Friesland Battalion

On 16 September 1945, the 1-9 R.I. was formed in Fochteloo from Frisian members of the Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten, the combined armed Dutch resistance organizations during World War II.

[1] The battalion was under the command of lieutenant colonel E. Wiersma[2] and was sent to Wokingham in the United Kingdom for training and equipment;[3] they also received basic Malay language lessons.

[3] On 29 March 1946, the Friesland Battalion landed in Batavia as part of V-Brigade and was given garrison duties in the Bandung-Cimahi area.

On 27 April the battalion was recalled to the Netherlands and in July 1948 the men returned home from Batavia onboard the Zuiderkruis.

[2] The veterans of 1-9 R.I. were first honored on 20 April 1985 when Queen's commissioner Hans Wiegel awarded them the Resistance Memorial Cross.

Lieutenant general P.L.G. Doorman (center-right, just inside frame) speaks to a crew member of a captured Japanese Type 89 I-Go medium tank during a visit to the Friesland Battalion in Cimahi, September 1946.