Adrianus Johannes Lemmens

Adrianus Johannes Lemmens (Hatert, 24 March 1904 - Hengelo, 27 June 1990) was a Dutch Chief engineer with the K.P.M. Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (Royal Merchant Navy) and on 24 October 1953 decorated with the Dutch War Commemorative Cross or War Cross (Oorlogsherinneringkruis met gespen) with the clasp for general War service and the clasp for special War duties for his bravery during the Battle of the Java Sea (1941-1942).
Biography
Family
Lemmens was born as son of Johannes Gerardus Lemmens and Catharina Maria Manders. Married first in Surabaya on 6 February 1929 (divorced Batavia Dutch East Indies on 17 September 1929) to Dolly Gerarda Bogaardt, he later married in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, on 7 November 1929 Gertruda Catharina Geutjes. They returned shortly thereafter to Surabaya in the Dutch East Indies now Indonesia. Three children were born from the second marriage.
Career
Lemmens received his exam of second engineer in April 1932. In this rank he served from 5 June 1940 until 2 January 1942 on board of the Van Overstraten, Van Cloon and the Janssens. At the end of 1941 he was sailing officially as 2nd Engineer but replaced the Chief Engineer on the K.P.M. ship Janssens from Surabaya to Singapore with torpedo's for the Dutch submarines, which together with the British and Australian ships was involved in protecting Singapore from the threat of bombardment by the Japanese planes. During that time the Dutch Navy due to their shortage in their own ships rented merchant navy ships of which the Janssens was one. Lemmens was on board of the Janssens from 5 June 1940 till 2 January 1942 and then on the S.S Liran until 1 March 1942. The S.S. Liran had originally been a Hungarian owned ship ( when it was named s.s. Nuygat) but was in 1941 confiscated by the Dutch Government.
On board of the Janssens there were, further to the crew, also a survivor of a Dutch submarine sunk in the Gulf of Siam and survivors of the British torpedo ships, the flagship Prince of Wales and the Repulse. Afterwards the crew and the survivors safely returned to Surabaya. Lemmens received in 1953 for his service on board of the Janssens the Dutch War Commemorative Cross with two clasps. On 7th December 1942 , the same day as the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Netherlands declared war to Japan and this marks the start of the Dutch East Indies campaign. In February 1942 the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the islands of Sumatra and Java which were a part of the Dutch East Indies. They first rounded up all the man in the East of Java, where Lemmens and his family lived, to transport them to (labour or POW) camps or many were thrown in Surabaya in pigbaskets into the sea. During the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies Lemmens was first interred in Camp Kesilir in East Java as the family lived in Malang, East Java. Lemmens was then taken by train to the prison BanyuBiru on Central Java, followed by train and transport by ship to Changi Prison near Singapore and a camp on Devil's island (Pulu Damer) near Singapore. At Devil's Island near Singapore prisoners were forced to dig a dock for the Japanese. Prisoners sabotaged this project by putting sugar into the cement which made it brittle. Lemmens survived the war and was freed by a Gurkha regiment in August 1945 after the capitulation by Emperor Hirohito of Japan.
In January 1946 Lemmens was reunited with his wife and children, all of whom had survived imprisonment in the prison Banjoe Biroe (BanyuBiru) in Mid Java and were also freed by a Gurkha regiment. Due to the fact that the war with Japan finished on 15 August 1945 and the Indonesians started a civil war (War of Independence) two days later on 17 August 1945 the family remained for security reasons in the prison Banjoe Biroe until December 1945. At this time they were taken by a convoy of a Gurkha regiment under the protection of accompanying British planes to the nearest harbour town of Semarang in Mid Java. Eventually the family was taken by the British on which Prince Philip served as a Naval officer from Semarang to Singapore. It was in the streets of Singapore that the reunion between Lemmens and his family took place, when by chance he asked for directions from a random person who turned out to be, in fact, his eldest son.
Decoration
Lemmens was decorated on 24 October 1953 with The War Commemorative Cross or War Cross (Oorlogsherinneringkruis met gespen) with the clasp for general War service and the clasp for special War duties for his bravery during the Battle of the Java Sea in 1941 and 1942.
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