNA, WO 172/10227, War Diaries of 1/1st Punjab, War Diary for January 1946, entry for 28 January.

²⁹TNA, WO 172/10244, War Diaries of 4/7th Rajputs, War Diary for February 1946, Operational Order.

²⁸TNA, WO 172/10244, War Diaries of 4/7th Rajputs, War Diary for January 1946, 4th Rajputs Operational Order No. 2, 21 January.

³⁰TNA, WO 172/10280, War Diaries of 1/16th Punjab, War Diary for June 1946, entry for 1 June.

³¹TNA, WO 172/9879, War Diaries of 23rd Indian Division, WIS No. 21 up to 10 April 1946, Part II.

³²For an account of this body, see Cribb 1991.

³³Both the British reports and the British transcriptions of the Indonesian reports can be found in TNA, WO 203/2455. For a recent scholarly account of the death of Brigadier Mallaby which draws on this file, see Springhall 1996.

³⁴Private communication. Letter from Captain Burgess to the author, 1 September 2000.

³⁵TNA, CAB 101/69, ‘Sourabaya’, report written by Captain David Wehl of the Public Relations Office of South East Asia Command, 19 November 1945; see Wehl 1948.

³⁶TNA, WO 172/7045, War Diaries of 26th Indian Division, War Diary for October 1945, ‘Personalities of the Indonesian Independence Movement in the Padang Area’.

³⁸TNA, WO 172/9879, War Diaries of 23rd Indian Division, WIS No. 21 up to 10 April 1946, Part I, Appendix B. ‘NICA’ stood for Netherlands Indies Civil Affairs Organisation.

³⁷TNA, WO 172/9893, War Diaries of 26th Indian Division, WIS No. 11 up to 1 January 1946, Part II.

³⁹TNA, WO 172/9959, War Diaries of 123rd Indian Infantry Brigade, War Diary for January 1946, entry for 21 January.

⁴⁰TNA, WO 203/2654, ‘Summary of Air Operations: 21 Oct 45–31 Jan 46’.

⁴¹Interview with Captain Burgess, 17 July 2000.

⁴²Interview with Captain Burgess, 30 November 2001.

⁴³TNA, WO 172/9879, War Diaries of 23rd Indian Division, WIS No. 21 up to 10 April 1946.

⁴⁴Ibid.

⁴⁵TNA, WO 172/9932, War Diaries of 37th Indian Infantry Brigade, War Diary for May 1946, WIS No. 2 up to 19 May.

⁴⁶TNA, WO 172/7660, War Diaries of 1st Seaforth Highlanders, War Diary for November 1945, Operational Order No. 1, 31 October.

⁴⁷TNA, WO 172/7660, War Diaries of 1st Seaforth Highlanders, War Diary for November 1945, entry for 23 November.

⁴⁸TNA, WO 172/7775, War Diaries of 3/3rd Gurkha Rifles, War Diary for September–December 1945, entries for 9,11 and 12 November.

⁵⁰TNA, WO 172/9932, War Diaries of 37th Indian Infantry Brigade, War Diary for August 1946, Operational Order No. 66, 12 August.

⁴⁹TNA, WO 172/10296, War Diaries of 3/3rd Gurkha Rifles, War Diary for August 1946, entry for 17 August.