Hey guys, Im new here so heres my first thread. So as you may see by the title: my great grandfather was in Dutch India.He went there just after the war from 1947 to 1948. I still have many medals and pictures of him. From the pictures i have India looked like a real war area. Rubble everywhere, dirty. All that stuff. I even have a picture of a tank. When my granddad got back he got this pin/medal for participating in the war with India. So i got plenty of leftovers of my grandfather. The only actual story he told us is that his friend stood in front of him when he was vulnerable. He got hit by grenade shrapnel, bullets. It sounds dramatic but its true. He actually went to India to visit the boys grave. New pictures will come soon. My camera isn't really working. View attachment 17674
Hey there. Without further or do lets jump into my questions 1. Your Name: Whats your name? What would you like to be called? How did you come up with your member-name? My name is Bas, i would you to just be calling me by my name. 2. Age: How old are you? How long have you been interested in WWII? I am 12 years old. I've been interested in WW2 since i was about 9 and i've been collecting for about 9 months now. 3. Origins: Where are you from? I'm from the Netherlands. 4. Specifics: What areas of WWII are you interested in? What would you like to know more about? Theres not really anything specific. I collect from all areas. 5. Hobbies: What sort of Hobbies do you have? Are any related to World War II? Wargaming? Video-games? Memorabilia? Visiting historic sites? I like to metal detect, i play COD: World at War, and alot of other games including WWII timed. I don't collect militaria but in vacations i often go to museums in the Netherlands. 6. Other: What other time periods are you interested in? Specific eras? Why? Well not really with a reason but i like the times of about 1000 to 1500. 7. Miscellaneous: Anything else you'd like to share with us? My great grandfather served in Dutch India. Though he never told us any stories about the era. Thanks, - Bas
You have some great medals and pins here. I know a few of them , but some of them I see for the first time. I see your grandfather enlisted in the Dutch Colonial Army as a volunteer and was awarded the volunteer clasp for this. I also see the colonial commemorative medal . Thanks for posting these documents.
I came across this member during some work in the user permissions setup. Bas was underage when he registered so the account was frozen. He is now a bit older fine for full membership. The account is once again active. Welcone back Bas. Sorry for the temporary timeout.
Nice, providing he'll be aware of this. In the meantime I have read quite a few things on the KNIL . I had a couple of ancestors there myself.
4 years was the usual thing . The first KNIL post liberation troops arrived in 1945 and they remained until the independence in 1949. There was no money for expensive leaves with 20.000km one way trips , so you's expected to go for a couple of years. I had a neigbour who had a similar contract before the war and despite being a career officer, he went home only once evey eight years. This explains why there was a 8 years gap between each of his chiildren .
Hi, thanks for the warm late welcome - I had totally forgotten this place in all honesty. It may have been for the best that you'd have deactivated my account, I was very childish at this age. I don't want to go in great detail, but I had an account of mine banned on warrelics.eu due to this reason. I've not stopped collecting since then and may I like to add that I have very much matured. My area of collecting has changed in 5 years time, too. I have changed from collecting a bit of that and a bit of this to collecting strictly Sturmabteilung items and LBD (Luchtbeschermingsdienst, Dutch air-raid wardens 1933-1945) items. Looking forward to talking to all of you! Regards, Bas
He returns! I'm glad you made it back. I don't remember your account, so it must have been another mod that locked your account. From what I can tell it was done simply for your age and not for anything you did, which is still our policy here. In the USA there are a whole different set of laws around allowing minors on a website, so it was nothing against you per se. In any case the account is now corrected and you are more than welcome to participate if you like.
There's a pretty active collecting subforum (militaria(sp?)), feel free to share. Especially if you have providence of some of your items the information may be more valuable to others than you realize. Even if you don't many here will likely be interested in your collection.