I’ve chosen the emblem of Regiment Van Heutsz for my avatar because my grandfather served in the Regiment Van Heutsz during the Korean War. Regiment Van Heutsz was named after Lieutenant-General Johannes Benedictus Van Heutsz.

The Korean War started on the 25th of June 1950. There were 16225 Dutch volunteers but only 3148 of them were accepted and sent to Korea because of the high selection standards. They were all send to Regiment Van Heutsz and became a part of the Netherlands Detachment United Nations. The NDVN was established on 15 October 1950. Regiment Van Heutsz was assigned to the American 2nd Infantry Division, 38th Infantry Regiment.

The first detachment consisted of 636 men and was sent to Korea on the 26th of October. Because they were assigned to an American Division, they would be organised and equipped in an American way. The UN command decided that the training period of the NDVN had to be reduced to 10 days which wasn’t long enough to get used to the American tactics, equipment and operating within an American unit. The first detachment had to train themselves. 100 ROKS (Republic of Korea Soldiers) were assigned to the Dutch battalion but that wasn’t enough to fill up the gap. Most of the Dutch soldiers had already experience with fighting guerrillas in Indonesia.

On the 26th of December 1950, the battalion got its first task. Their task was to secure the main supply root between Chunju and Hamchang. In the first week of 1951, the 2nd Infantry Division was ordered to defend the area around Wonju and Hoengsong. The defence stellages of the 2nd division collapsed under enemy pressure and the division had to retreat to the south of Wonju. On the 5th of January 1951, the Dutch battalion covered the retreat. The battalion continued the patrols to gather information on enemy troops. The Allies suffered many casualties in Massacre Valley and had to retreat to Hoengsong. The Dutch battalion had to clear the way back and had to cover the retreating Allied soldiers. The battalion succeeded but with many casualties.

After the retreat, the command post of the Dutch battalion at Hoengsong was attacked by Chinese with South-Korean uniforms. 17 men were killed and 37 were heavily wounded. The battalion commander, Luitenant Colonel Den Ouden, was also killed at Hoengsong. The battalion retreated to Wonju but at Wonju there was no time for recovery or rest. Wonju couldn’t fall in enemy hands. The Dutch battalion consisted of only 500 men at this time. They were ordered to attack Hill 325. After a few tries they succeeded.

The Dutch battalion was temporarily assigned to the 28th Infantry Regiment and had to retreat on the 28th of April across the Soyang river to Hongchon. Again the Dutch battalion was ordered to cover the retreat. They had to march 2 days in the mountains without any food before they could find the 28th Infantry Regiment.

The battalion was again assigned to the 38th Infantry Regiment and participated with the march to Inje. During this march, the Dutch battalion was reinforced with a new detachment. At Inje, the 2nd Division had a heavy battle. The Dutch battalion captured Hill 549 and defeated 3 heavy Chinese attacks. Inje was a big victory for the 2nd division.

The Dutch battalion was placed in reserve for a long period. After that they took part in capturing in Hill 1179. On the 6th of August, the battalion was relieved and they were again put in the division reserve. The first detachment went home, were replaced and a new battalion was formed. The Dutch battalion had a important share in capturing Heartbreak Ridge. They attacked hill 605 and hill 905 and they gave fire supports to American units.

Between December 1951 and April 1952, the battalion was used in the Iron Triangle. They succeeded in making POW`s at Leuringschanshill and Mausamahil. After that they had to guard a POW camp at the island Kojedo. They returned to the Iron Triangle in August 1952. The sector of the 38th Infantry Regiment was relatively quiet. On the 7th of April they were relieved by the 29th British Brigade and went in reserve at Tokchong.

On the 14th of July, Dutch volunteers again went to the Iron Triangle. 5 Chinese armies had broken through the Allied defences at Kumsong. The Dutch battalion was used in defending hill 340 and defeated a heavy enemy attack.

The Dutch battalion was one of the last units to leave Korea in November 1954.





http://www.korean-war.com/netherlands.html



I also have some personal stories from magazines about the Dutch battalion in Korea. If someone is interested I will post them.

Remy

Fascinating story about an outfit that deserves attention.

Thank you for sharing that with us.

Hi, Remy. There you are! We lost your Unit History post during the CyberStorm in November. How would you like to re-post this in the thread that still sits there:

http://www.wildbillguarnere.com/forums/ind...t=ST&f=40&t=712

Yours is one of many good ones we lost. Nice to see you again. BK

I'd really like to read those, nice detailed story behind the avatar.

