In the 1940s the Netherlands East Indies was in transition: its military was moving from a colonial policing unit to an army which could defend itself from outside aggression. In view of the rise of the dictators and their thirst for natural resources to power their war machines this was not an unsound policy. The Netherlands planned an army which could defend the islands of Indonesia with varying layers of military power, from local defense forces armed to repel an attack or at least to pin it down, to modern military units equipped to move rapidly to push invaders to the sea. However, by the end of the 1930s this transition was incomplete and in 1940 and 1941 full scale global war made it extremely difficult to get the weapons already planned for the Army. As a result, a well-planned Army was in the middle of transition, units which had already been organized now had many men who did not know each other and while the Dutch had some good, modern weapons they did not have men who were really familiar with them. Also, it seemed that the Dutch had know concrete plan to repel invaders from islands other than Java.
If only the Japanese had waited another year, until Allied forces could possibly assist the Dutch in creating their modern army, then they might have given a good accounting of themselves. But time was not on the side of the Dutch.
Well-written, great illustrations, maps and original artwork.
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