In 1940, six weeks before WW2 started, I joined the Dutch Navy at the tender age of 17. The ship I was assigned to took the Dutch Royal Family to England and we continued to Canada for training.I served on board several submarines, lost 3 ships and was lucky to survive. In 1942 we were in the port of Surabaya with several British and American destroyers when we were attacked by the Japanese. A mate and me ran ashore and jumped in an old boiler in one of the sheds on the wharf. We were in there for several hours while all hell broke loose. Finally all went quiet and when we emerged, everything around us was destroyed, including the shed where our boiler stood. We started walking and found a local man who guided us to a Marine post, several kilometres inland where we found many people, including Americans, New Zealanders, Australian and English Navy personnel as well as civilians, all trying to escape from the advancing Japanese.We finished up highjacking a train to take us to another port where a number of cargo ships and tankers lay in the harbour. We split into six groups, boarded six vessels and sailed early one morning, each ship heading for a different destination, our ship was bound for Australia. We were all hoping to evade the Japanese but by midday we were spotted by Japanese planes and we knew it would only be a matter of time before their destroyers came after us. We already knew that two of our fleet had been torpedoed and sunk and sure enough, two hours later we heard the boom of warships behind us. The captain shut down the engines and we prayed silently while waiting for them to spot us.

And then a miracle happened.

It was 2 o'clock on a beautiful afternoon and for no apparent reason a fog rose up from the water. We stared in disbelief as it rose thicker and higher enabling us to steam ahead at full speed without being seen. When the fog finally lifted we could see the coast of Australia which was greeted with a mighty roar from all on board. When we arrived in Fremantle we learned that ours was the only ship that had made it. We were a motley crew, without uniforms or papers or possessions. We were interviewed by the authorities who gave us some money to buy food. My mate and me got a cab to Perth and the taxi driver dropped us off at a restaurant near the railway station where we ordered two steaks each, we hadn't had a decent meal for days.

In the restaurant we met two Australian girls in Air Force uniform, one of whom became my wife, but that's another story..........Arie