Frontier War: Difference between revisions

The origins of the conflict lay in the waning months of the East Indies crisis, as the Dutch started their overall withdrawal, chaos soon emerged. It was in this chaos that numerous units of KNIL even rebelled, and went into hiding, while others those that were more of the “independent formations” either followed orders or remained. It was in this chaos that '''Kapitein-Generaal Middendorp''', saw an opportunity. Throughout the waning days of the war he had been in contact with his old friends in the Netherlands, other officers throughout the East Indies and the local Chinese Kongsi. over the final months, they had managed to siphon off supplies, additional units and in essence everything to wage a prolonged campaign with limited resupply. Officially it was to deal with the massive surge of refugees that came into their area of operations. Many of them being Chinese, Dutch or Eurasian. In his eyes, the government in the Hague was fumbling at best and at worst ignoring it. He could not let it stand and thus with the end of the conflict coming near, with the Malukku crisis starting, he in cooperation with the Kongsi council declared the formation of the “Vrystaat van Pinang”, of which he was immediately elected temporary supreme commander of its armed forces.

Despite the ongoing pressures of mopping up various KNIL holdouts, be it the Borneo Republic, emerging tensions with the Philipines and the fact they had to rebuild their nation from the ground up, did not want Pinang to remain. It saw it as a holdover of the colonial power they had just expelled. It was thus when in late 1976 the Borneo Republic fell, leading to the slaughter of all its Dutch people, Chinese and KNIL soldiers. It showed what the Vrystaat could expect if it would give in.

==== '''Gerik corridor''' ====

Instantly after declaring its independence on the 3rd of May 1975, the military forces of the Vrystaat were attacked by the Soenda. The attacks started on the 5th of January when a squadron of Soenda fighters, attempted a raid upon Willemshaven. The radars of the Vrystaat detected them and the raid was intercepted by the air patrols of the Vrystaat. It was tho only the beginning and at the same time, Soendanese infantry supported by armour and artillery took the town of Gerik, a critical road junction, that led to Pinang her heartland. It in other words meant that unless the tunnels were blown, something that the KNIL could not risk, the Soendanese needed to be stopped.

==== '''Battle of Gerik''' ====

With Gerik being taken, the road towards Vriesstad and Willemshaven being in essence open, the Vrystaat responded rapidly. With almost immediate haste the '''58th Battalion “Huzaren van Bernard”''', under the command of '''Colonel van Veen''' was deployed towards Gerik. This battalion consists of nearly 34 armored cannons, and 70 armored vehicles with a total of 930 soldiers. These soldiers were sent and within hours reached the edges of Gerik and almost immediately were attacked by Soendanese artillery.

This forced the 58th Battalion to remain at the edges, where they quickly established a defensive perimeter, to ensure that the Soenda could not push into the heartland of Pinang. It was this tho that almost immediately came under attack from Soenda artillery, this was resisted which, was followed by an infantry attack that was repelled. It was now as the night was setting that the Colonel decided to attack the town and send in a company, this company moving throughout the jungle to attack the Soendanese from the side, catching them off guard and laying waste to them. It was however rapidly almost within minutes that the Soendanese responded, this tho was a distraction and the remainder of the Battalion attacked, using fighter aircraft to deal with the Soendanese fighters. [[File:Neushoorn A8 klein.jpg|thumb|A Neushoorn A8 moving into Gerik during the third day of the battle. ]]Fighting continued at an intense pace but in the end, the 58th battalion was able to push the Soendanese out. It was after an entire night of fighting, followed by an entire day that the Vrystaat had managed to secure the town. It was then that the town was almost immediately attacked by Soenda artillery, under the constant barrages the troops of the 58th Battalion dug in to ensure they would not lose this town again. It was this constant barrage that cost the 58th battalion dearly, despite the losses, and the constant attacks by the Soendanese the Vrystaat her soldiers managed to hold the town. They held the town for over an entire week, a week that saw the town being destroyed, but was long enough for reinforcements to come, for the Vrystaat to have been able to properly repel the other incursions by Soenda. It was during this week that the hundreds of thousands of refugees that had been assembled in Gerik were able to flee into the Pinang heartland.

It was thus that in the end, Soenda withdrew her forces, as it was that it started her larger offensive against Pinang. An offensive that was hampered due to the scars of the war, the fact that they were still clearing out the other islands and the Philipines were causing trouble.

It was thus that the frontier war started, a conflict that would shape the region for decades to come.

[[File:Pinang fighter jets taking off.png|thumb|A pair of Koolhoven ZJ-71's taking of during the frontier war, these aircraft proved to vital in ensuring Pinang survival. ]]