Always great to find out about dutch divisions.

Thank you very much for sharing this with use Remy. I like your avatar.

All the best,

Morgy

Good to see you back here, Remy!

Looking forward to your excellent posts!

Mark

Thanks everyone!




I`ve tried to translate a story about Peet van Haalem during the Korean War. I got his story from "De Opmaat". I know it`s very hard to read. Sorry about that.

Peet van Haalem is sitting on a Korean mountain top in 1953. In the trenches and bunkers of Stinky Hill. He can already look back at a great war past. In 1945 he was in the German Wuppertal in a prison. He was waiting for his death penalty for stealing food from the Wehrmacht. When Wuppertal gets captured by the Americans, Peet escapes his fate. His liberation is there when a black American soldier opens his cell door. He enlists for Indies(?) as a Para commando. After years of contra guerrilla activities he returns to the Netherlands. There he was court-martialled on ground of accusation that he killed 3 high placed members, after they attacked him, of the Soekarno-government with a flamethrower in Kalijaran during the Second Political Action. They sentenced him to 6 years. He escaped his sentence but couldn’t get used to Netherlands in construction. He had become a soldier who could only function during wartime. That’s why he voluntarily went to Korea. He was a tough fighter who brushed his teeth with whiskey!

Peet van Haalem: “It was officially called hill 340. But everybody called it Stinky Hill because there were corpses of Chinese and North-Koreans everywhere. In front of you there were minefields and barbed wire barricades(?). The bunker consisted of a pile of sandbags and the roof consisted of a few logs and on top of it, a few sandbags. We made those ourselves. A shooting hole where you could lie in front of with a machine gun. That was everything.”

In front of the NDVN (Netherlands Detachment United Nations) on Stinky Hill were the Chinese, who didn’t have lack of manpower to start an offensive. To know when such an offensive could take place, there were listening posts(?) in the front area. Those posts were always manned by volunteers. Off course was Peet van Haalem most of the time one of those volunteers.

Van Haalem: “You are listening in front of your own stellage(?) behind a hill. Not with microphones, just keep your ears wide open. We heard the Chinese digging holes with pickaxes. Probably for foxholes. That’s a sign that an offensive is about to take place. They will be sitting in their foxholes when their artillery starts firing. When I passed the wire barricades(?) and the Friese Ruiters returned to our stellage(?), I told them through the field telephone what I’ve heard.
“Ah, that’s not true” they said
“That’s just a burp gun band (It was named that after a full automatic Russian/Chinese weapon that made a light burp-sound -red). You shouldn’t pay any attention to it. It’s just a small Chinese unit.”
The staff of command should have listened better to Peter van Haalem.

Like predicted by Peet van Haalem a Chinese offensive started. The artillery began firing ruthlessly on the stellages(?) of the Dutch detachment. The Chinese started with their massive attack, covered by their artillery. First scarcely armed Chinese troops ran through the mine fields and barbed wire. Their task is to clear a passage through the defence line by sacrificing their own lives. Such a kamikaze-attack breaks the line of mines and barbed wire and than there flows a, with old fashioned trumpet music, unstoppable waterfall, the infantry, armed with burp guns and Bangalore torpedoes across the Dutch stellages(?). Corporal Peet van Haalem and his unit had found cover in a bunker from the artillery.

Van Haalem: “There was heavy artillery fire and then all the sudden it was quiet, Then we heard the Chinese speak to each other and we knew they were on top of our bunker”. The Chinese didn’t know that Peet van Haalem and 12 men would be in that bunker. The tension was enormous.”

Peet van Haalem: “Most of the boys stayed quiet. They were all nervous but they kept sitting calm with a blank stare. Those boys had just arrived in Korea. One boy hang around me. He began praying and kissing. “We are going to die, we are going to die” he kept saying. And: O…. please help me, help me!”. You can’t have that because when the Chinese hear that you will lose. That’s why I gave him hard hit with the butt-end of my rifle to get him unconscious. He stayed unconscious for 3 days and it seemed that I had given him a jaw fracture. Our lieutenant, who was in charge, escaped to the last line. We were betrayed by him.” It was up to Peet van Halen to rescue his men from the dead. “I had requested artillery on our own bunker with the sound power (field telephone)”. I wanted to have incoming VT-shells that explodes just before they hit the ground. You could hear the shells whistling. They exploded above the bunker. The Chinese on the bunker were killed by the artillery. After the firing had stopped, you could only find heads and legs of the Chinese.” Thanks to Peet van Haalem, the men in the bunker weren’t killed. 1200 ahells were fired on Stinky Hill in 3 minutes. It became quiet. But not for long.

