Camp Victory, also known as Camp Casino, was a Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) base and prisoner of war camp, used during World War II, near Casino, New South Wales, Australia. The Dutch government-in-exile was given extraterritorial rights over the management and conduct of the base. It was named Camp Victory by the Dutch government in the hopes of a swift recapture of the Dutch East Indies. The camp consisted mostly of tents, with only a few buildings for administrative, ablutions and recreational purposes.
Military Units
editThe 1st Infantry Battalion (KNIL) was the first military unit to be trained at the facility, before they deployed to Queensland and then the Borneo Campaigns in 1945. This unit had about 500 Surinamese and Dutch Antilles soldiers, who were not allowed to serve in Europe. This was based on racism grounds, in the belief that their service would antagonise South African Army soldiers they might serve alongside. Despite this, these troops were poorly treated by their Dutch commander and other officers at Casino. They were forbidden to enter the town or to interact with the local White Australians, together with a lack of medical care or social services. The coloured soldiers were also paid less than their Dutch counterparts and paid in Japanese Invasion Money that could only be used within the camp.
A Technical Battalion was also based at Camp Victory. This was mostly made up of oil industry workers that had managed to be evacuated from Dutch Borneo, with the intention of operating the oil fields quickly after their recapture.
Military aviation training for Dutch service personnel was also conducted at Casino Airport, with the aviators staying at Camp Victory. Many Dutch aviators enlisted in 1944 and 1945, with the liberation of the Netherlands, and were sent to Australia for training. However for many of them, their training was constantly delayed and they often ended up guarding the Indonesian KNIL soldiers at the end of World War 2 instead of flying.
Prison
editPolitical Prisoners
editFearing that Indonesian Nationalists would join with the Imperial Japanese forces to fight the Dutch colonialists, political prisoners of the Tanah Merah Prison were brought to Camp Victory, in 1942. The Netherlands East Indies government-in-exile (in Australia), feared that partisan armies, which would prejudice postwar reimposition of Dutch colonial rule in the Indies. Thus they organised for the prisoners to be brought to Australia and to be interned as 'prisoners of war' despite being non-combatants.[1] [2] [3] This did not fit entirely well with the host country, and on 7 December 1943, the Tanah Merah prisoners were freed from their Australian prison camps.
Indonesian KNIL Soldiers
editHowever with the end of the war drawing near, there were great fears about Indonesian Nationalism amongst their soldiers of Indonesian descent. Thus at the end of the war, the ethnically Dutch soldiers imprisoned their Indonesian counterparts within Camp Victory. KNIL soldiers of Indonesian ethnicity were brought from all across Australia to Camp Victory to also be imprisoned.[4] This did not sit well many within the local Casino community, especially as several protests, hunger strikes and riots took place within the confines of the Camp, with some fearing a mass breakout. The inmates hung one prisoner suspected of being a thief and Dutch soldiers killed one Indonesian prisoner 13 bullet wounds in one incident, wounded two others while trying to remove a prisoner from the camp. The Maritime unions on Australia's docks refused cargo or shipping between Australia and Dutch controlled ports, as a protest. In 1946, the prisoners were transferred to Brisbane, court martialled and transported to Dutch controlled prisons in the Dutch East Indies. With the last prisoners leaving, the Camp Victory was closed and the land returned to the control of the Australian Government. The base had been in operation from 1942 until 1946.
Military Deaths
editSeveral deaths occurred with KNIL soldiers during training, vehicle accidents or in one case, walking into a propeller. Each was buried with military honours at the Casino Lawn Cemetery, opposite the camp.
References
edit- ^ Indonesian Independence Committee (1946), Dutch imperialism exposed : the green hell of Tanah Merrah, Indonesian Independence Committee, retrieved 21 September 2018 Melbourne, Victoria
- ^ Lockwood, R. (1975) Black Armada & the Struggle for Indonesian Independence, 1942-49. Australasian Book Society Ltd., Sydney, Australia. ISBN 9 09916 68 3
- ^ Sjahrir, S. (1949). "Out of Exile", translated with an introduction by Charles Wolf, Jr. New York: The John Day Company.
- ^ van Teeseling, Ingeborg. "The Dutch in charge of Casino - Eighty years of Dutch-Australian diplomatic relations". Australia Explained. Retrieved 11 January 2024.