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TIME Correspondent Robert Sherrod last week cabled from Melbourne this account of how the Dutchmen of Java died fighting...
When the history of War II is written, that page belonging to the indomitable Dutch should be illuminated with the blood of heroes. For a thousand years free men should stand and uncover whenever the Battle of Java is mentioned. They never had a chance, those Dutchmen, but they freely gave their lives in the hope that others might have a chance...
Throughout Australia the Dutch are revered, especially by the Americans. The opinion is unanimous that the Dutchmen of Java fought as bravely as the Spartans at Thermopylae or the Texans in the Alamo. "I'll fight the man who says anything against the Dutch," drawls a fierce little towheaded Kentucky mountaineer who piloted a big bomber during the Battle of Java...
...young lieutenant not long out of Yale, a Flying Fortress bombardier, spoke up: "Let me tell you a story. After we left Java and landed at an airport in the north of Australia, we heard a single plane coming in at midnight. There was a hell of a crash as an old box-kite biplane zoomed crazily and nearly nosed over. We rushed out and there was an old Curtiss-God knows what model, but it must have been early experimental-smashed badly. None of us would have been allowed to fly it, let alone fight in it. Under...
...There was a Dutchman up in Broome, where the Japs killed so many civilians," said a captain. "This Dutchman had escaped from Java. During that surprise attack, which caught us on the ground without anti-aircraft or pursuit, the Dutchman ran out to one of the Fortresses and wrenched a 30-calibre machine gun out of it. He started firing like mad, and damned if he didn't shoot one down. You know, it's a hellish job even to hold a machine gun. This Dutchman had held it by the barrel, which was almost...