November 10th. 1945
Reserve-captain Jack Boer – born Jacobus Lambertus Boer on May 28th 1911 in Rotterdam – of the Koninklijk Nederlandsch Indisch Leger
(KNIL / Royal Dutch East Indies Army) from 04:00 hours onwards liberates 2.384 Dutch and Dutch-East-Indies / Eurasian prisonners from the Kalisosok-prison at the Werfstraat in Surabaya.
All of the about 200 guards are being neutralized (killed), one British Gurkha ally is killed in Action (KIA).
He executes this action with ten British Gurkha soldiers who had been made available to him by the British Army and were armed with handguns, handgranates and a dilapidated British Stuart M3A1-tank.
A couple of weeks before, on October 25th in the harbour at Tandjung Perak Britsish Brigadier George Mallaby came ashore; on October 30th he was killed at the "Red bridge" (Jembatan Merah) in Surabaya. He inspected the city by car, landed into an uproar and perished upon the explosion of his car.
Saucy detail is that he had just agreed upon a truce in the Internatio building at the Willemsplein with Hatta en Soekarno…
The murder of Mallaby, commander of the 49th Indian Infantry Brigade, did not leave the Britsh allied command untouched. His successor, general Robert Mansergh, on November 9th 1945 made an ultimatum: before 06.00 hours the next day the Indonesian insurgent battlegroups in Soerabaja had to have laid down their arms, all hostages freeed and the Indonesian leaders surrendered. At that time 2.384 Dutchmen and Dutch Eurasians already remained at the Werfstraat prison in Surabaya as hostages.
At that time Jack Boer worked for the "Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij" (BPM) – a predeseccor of Shell – in aid of the fuel supply og the Dutch fleet at the Surabaya Navalbase. But he also was a reserve-officer of the Koninklijk Nederlandsch Indisch Leger (KNIL / Royal Dutch East Indies Army).
Voluntarily he made himself available as translator/guide for a platoon of Gurkha’s in order to join the siege of the Werfstraat prison at his own peril. Danger was imminent because the insurgent Indonesian battlegroups would kill the Dutch and Dutch-East-Indian (Eurasian) hostages. Dressed in a British Army uniform KNIL reserve captain Jack Boer joined the action.
Who were at the "Werfstraatgevangenis" (Werfstraat Prison)?
On or around October 15th 1945 amongst others the Dutch and Dutch Eurasians at the colonial Simpang Society Club had ben aprehended and transferred to this prison. Three and a half weeks later the Ambonesian Pattiradjawane, a guard of the prison, came to tell that the plan was to poison the Dutch with arsenic and afterwards burn the Werfstraat prison to the ground. The next day still November 10th, Jack Boer and his men, after an armed skirmish with the guards, liberated the innocent Dutch internees from the prison. who had been cramped into one men cells with sometimes15 of them.
Jack took them to Tandjong Perak harbour.
This took place in the night in which according to the records of , the British colonel Lewis H.O. Pugh – deputy commander of the 49th Indian Infantry Brigade – the Indonesian radio: "[…] broadcast ceaselessly a call to wage total war. They threatened the death of any prisoners captured […]".
Meanwhile Jack Boer was wanted by the Indonesians for this rescue action with an amount of 10.000 guilders on his head !
The British ultimatum by general Mansergh still remained unaswered, upon which it took the British five weeks to break the Indonesian resistance in Surabaya.
About 15.000 Indonesian did not live to tell. About four hundred British military got either wounded or were killed.
The rescue action at the Werfstraat prison turned out to have become the anacrusis for a battle in Surabaya, in which ships were sunk and harbour installations destroyed. The British occupation forces on Java – there were hardly any Dutch military personnel about - had under estimated the rebels who had also murdered Brigadier Mallaby.
My father Eduard Maximiliaan Schell ( * 16-05-1925 - + 31-05-2007) was one of the Dutch-East-Indies / Eurasian prisonners who were liberated from the Werfstraat prison that November 10th. 1945 by the ten British Gurkha soldiers led by Reserve captain Jack Boer.soldiers led by captain Boer, I wouldn't have been here at all.
If it weren't for this action by these ten British Gurkha
I owe my very existence to these men.
Where governments lack in gratitude and respect towards their fighting forces and citizens in general, it is up to the individual to say thank you.
For also the Dutch government did not acknowledge the rescue action in Surabaya on November 10th 1945 ever occured !
It seems governments the world over are of the same kind.
So eventhough my dad didn't manage to write his book about his experience with these wonderful soldiers before he passed away in 2007, I will 65 years after this event took place, grab the opportunity and say thank you to the bravest of the brave instead.
, it is early in the morning and very tumultuous in Surabaya.