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The Dutch response to all that was taking place in what was dubbed “'''Het maart offensief'''” was one that would set the tone of the remainder of the war. The counter-offensive took place in multiple theatres. The primary theatre and where the response was the quickest was that of eastern Java. Dutch armored forces and the by now famous “Lucht brigades” or air brigades came in hard and fast and started a full-on clearing operation across the countryside and eventually securing the city of Semarang, where brave Dutch defenders held out against the EILF insurgents. When the city was liberated on the 14th of March a large battle ensued that would say many of the insurgents not make it back home. At the same time, marines from de Korps Mariniers supported by the carrier “van Amstel” conduct an amphibious assault near the city of Surabaya, where Dutch soldiers were holding out while being surrounded by insurgents. The fighting around the city and eventually in the city was some of the most brutal fighting the war had seen so far.
 
At the end of what was called the Java uprising which officially according to Dutch history ended on the 28th of March 1972, some 11,000 Dutch civilians had died, 5400 soldiers were KIA, 617 were MIA, and 1918219,182 were wounded. While on the EILF side the numbers sometimes disputed were far higher. According to captured documents of the EILF a total of 43,019 men died in the first 3 days, while in the last 15 days a total of 111,179 casualties  (71,192 killed and 39,987 wounded).  It is said to be some of the most brutal fighting and highest casualty rates of the war and it would set the tone for the remainder of the conflict. In regards to civilian casualties caused by the Dutch counteroffensive to this day, it is disputed, however, all agree that the numbers reach into the millions.
 
=== The blooding ===
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While at the time it was not known, the final campaigns of the war were being fought and each was more brutal than the next. The new threat of EILF armored forces combined with irregular forces and being outnumbered made the Dutch only more ruthless. Battles on Malaya and Sumatra went from fire force operations to a new concept called “Forced Penetration” It would see Dutch forces enter in full force in certain areas. Capture it hold it for a given period and meanwhile inflict as much damage as possible. This took place across the islands but while it killed more of the EILF than of the Dutch, for every insurgent killed 3 would take their place.
 
Fighting was fierce across the islands and quickly through 1972 and early 1973 a pattern began to emerge. On Malaya, fighting was far more conventional and in that field the Dutch had a relatively great deal of strategic success at first, only to be pushed back to their lines due to insurgent activities. On Celebs, the war was still a counter-insurgency campaign and air assault was the name of the game there the Dutch fought hard and achieved their objectives but the EILF simply did not give up. On Sumatra, it was where like always the most intense fighting took place. conventional and unconventional forces employed and the Dutch often was fought to a stalemate, only winning if they went in full force. However the real strain came when Java for the second time in a short period went up in flames, this time the insurgency was not large but it was a directed and strategic one. This put the final so-called strain on the Dutch manpower forces as by now they were tapping into reserves of the older generations that fought there. The war had turned from a high-intensity insurgency campaign, for the first time in the Dutch government her view into a total war and for the first time all pretenses pfof civility were dropped.
 
Despite the massive amount of enemy forces killed nothing seemed to stop the EILF in their onslaught. Dutch soldiers were fighting for months on end seeing no rest and fighting day and night, all of this the brutality the exhaustion the hopelessness combined with the increase in Russian support, international condemnation, and the fact that it was all televised finally chanced the mood in the war. On the 18th of April 1974, the largest anti-war protest the Netherlands would ever see took place. This was a protest not carried out by the regular people that would protest. These protests were large with roughly 3.4 million people protesting, veterans of the war that now would see their own sons die in a war they fought in, mothers fathers, wives, friends of those send over to fight. People had enough of the conflict they were exhausted, nearly 11 years of war abroad seeing it day in day out on the television had chanced the Dutch nation as a whole. These protests were so large that it for one day shut down the nation, the police were not willing to do anything and it was a time of chaos. Prime minister Geert Dijkman even ordered his cabinet and the military at home to prepare for a revolution. However, his army generals said loud and clear that they would not fire on their own people. These protests and strikes known as the silent revolution of april would eventually within the same month see a vote of no confidence pass the chamber. A new election was declared to be needed and was scheduled for the 17th of Juli 1974.
 
