Dutch Truck Identification

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Ian Fawbert

Hanno, excuse my ignorance, but would the RNEIA (Royal Netherlands East Indian Army) be a link to these vehicles?

Just a thought, I wonder if there are post war photos of Dutch vehicles painted blue, particularly RNEIA vehicles. The reason I ask is that upon looking at disposed of/surplussed vehicles in the Army Registration Number books held by the Australian War Memorial, there are a fare few (I've seen jeeps, can't say I've seen dodge 3/4 tons) vehicles which have been transferred to the RNEIA post war from Aust army stocks. These vehicles had to be surplused and end up somewhere!

I wonder if this is where this dodge came from? There seem to be more numbers in front of the RN or on a different layer of paint (OD) I wonder if this could have been an ARN number? How it got back here in Australia, I don't know, but being in Far west Qld when found, it could have easily made its way back from the pacific in the last 62 years before it was posted on here!

What do you think?

Ian, interesting thought.

18 (NEI) was the first NEI-AF Squadron. It was formed as an RAAF Squadron at Fairbairn airfield in Canberra on 4 April 1942 from the two groups of Dutch airmen at Archerfield and Melbourne. They flew B-25 Mitchells. The Squadron's Dutch personnel (and a few Javanese) were complemented by a number RAAF personnel covering both aircrew and ground crew occupations. On 6 July 1942, 18 Squadron was officially disbanded as an RAAF Squadron and became part of the Netherlands East Indies Air Force, but still under RAAF command.
As far as I can tell, the aircraft were supplied through the USAAF, but the vehicles (ground equipment) must have been supplied through the RAAF as this was a RAAF Squadron. The RAAF were supplied by the US with aircraft and ground equipment, hence the US vehicles like the Dodge WC-51 normally not seen in Australian Army service.

After WW2 when the Netherlands Government tried to suppress the Indonesian independence, a lot of equipment was needed to rebuild the Netherlands East-Indies Army. Much of this was supplied by British-Indian units which occupied Indonesia before the Netherlands Government could muster enough troops. The Dutch troops took over the equipment from the British, and were further supplied from ex-Canadian Army stocks in the Netherlands. You mention transfer from Australian stocks as well. In turn, the Dutch troops handed over most of their equipment to the Indonesian Army when leaving in 1949.

So I cannot think of a logical reason of why Netherlands East-Indies Army vehicles would have been brought back to Australia after serving in Indonesia. In the early years after WW2, Australia must have still been swamped in surplus materiel, so there would not have been a need (let alone the possibility) to import from a country which was building up its armed forces after a war of independence.

All I can reason is that this Dodge WC-51 is ex-18 (NEI) Squadron, which was handed back to the RAAF after the unit disbanded. It was then redeployed to another RAAF unit and/or eventually surplussed. It may have found its way from the Darwin area to West Queensland either during RAAF service or after being surplussed.

If there is anyone who can throw more light on this, please speak up!

Thanks,
Hanno