The Battle of Jakarta

 

 

The last Dutch stronghold in Indonesia, the city of Batavia (Jakarta) became the place where the European colonial forces held for nearly a week after the rest of the archipelago was occupied by the Japanese forces in the Merdeka War. Within but a few weeks after the start of hostilities, the IJNI created beachheads surroinding Batavia, and the Japanese forces established themselves almost without opposition: response from the Dutch side was inneficient and uncoordinated, most of their East Indian Empire’s already occupied, without naval or aerial forces, and without hope of relief from Europe.

 

Lieutenant-General Yamashita Tomoyuki, chief of the Imperial Japanese General Staff and main author of the Japanese war strategy, first ordered the bombardment of the city's perimeter with IJN naval aviation and then, with support of several fighter-bomber squadrons, attacked the city’s outskirts with his !st Army troops. In the face of the coordinated and ferocious IJNI and IJA soldiers, the Dutch defenders were torn to pieces.

 

On February 28th 1959, the Dutch troops fell back to hold the accesses to Batavia: the combined IJNI and IJA forces attempted in that period five assaults against the city, complemented with artillery and air support, making only minimal headway, thanks mainly to the grim determination of the Wehrmacht troops, which waited in vain reinforcements from their distant homeland.

 

The 1st Brigade of the Berlin Guards fought with the same spirit of their Japanese counterparts, and in the periods of informal ceasefire they even organized a "citizen's militia", which included every European in the city, including women. Yamashita, counting with only 36,000 troops, understanding that the German troops would fight until the end, and wishing to avoid a bloodbath, decided to call a retreat and ordered his forces to entrench outside the city.

 

A four days bombardment and siege of Jakarta followed, during which the water reserves of the city were destroyed. With no water supplies, the general Van Der Laat, leader of the combined European forces in Indonesia, decided to surrender in March 2nd. He surrendered a fighting force of about 85,000 Dutch and German troops to the 36,000 Japanese troops. After the surrender ceremony, Yamashita personally planted the Japanese flag in the top of the General Governor’s palace, while his troops shouted "Banzai!", a spectacle not seen since the old days of the Japanese empire in Northeast Asia.