Despite the best efforts of '''Prime Minister Geert Dijkman''' and his “''Conservatieve anti revolutionare partij”'' or CARP, they stood no chance. They where soundly defeated by the ''“Partij voor democratie''” or PVD led by former veteran turned politician '''Koen Haverman''' who on the 25th of Juli 1974 became the new prime minister of the Netherlands. Out of the 150 seats in the second chamber, the PVD won a total of 83, thus needing no coalition and pushing their agenda forward. Their agenda was a simple one on paper pull out of the archipelago, yet in reality, this would be a hard one and prove to be a complicated affair.
[[File:Koen Haverman 3.jpg|alt=Barend Biesheuvel is used as a stand in for the PM|thumb|Koen Haverman the new prime minister of the Netherlands meeting with the monarch]]
 
=== '''A new minister a new policy''' ===
WIP[[File:Troops under fire.jpg|thumb|A soldier watching air support drop its payload upon the enemy her positions, somewhere around Malakka.]]
With the ascension of Koen Haverman with his Partij van Democratie the Dutch policy on the east indies crisis, or as it was known in the Hague “De oorlog” or the war radically changed almost overnight. Koen Haverman won his election partly by stating they would find a way to pull out of the conflict. A conflict that had taken the best of the Netherlands her youth and swallowed it whole, only leaving behind broken and scattered boys who had seen far too much at a far too young age. It had put a strain on the Netherlands her social services and culture and people, who have watched it all for nearly 16 years on their Tvs were tired of it. Koen Haverman, who himself fought in the war during the early stages knew the horror of it and thus the moment he was appointed by the monarch began to work on a way to get the Netherlands out.
 
Pulling the Netherlands out was however the hard part, for it was easier said than done. The situation at the time of Haverman coming into office was a dire one. The EILF was conducting their largest continuous offensive in the war so far, the Netherlands was engaged on all fronts soldiers were fighting for months and months, and all pretenses of civility were dropped. Casualty reports coming in were grim, pictures coming in were grimmer and all the news coming in on video was dark and too intense to even show on TV. Battles raging on Sumatra and Borneo and Celebs were brutal and it is said that when Haverman for the first time viewed the classified reports of the war he vomited. The reports contained numbers so gruesome and tactics and fighting on that were against everything that the Netherlands claimed to uphold.
=== The fall of Batavia ===▼
From May 1975 the new government led by <u>Prime Minister Koen Haverman</u>, himself a veteran of the war, began what it called a “Scale down”. This scale-down was however not peaceful it was a scorched earth campaign. Malakka at that moment knowing what was to come declared itself independent on July 8th, 1975, this was the first sign of what the last months of the war were to be like. The Dutch began a scale down which came down to a withdrawal, the KNIL in these last months were to be the crack forces that held the line fighting as at the same time the Rebels began a grand offensive which was held back and repelled but the rebels now gave it they’re all. From November 1975 all the way up to February 1976 Dutch & KNIL forces withdrew but held the rebels off giving time and space for Dutch, Taulanders, Amerikaeners, Afrikaners, Eurasians, and others to flee from Sumatra Borneo and Celebs, and eventually, they held only to the ports and like the rest of the cities and infrastructure has bombed the ground once the last boat left. What followed in the cities on the islands once the rebels got their hands on it was pure slaughter and mass killings were started.
 
He thus ordered the commanders of the military to come up with a plan to pull the Dutch forces out in such a manner that they would not be attacked from the rear. The immediate answer by that time Commander of the Armed Forces <u>Generaal Cornelis van Langen</u>, was that it would be hard bloody, and require a lot of time. Yet Haverman was determined he wanted the Dutch their forces out of the war. Thus van Langen despite his own involvement in the creation of Dutch strategy started with his team to work on a plan to pull the Netherlands out of the war. He worked tirelessly and by November 1974 some 4 months after the initial order was given they had a plan. In those 4 months, however, the fighting continued across the East Indies and the Dutch forces seemed to show less and less mercy. van Langen dubbed the plan “'''Operatie vertrek-I'''” or leaving one, it was a detailed set of objectives that would see the pullout in phases of Dutch forces while also taking into account civilians. It would take roughly 1.6 years to complete as nothing was to be left behind, it would be done in phases and it would continuously require the Dutch forces to keep on fighting with a higher degree of intensity as to not give off any idea to the enemy. He proposed the plan to the cabinet of Haverman and on the 1st of December 1974, it was accepted and made official military policy.[[File:Troops under fire.jpg|thumb|A soldier watching air support drop its payload upon the enemy her positions, somewhere around Malakka.]]
Eventually, by October 1976 the Dutch forces all across Java were centered around Batavia. Operation “Thuiskomst” or homecoming was launched by the navy to get all the civilians and loyalists out as the remainder of Java fell to the rebels and it was one big bloodbath. Dutch forces held the line against repeated Rebel assaults, rescue operations across the islands were launched by the navy and remainder army units to get all Dutch loyalists out. For despite scaling down the navy in the area still had supremacy. In total in these last months of fighting 67.000 rebels, regulars died fighting, and across the island of Java millions, more died in purges, and the chaos that ensued entire KNIL units went rogue and killed hundreds of thousands in revenge. Eventually, by the 11th of November at 23:48, the last boat the destroyer “Blauwe Maan” left filled to the brim with civilians as the port finally fell to the rebels. This marked the end of 370 years of the Dutch presence in the east indies
 
▲=== The fall of Batavia ===
 
== Aftermath ==
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