WIX Archives

Dare I mention Biak again?!!!!

Posted by Ron Henry on Tue Jan 15, 2002 02:10:38 PM

In mid-Dec, 2001, soon after finding this fascinating site, I made my first posting. It asked about B-24s at Biak and was purely to satisfy my curiosity about something that had puzzled me for many years.

When I posted the question, I new that Biak lies in territory that is now part of Indonesia. At the same time I was subconsciously aware that much of today's Indonesia had been a Dutch colony even in post-WW2 times.

The current issue of Air Enthusiast has a very interesting article on the Netherlands Navy's (NN) experiences with the large Martin PBM-5A Mariner amphibian. They bought 17 in 1954-55 (including 1 spares ship). Why did they buy them? To patrol their sole remaining Pacific territory (having handed the remainder over to Indonesia in 1949)- Netherlands New Guinea (NNG) i.e. the western half of the very large island of New Guinea (now the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya). Where did they base the aircraft? At several airfields, including Biak !! In fact, Biak may have been the local NN HQ.

Holland pulled out of NNG as late as Oct 15, 1962. It occurs to me that the personnel at Biak would have probably included young national servicemen aged under 20. Therefore, today, in Holland, there is probably a sizeable number of 60+ year-olds who have a good deal of knowledge of what used to be there, most likely including photographs. Perhaps Cees would like to comment on this theory?

Incidentally, the NN's experience with the Mariner was really unhappy. Six aircraft were lost in accidents, of which 5 were fatal. After the 6th accident (Dec 16, 1959), it was immediately retired from service.

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