After the Japanese occupied the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) in early 1942, Army, navy and civil airline (KLM) crews escaped and reassembled in Australia. As few ground staff had escaped the NEI, the four squadrons, that were gradually formed, were completed by Australian personnel and so designated as joint RAAF/NEI formations. Initially many of the military planes ended up at either Archerfield airfield in Brisbane or Melbourne. All of their stores and equipment were supplied under lease contracts by the United States of America.
In the end two combat squadrons and some Transport sections were formed in Australia during WWII.
NEI TRANSPORT SQUADRONS
NEI-TSB, NEI-TSM, 1 NEI- Transport Squadron, and 19 (NEI) Transport Squadron
Author Peter Dunn OAM
Peter James Dunn OAM is an Australian historian who specialises in researching all aspects of military operations, training, and exercises that occurred in Australia during the Second World War. Dunn is particularly interested in researching wartime military aircraft losses and, in 2012, was responsible for identifying an unknown aircraft wreck off Magnetic Island as being that of a Curtiss-Wright CW-22 that had ditched in 1943. As part of the Australia Day 2020 Honours List, Dunn was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia “for service to community history”.
