(Old page) East Indies Crisis - do not edit: Difference between revisions

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 scale of fighting was enormous the Dutch military had grown from a medium-sized force of around 310.000 active troops in 1960. To a military that was by 1973 unrivaled in its quality of fighting troops having the 4th largest military. In total, in 1973 440.000 Dutch combat troops were deployed, and the army had 2.7 million manpower in available inactive reserves. The Rebels were in 1973 able to field 1.2 million regular troops and 7.1 million guerilla fighters. The war exacted an enormous human cost: It’s estimated that a total of 19/21 million Civilians, mainly island natives died in the conflict, a total of 144,918 Dutch soldiers died in the conflict, with 49,000 missing in action. The rebels their losses are not well known but estimated to be in the 7 million range. fatalities that resulted from the war, due to the use of chemical weapons and Napalm, the famines after the war are likely to inflate the numbers even more. The war her environmental cost was massive and beyond repair jungles were burned to the ground and entire species went extinct as their biomes were destroyed. The economic damage has been extensive when the Dutch left nothing of the infrastructure on the islands was left intact and the cities were in literal ruins, only recently have they started to recover.