Shell Oil Armored Car on Curacao
This is an improvised armoured car on Curacao, Dutch West Indies, around 1929. The picture comes from a booklet, Curacao in oude ansichtkaarten (Curacao in old postcards), that I just bought today after seeing this picture. What can we say about this car about which probably no one knows anything? This “overvalwagen” was built on the island of Curacao by Royal Dutch Shell, then still called CPIM petroleum company, after a band of Venezuelan rebels had assaulted and looted the island in 1929. The car was built on a “solid car chassis” the caption informs us. We assume this was an American truck commonly available on Curacao.
Note how the headlights are built in, quite uniquely I think. The truck seems to have spoked wheels and is fitted with air tyres. The wheels are well protected by armoured plates as well. A large horizontal visor has been cut in the front armour. Probably both driver (seated rather high?) and commander or gunner would use it. Four holes are provided for shooting on the sides of the car. It seems open topped, rails can be seen for a canvas cover. The doors were probably in the rear. There seems to be a small light fixed to the top of the hull (leftside).
The gentlemen posing with the car are a mixed lot. The two men to the left were probably the company management, then in the centre five Dutch police officers (one has a Lewis gun), to the right some local auxiliary or company police? Possibly the eight uniformed men formed the crew together. If someone knows anything about this truck or its fate (was it still in service during WW2?), please let him step forward and tell us what he knows.
Armoured Jeeps with K.N.I.L.?
The picture is from J.W. Hogendoorn’s De Jeep in Nederland. An excellent and comprehensive account of all jeep variants, both military and civilian, that served in Holland. Plenty of info on jeeps in the colonies is available as well. This picture from 1948 shows two armoured jeeps on Java, fitted out for use on railways and connected back to back. The jeeps seem to be Willys, mounting an armoured hull.
We do not exactly know who did this and when. Willys jeeps probably did not arrive in the Dutch East Indies before the Japanese invasion (Ford GP’s did). So we can state at least that the armoured hulls were fitted after 1946 to the Willys chassis. But what about the hulls? Who made these and when? Take a look at the armoured hull (shape and welding) and compare it to the Stadswacht Overvalwagens. It is very similar. Did someone recycle early K.N.I.L. armour by cutting and pasting Overvalwagen hulls to produce these armoured jeeps? Or were these armoured hulls already built in 1941-42 for Ford GP’s? Some K.N.I.L. accounts of the period vaguely mention “armoured jeeps” or armoured “terreinwagens” in service, but we have no evidence. Who knows?
BB13
This picture is from a Japanese cartoon. We have no further info on the cartoon presently, but it is clear the vehicle is based on a Dutch East Indies Braat type Overvalwagen! The front end is clearly identical, but this Overvalwagen mounts a large turret, while the rear end seems similar to the front. Now that’s intriguing.
We have no proof such a vehicle actually existed and for the moment we can assume this vehicle is a fantasy based on pictures of captured Braats. But there are several sources (notably a 1943 Australian booklet on Japanese and captured AFV’s) that state that a few 4×4 and turret-mounted Braats were indeed built (turrets either fitted with a Lewis light machine gun or a Browning .50). We do not know if K.N.I.L.’s workshops in Bandung and other facilities had the technology to build symmetrical armoured vehicles with turrets, but why not? The Alvis-Straussler AC3D armoured cars could have served as an example to this vehicle and by the end of 1941, the workshops must have reached quite an advanced level of design and production. Production of a turret should not have been too difficult, especially if the turret would be hand-operated.
Note the large hole in the hull of BB13: it must have been knocked out (at point-blank range?) by a tank or anti-tank gun. The tactical sign BB13 is interesting as well. What did it mean? To what unit did this car belong? These signs/numbers rarely show up on K.N.I.L. vehicle pictures. They must have been added rather late or at least after war had started. There is one other example of such a tactical sign: the first of the abandoned White Scout Cars (on Java) – check out the picture on the Foreign built armoured car page – has a tactical sign on the left-hand door starting with BE. Any comments welcome!
The Terror of the Fifth Column
The picture was identified by Jacques Jost as a locally built armoured car in Makassar (Celebes/Sulawesi Island), around 1940. It was probably operated by the local Stadswacht and advertised as the “Terror of the Fifth Column” (de “Schrik van de Vijfde Colonne”). There was also a slightly different second vehicle. Thank you Jacques Jost! Crow and Icks in their Encyclopedia of Armoured Cars (page 110) knew it as such: “Ford 4×2 chassis (…), improvised faceted hull w/stepped hull top, fixed superstructure resembling a turret, rear wheels armour-protected, horizontal radiator louvers, perforated disc wheels, used in the Netherlands East Indies.”
The Surabaya Tankette
This Imperial War Museum picture was taken during the battle for Surabaya in November 1945. The Dutch East Indies port city had seen a large-scale Indonesian Nationalist uprising shortly after the Japanese surrender in 1945. The Indonesians captured most Japanese military equipment in the city, including 1000 machine guns, more than 60 armoured cars (many ex-K.N.I.L.) and 16 tanks (both ex-Japanese and K.N.I.L.). The 4th British-Indian Division was sent in to take control of the city and rescue the beleaguered European population. After intense fighting they succeeded. This little tank was knocked out in the process.
In Soerabaja, Beeld van een stad the caption to this picture talks of a knocked-out light TKR (=Indonesian Nationalist Army) tank of Japanese origin. Well, it’s not really Japanese! The last issue of Wheels and Tracks Magazine also shows this picture in the “identifile” section. The light tank has clearly been based on a Universal Carrier. It has been covered with a roof and a small one-man turret (with hatch) is mounted in the centre of the tank. No armament is visible. The turret shows a huge anchor painted between the letters E T. Next to it is a rectangular patch that may have been painted over a Japanese (Navy) flag.
Marc Koelich wrote that the white patch on the turret is actually the lower part of an Indonesian flag. The inscription T.K.R.L. stands for Tentara Keamanan Rakjat Laoet (old spelling) or Rakyat Laut (modern spelling). TKR can be translated as People’s Security Forces and was the predecessor of T.N.I.. Laut is the sea, so read “Navy”. This might confirm that the tankette was seized by the Republicans at a naval installation.
There seems to be a second TKR LAOET inscription in red on the other side of the turret. If this tank was in service with the Japanese Forces prior to September 1945, it may have been a Navy tank given the anchor and the fact there was a huge Imperial Navy detachment in the former Dutch Navy barracks of Goebeng (also captured by the Nationalists). Now, where and when was this vehicle built? In Surabaya, in K.N.I.L. workshops and N.E.I. factories (Braat), but under Japanese supervision? The Japanese captured Bren Carriers in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaya, British Borneo, Java, Ambon and Timor.
Meanwhile, several people have pointed out that the carrier was most likely a British-built Mortar Carrier. How many were built? Barry Marriott from Australia wrote me this: “The “Tank Tracks” book mentions a tank being found abandoned by the Japanese in New Guinea that looked like a Bren Carrier with a Turret.” Who knows more about the Surabaya Tankette?