Van Haalem: “When the firing had stopped, a troop came up out of a trench with American uniforms. They looked like Koreans so I thought: ROK`s? I yelled: “Who’s there? Password?” They didn’t respond. I didn’t trust it. You know what, I thought, I’m going to shoot over their heads. Then I realised: They were Chinese!” With his training in Indies(?), he knew how to defeat this attack.

Peet van Haalem: “I thought: the flamethrower! I told the boys, who were sitting in the bunker with their stenguns and their point 50`s behind the shooting holes to wait. Peeter van Haalem took the flamethrower that was in the bunker. “The Chinese came closer and had Bangalore torpedoes around their necks to destroy our bunker. I sprayed a fireball in the trench. The flame changes to a fire ball in the trench. The flames can`t spread. Then everything exploded. The fire made the Bangalore torpedoes explode. That’s when you see heads roll. Everything went sky-high. Some of them could run away burning. Screaming and explosions. Attack defeated, the Chinese were gone. What was found by Peet van Haalem after the Chinese attack were mutilated corpses.

Van Haalem: “There was a dead man lying in the trench. A big guy with a bald head. We couldn’t move safely through the trench because he was blocking the way. I said to the boys: “Take a shovel and cut him in two, so we can throw him out of the trench and roll him of the mountain.” What else can you do? You were sick because of all the corpses. There was a terrible smell but you got used to it. “I will begin” I said to the boys. I hit his head off with a few hits. The boys did the rest.”

While Peet van Haalem took command and defeated the Chinese, the lieutenant ran off. Peet van Haalem didn’t like that. He felt betrayed by his direct superiors.

Van Haalem: “Later, after the attack, the lieutenant reported in. He asked: “How was it? How was the attack?” I took a carbine and wanted to kill him. Luckily my boys struck the carbine out of my hands. You aren’t a human at that point. Later you think, what am I doing? But… you just aren’t supposed to walk away if you are a commander. It was the second time he did this. They wanted to court-martial me for threatening an officer. But that never happened. They did report it to the captain. I also went to the captain. He was still sleeping on his bed. Nice… on a kilometre distance from the front with a warm stove. He hit him on his face! I pulled of his stripes and threw them in his face. They had just let you down. They could have send reinforcements. I thought that and so did the boys. All of them!”But the case takes a surprisingly turn. Peet van Haalem gets promoted to sergeant. He already was sergeant once but he was degraded to corporal. He is probably the only soldier that was promoted in spite of threatening a direct superior. His cold-blooded behaviour, courage and professionalism were recognized by the military machine. In the future, he would be in the military court often. A defending counsel described him well: “See him, the adventurer. Many officers could set an example of him.”

This is the last part about Peet van Haalem.

Peet van Haalem: “We were standing on a front post at Stinky Hill. Dutch patrols went by here to get information about the Chinese stellages(?). Lieutenant Douma of B-company left for a night patrol”. “Peet we are going to take a look”. I still hear him saying that. The patrol left and we were in the bunker. Suddenly I heard in a far distance: “Help, help!” I walked outside to the post of the Friese Ruiter. “Do you hear something?” I heard it again: “Help, help!” Someone else said: “Yes, I heard something.”
“Quick volunteers!” I yelled.
“I’m going with you.” Immediately Bart Beckers volunteered. It was obvious that the patrol of lieutenant Dourma got in trouble. There we found lieutenant Dourma. A headshot. He was killed. The rest was also dead. Only two men of the ambushed patrol had survived. One was heavily wounded, he wouldn’t survive. The legs of the other boy were only attached to his limb by strings. That boy was screaming. He looked at me like a loyal dog. “What took you so long” he said. I pulled that big guy on my shoulders, turned around and walked back to our stellage(?) over a bank of a sawa. I did that close to the Chinese stellages(?). I looked right in their machine guns when I turned around. They are going to kill me I thought. They didn’t fired a shot. I thought that was damned sportsmanlike(?). We never fired on them when they were helping their wounded from the front. The boy lost both his legs. After the truce I cleared mines together with the Chinese. It was a Chinese student battalion from Shanghai. It seemed that they had respect for me. They apparently knew me though their viewers (?). I’m kind of big.” Or is that because of the hardness and courage of the natural born killer Peet van Haalem.

Remy