The safeguarding of the vaandel of the Korps Maréchaussee — the four-year concealment of the vaandel of the Korps Maréchaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen (with its associated Militaire Willemsorde and gold and silver versierselen) by Lt L. C. G. F. Onvlee through Japanese captivity in Atjeh, Birma, Bangkok and onward from 1 December 1 December 1941 until the Japanese capitulation of 15 August 15 August 1945 — is the closing Bijzondere verrichting of the Dutch staff history’s Atjeh chapter (Deel VI, Hoofdstuk V), and the staff history’s exemplary narrative of regimental loyalty sustained through four years of Japanese imprisonment.
The order of 1 December 1941
On 1 December 1 December 1941 — one week before the outbreak of war with Japan — Onvlee, as commander of the Tangsé detachment of the IVde divisie Maréchaussee, received a letter from the commander of the Korps Maréchaussee ordering that the vaandel of the Korps, “met zijn versierselen en de Militaire Willemsorde waarmede het gedecoreerd was,” be kept at Tangsé. The Territoriaal Commandant, judging the Java connection too uncertain, had declined to send the vaandel to Java. Some days later the stok of the vaandel arrived at Tangsé by separate post; the doek remained at Lam Meulo pending onward dispatch.
Onvlee was then transferred to Sigli, then to Kotaradja, and finally to the Seulimeum-colonne. Before leaving Tangsé he briefed his successor and showed him the vaandel-related correspondence. The two detachments — Tangsé (where the vaandel would be sent) and Geumpang (where it was ultimately to be kept) — were ordered to keep the matter “strikt geheim” and to observe the greatest caution.
The Japanese discovery and the substitution (March 1942)
On 18 March 18 March 1942 Onvlee was forced to capitulate at Tangsé with the rest of the detachment and was imprisoned in his former dwelling. On 21 March 21 March 1942 he saw a inheemse veroordeelde pass his window carrying the vaandel’s stok. He inferred that the vaandel had not been sent on to Geumpang in time and had fallen into Japanese hands. A clandestine investigation confirmed his suspicion: the Japanese had found the vaandel and its versierselen, packed them in two small chests marked with Japanese characters, and stored them in a magazine.
At great personal risk Onvlee “wist de kistjes te openen, en zich in het bezit te stellen van het doek, de Militaire Willemsorde, de zilveren lauwerkransen en de gouden versierselen.” To restore the kistjes to their original weight he filled them with rags and resealed them. The kistjes were eventually sent on to Takengon; when they were opened there and found to contain “slechts oude lappen,” the Japanese commander instituted a “zeer streng onderzoek” at Takengon. The Korpscommandant and a Maréchaussee officer then at Takengon were “zelfs mishandeld” when they declined to give information.
The patrouille-hoofdkussentje
Onvlee sewed the doek and the Militaire Willemsorde into his patrouillehoofdkussentje — the small head-cushion carried on patrol. He gave the silver lauwerkransen and the golden versierselen to his vertrouwde bediende with orders to hide them. (These were never recovered.) He was sent from Tangsé via Sigli to Medan on 25 March 25 March 1942, where he briefed both the Territoriaal Commandant and the Korpscommandant. The Territoriaal Commandant ordered him “het vaandel onder zijn berusting te houden en dit na de oorlog aan de bevoegde autoriteiten af te geven.”
Captivity in Birma, Bangkok and onward
On 15 May 15 May 1942 Onvlee was put on transport to Birma. In the prisoner-of-war camps of Birma the Japanese conducted “veelvuldig onverwachte inspecties”; Onvlee, “door zijn koelbloedigheid en vindingrijkheid,” succeeded in keeping the vaandel concealed through them all. When he was designated in March 1944 for transport to Japan — at which point all designated prisoners were required to surrender their kit for inspection, since all else was to be burned — he took the Dutch camp commander into his confidence and “stond hij hem het vaandel tijdelijk af.” He received it back on 10 May 10 May 1945, by which time only the doek and the Militaire Willemsorde remained in his possession; the golden kwasten were missing.
With the discovery of a clandestine radio in the camp and the rumour that the camp was to be broken up and moved, the chance of discovery grew steadily greater. Onvlee requested the Korpscommandant’s permission to bury the vaandel in a tin box made by a fellow prisoner; the Korpscommandant refused. On 15 August 15 August 1945, before the camp was broken up, Japan capitulated. Onvlee informed the senior Dutch officer present of the survival of the vaandel.
Disposition after the war
In November 1945 Onvlee was moved to Bangkok, where he learned of plans to incorporate the vaandel in a mixed Ambonese–Dutch company. He objected to the Korpscommandant — both as improper for a vaandel of a Maréchaussee corps and on the authority of the original Territoriaal Commandant’s order that the vaandel be handed to the authorities in the Netherlands East Indies. The Korpscommandant demanded the vaandel back; Onvlee gave it up. A plan to have the vaandel formally presented to Onvlee before the troops was never executed. With the post-war dissolution of the K.N.I.L., the vaandel was not formally presented on Java either; in July 1950 it was placed in the Legermuseum te Leiden.
Significance
The Onvlee episode is, in the staff history’s Atjeh chapter, the only sustained narrative of POW-camp resistance, and it is presented as a parable of regimental loyalty. The compilers’ emphasis on the “doorzettingsvermogen en de vindingrijkheid van luitenant Onvlee” frames the safeguarding of the vaandel as a moral victory set against the operational defeat of the Atjeh campaign. The episode also closes the Maréchaussee institutional history that opens the Atjeh chapter — the reduction and reorganisation of the Korps through 1940–1941 and its dispersal in March 1942 — by recording the survival of its most sacred relic through four years of Japanese captivity.
See Also
- Nederlands-Indië contra Japan
- L. C. G. F. Onvlee
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- IVde Divisie Marechaussee
- Militaire Willemsorde (M.W.O.)
- Tangsé
- Geumpang
- Lam Meulo
- Seulimeum-colonne
- 1941
- 1942
- 1945
Source
Nederlands-Indië contra Japan, Deel VI: De strijd op Ambon, Timor en Sumatra, bewerkt door C. van den Hoogenband en L. Schotborgh (‘s-Gravenhage: Staatsdrukkerij- en Uitgeverijbedrijf, 1959), Hoofdstuk V (“De strijd in Noord-Sumatra (Atjeh)”), Bijzondere verrichtingen na de capitulatie — Het veiligstellen van het vaandel van het Korps Maréchaussee, pp. 152–155.