L. C. G. F. Onvlee was a lieutenant of the Netherlands Indies Army Maréchaussee who, as commander of the Tangsé detachment of the IVde divisie Maréchaussee from 1 December 1 December 1941, was entrusted by the Korpscommandant with the safeguarding of the vaandel (colours) of the Korps Maréchaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen — together with its associated Militaire Willemsorde and gold and silver decorations — and who, through nearly four years of Japanese captivity in Atjeh, Birma, Bangkok and onward, succeeded in keeping the vaandel out of Japanese hands. In the Dutch staff history’s account (Deel VI, Hoofdstuk V), the Onvlee episode is the closing special operation of the Atjeh chapter — a near-legendary narrative of obsessive loyalty to a regimental relic.
The safeguarding order (December 1941)
On 1 December 1 December 1941 — one week before the outbreak of war with Japan — Onvlee, as Tangsé detachment commander, received a letter from the commander of the Korps Maréchaussee ordering that the vaandel of the Korps, with its decorations and the Militaire Willemsorde with which it had been decorated, 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 staff of the vaandel arrived at Tangsé by separate post; the cloth 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 strictly secret and to observe the greatest caution.
The Japanese discovery and the substitution
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 an indigenous convict pass his window carrying the vaandel’s staff. 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 decorations, packed them in two small chests marked with Japanese characters, and stored them in a magazine.
At great personal risk Onvlee succeeded in opening the small chests and taking possession of the cloth, the Militaire Willemsorde, the silver laurel wreaths, and the gold decorations. To restore the chests to their original weight he filled them with rags and resealed them. The chests were eventually sent on to Takengon; when they were opened there and found to contain only old rags, the Japanese commander instituted a very strict investigation at Takengon. The Korpscommandant and a Maréchaussee officer then at Takengon were even maltreated when they declined to give information.
Concealment in the patrol head-cushion
Onvlee sewed the cloth and the Militaire Willemsorde into his patrol head-cushion — the small head-cushion carried on patrol. He gave the silver laurel wreaths and the gold decorations to his trusted servant 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 to keep the vaandel in his custody and to hand it over after the war to the proper authorities.
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 frequent unannounced inspections; Onvlee, through his cool-headedness and ingenuity, 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 temporarily handed the vaandel over to him. He received it back on 10 May 10 May 1945, by which time only the cloth and the Militaire Willemsorde remained in his possession; the gold tassels 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 Army Museum at 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 perseverance and ingenuity of Lieutenant 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
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- IVde Divisie Marechaussee
- Militaire Willemsorde (M.W.O.)
- Tangsé
- Geumpang
- Lam Meulo
- Seulimeum-colonne
- Safeguarding of the vaandel of the Korps Maréchaussee
- 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.
L. C. G. F. Onvlee was a lieutenant of the Netherlands Indies Army Maréchaussee who, as commander of the Tangsé detachment of the IVde divisie Maréchaussee from 1 December 1 December 1941, was entrusted by the Korpscommandant with the safeguarding of the vaandel (colours) of the Korps Maréchaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen — together with its associated Militaire Willemsorde and gold and silver decorations — and who, through nearly four years of Japanese captivity in Atjeh, Birma, Bangkok and onward, succeeded in keeping the vaandel out of Japanese hands. In the Dutch staff history’s account (Deel VI, Hoofdstuk V), the Onvlee episode is the closing special operation of the Atjeh chapter — a near-legendary narrative of obsessive loyalty to a regimental relic.
The safeguarding order (December 1941)
On 1 December 1 December 1941 — one week before the outbreak of war with Japan — Onvlee, as Tangsé detachment commander, received a letter from the commander of the Korps Maréchaussee ordering that the vaandel of the Korps, with its decorations and the Militaire Willemsorde with which it had been decorated, 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 staff of the vaandel arrived at Tangsé by separate post; the cloth 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 strictly secret and to observe the greatest caution.
The Japanese discovery and the substitution
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 an indigenous convict pass his window carrying the vaandel’s staff. 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 decorations, packed them in two small chests marked with Japanese characters, and stored them in a magazine.
At great personal risk Onvlee succeeded in opening the small chests and taking possession of the cloth, the Militaire Willemsorde, the silver laurel wreaths, and the gold decorations. To restore the chests to their original weight he filled them with rags and resealed them. The chests were eventually sent on to Takengon; when they were opened there and found to contain only old rags, the Japanese commander instituted a very strict investigation at Takengon. The Korpscommandant and a Maréchaussee officer then at Takengon were even maltreated when they declined to give information.
Concealment in the patrol head-cushion
Onvlee sewed the cloth and the Militaire Willemsorde into his patrol head-cushion — the small head-cushion carried on patrol. He gave the silver laurel wreaths and the gold decorations to his trusted servant 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 to keep the vaandel in his custody and to hand it over after the war to the proper authorities.
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 frequent unannounced inspections; Onvlee, through his cool-headedness and ingenuity, 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 temporarily handed the vaandel over to him. He received it back on 10 May 10 May 1945, by which time only the cloth and the Militaire Willemsorde remained in his possession; the gold tassels 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 Army Museum at 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 perseverance and ingenuity of Lieutenant 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
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- IVde Divisie Marechaussee
- Militaire Willemsorde (M.W.O.)
- Tangsé
- Geumpang
- Lam Meulo
- Seulimeum-colonne
- Safeguarding of the vaandel of the Korps Maréchaussee
- 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.