'Top Secret' till 1996: March 1946 Japanese surrender on Bali

Photo (below) of Peter Kemp with SOE colleagues in Thailand (Siam) dated September 1945 (courtesy of IWM, Catalogue number HU 65829) captioned;

"Group photograph: (back row) Sgt W Collins ('Gunner'), Kris Tosayananda ('Kong'), Peter Kemp and Sgt Rowley ('Spider'). Front row: David Smiley ('Grin') and Nai Tieng Sirikhanda ('Pluto'). Ubon, September 1945."

Peter Kemp circled.

Kind regards, always,

Jim

 

Added a link to the photo on Kemp's Wikipedia entry.

 

(Updated on the Kemp thread a week ago). Kemp's book trilogy 'Ten Years At War' arrived today, so one day I will report back what it adds, notably his time in Bali in 1946. Not that his experiences elsewhere are of not interest.

 

The British Official History of the War with Japan has a volume entitled: 'The War Against Japan: The surrender of Japan' and it is available via Google Books, as Ewen Scott posted awhile back there just a few mentions of Bali. It does state the Dutch landing was on the 3rd march 1946, preceded by a British Mission to take the Japanese surrender.

See: The War Against Japan: The surrender of Japan

 

I have now read the third book in Peter Kemp's trilogy, 'Alms from Oblivion' pgs. 1-149, it deals with Bali mainly and a chapter on his short mission to Lombok afterwards. He writes well and one day I will read his two books that cover the earlier "war years" in his career: the Spanish Civil War and WW2.

A number of amendments have been made to the (basic) Chronology and the fuller 'Main Doc'. Both are attached.

A few minor items found: the name of the Dutch Colonel who commanded the landing force on Bali, Ter Meulen; who had served in Bali pre-WW2 and had been captured in Holland in 1940. Might he have written his memoirs? Two famous US journalists on Bali for the official surrender: Martha Gellhorn and Bob Sherrard; again what did they report?

Who was Colonel Tweedy who was murdered on Bali in a robbery, whilst on leave?

 

The CWGC list a Robert Arthur Mileord TWEEDY, Army No. 38479, of the REME, died on 6/4/1946 and is buried in the cemetery at Surubaya (now Jakata), on Java (now Indonesia). See: Casualty Details | CWGC

Nothing else found on him yet.

Transferred from RAOC to REME as a Major 1/10/1942, From: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35875/supplement/481/data.pdf

A likely link:

From: BBC - WW2 People's War - "Meetings with Destiny", Part 2

 

Tweedy, Robert Arthur Milford (1901-1946)

 

Robert Arthur Milford Tweedy - Graces Guide

Actually, I'm more familiar with clandestine German activities during WW1 in the region, but this is also pretty interesting
Is this already known here:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24425639
The untold story of the Surabaya battle of 1945

 

A quick look found that Martha Gellhorn wrote a book that included her Bali visit:

From: Travels With Myself and Another: Five Journeys From Hell by Martha Gellhorn

This book was published in 1978 and is not available to view via Google Books

One of her biographies, 'Martha Gellhorn: A Life' by Caroline Moorehead refers to her writing in The New Yorker about Bali. From Google Books.

New Yorker Magazine archive does not show any WW2 articles by her.

 

file:///C:/Users/pc/AppData/Local/Temp/125945087.pdf
MURDER OF BRIGADIER MALLABY (B.B.C. ANNOUNCEMENT) (Hansard, 12 November 1945)
https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstr..._1107105566_87_111.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

 

Citing Itdan in part: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24425639 Alas this journal article is not fully available on JSTOR

The untold story of the Surabaya battle of 1945 A superb find, remarkable that it is written too by an Indonesian.

Kemp does refer to Mallaby's murder and what followed, plus his short stay outside Surubaya before leaving for home. I will find the passages and provide some quotes.

 

And before you know it, you're spending half the night browsing through publications on this interesting scene.
The two linked below give quite a revealing insight into the tangled background of the Japanese Army, Indonesian/Balinese separatists, KNIL and Commonwealth units during this phase:
file:///C:/Users/pc/AppData/Local/Temp/[22134379%20-%20Bijdragen%20tot%20de%20taal-,%20land-%20en%20volkenkunde%20_%20Journal%20of%20the%20Humanities%20and%20Social%20Sciences%20of%20Southeast%20Asia]%20Captain%20Huyer%20and%20the%20massive%20Japanese%20arms%20transfer%20in%20East%20Java%20in%20October%201945.pdf
copy&paste - otherwise I get the link unfortunately not set

https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstr..._0_1107010215_1_48.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (see pg 36)

King's Collections : Archive Catalogues : TULL, Wg Cdr Thomas Stuart (1914-1982) : 1-4: Papers
see: operation SALEX MASTIFF, Central Java, 10 Sep-15 Dec 1945

 

Itdan,

The link above is to Professor Robinson's thesis, which became a book; alas the chapter on the Dutch return (my focus) was not published - hence recourse to networking as a friend is at Leiden University. I will read the chapter anyway later.

 

Robert Arthur Mileord TWEEDY was at the time of his death DDME at AFNEI. During a visit to Bali he was kidnapped and murdered.

 

Kemp's conclusion was that the murder of Colonel Tweedy was 100% criminal, not political and gained his pistol, camera and watch - only the watch was recovered upon the suspect. He does not state what then happened. Reading Kemp's description of Bali, its people and culture would make it attractive for a spot of leave.

 

Can I help?

 

Is this of any interest?

 

MarkN,

Finally had a chance to read both sets of book excerpts. They act as a reminder that Bali and Lombok were a small sideshow compared to events on Java and Sumatra. Let alone the multifaceted, delicate mission, so thank you.

 

Itdan is Post 52 provides a chapter by (now a UCLA Professor) Geoffrey Robinson on what happened after this operation, the chapter is: 'State, Society and Political Conflict in Bali 1945-56'. This passage (pg.2) is enough for our purposes, I have removed the footnote numbers to the Dutch Archives and added bold for the aftermath:

Later in the article (pg. 36) refers to a Dutch source:

On pg.37 :

On pg. 39 refers to a British recce team reporting from Bali on nationalist forces (document is in a Dutch archive). This is far earlier than previous references.

I am about to compose an email to Professor Robinson, hence a quick review of the last posts.

 

I have found two film clips of the Dutch landing and the surrender ceremony. The first is short and has explanatory text:

Link: File:Nieuws uit Indië, landing van Nederlandse troepen op Bali Weeknummer 46-14 - Open Beelden - 16667.ogv - Wikimedia Commons

The second is longer and appears to be two similar film clips:

I expect Peter Kemp is in the footage, but I cannot identify him.

A Dutch local history site has a little more - in Dutch - and fully names the Dutch commander as Frederick Hendrik ter Meulen. He died on 4/7/1946, possibly on Bali on following an accident and is buried in a Dutch war cemetery at Surabaya, Indonesia. This explains why I cannot find any memoirs. It also has photos of two Dutch ships, a SS Padud and a frigate / sloop Hr. Ms Kortenaer. Wiki says she was a British destroyer sold to the Dutch in October 1945. See: S and T-class destroyer - Wikipedia and HMS Scorpion (G72) - Wikipedia

A photo of a diorama of Bali showing the landings (unclear where this is located):



Link: Groenegraf.nl: Van Baarn naar Bali, gebeurtenissen uit 1946, een ontmoeting tussen Oost en West