Dutch Coast Defense Ship Admiral Kleurendrop, October 1940

[nönöbär]

Dutch Coast Defense Ship Admiral Kleurendrop, October 1940

The Escape
The Admiral Kleurendrop lay in Batavia harbor, her hull scarred from the recent battle in the Java Sea. The Dutch crew, weary and battle-worn, scrambled to make repairs, their minds racing as they knew the Japanese were closing in on the city.
Lieutenant Jan van der Meer stood on the bridge, his eyes scanning the harbor for any signs of enemy activity. The air was thick with tension. The city was on the brink of falling into Japanese hands.
"Captain, we're almost ready," reported the chief engineer, his voice barely audible over the din of the ship's machinery.
"Good," the captain replied. "We have to move now. The Japanese are expected to land within the hour."
The ship's engines roared to life, and the Admiral Kleurendrop began to slowly maneuver out of the harbor. As they passed the docks, van der Meer could see the panic in the eyes of the civilians. Many were fleeing the city, their belongings piled high on carts.
Just as they were about to clear the harbor, a deafening explosion rocked the city. The Japanese had begun their bombardment. The Admiral Kleurendrop shuddered as shrapnel rained down around them.
"Increase speed!" the captain ordered.
The ship surged forward, leaving a trail of white foam in its wake. The Japanese planes swooped down, their guns blazing. The Admiral Kleurendrop dodged and weaved, the air filled with the sound of gunfire and explosions.
A near miss sent a shockwave through the ship, knocking van der Meer to the deck. He scrambled to his feet, his heart pounding in his chest. He could see the Japanese landing craft approaching the shore.
"We have to hurry," he shouted, his voice barely audible over the din of battle.
The ship raced towards the open sea, the Japanese planes hot on their heels. A bomb exploded nearby, sending a geyser of water into the air. The Admiral Kleurendrop shuddered, but it held.
As they finally escaped the range of the Japanese guns, van der Meer let out a sigh of relief. They had made it. The Admiral Kleurendrop was safe. But the battle was far from over. The Japanese were closing in on the Dutch East Indies, and the fight for survival had only just begun.


The ship

In the early 1930s, the Dutch Navy was looking for ways to modernize its fleet. With the focus on the Dutch East Indies, a balanced fleet of heavy ships like battlecruisers and smaller vessels like destroyers and coast defense ship was required.

Getting in contact with German shipbuilders and constructors, designs for various ships were proposed. With the huge distances covered in the Dutch East Indies, the fuel saving diesel propulsion was of a special interest of the Dutch Navy as it opened more tactical options for a Dutch fleet in South East Asia.

While almost all of those planned designs were not completed because of the outbreak of WW2, the first project for a small, diesel powered coast defense ship was.

Laid down at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard in Schiedam in 1935, the ship was finally launched on September 24, 1936 and commissioned as "Admiral Kleurendrop" on March 04, 1938. Heavy influenced by the German Panzerschiff designs, it had much visible similarities with those.

Equipped with a single 11" triple turret and two 4.1" twin guns, several light AA guns completed the armament. With its diesel engines, the ship was able to ail 18kn but had a range of over 10.800 miles.

After sea trials and training, the ship started its transfer to the Dutch East Indies where it did arrive in Batavia on August 12. 1939. In the following year, the Admiral Kleurendrop was either stationed in Batavia or Surabaya, changing its location every few weeks. On its way along the north coast of Java, the crew trained to camouflage the ship with trees, nets etc at the shoreline.

The start of WW2 showed that the ship did not had a sufficient AA protection with only two guns, therefore, four additional mounts of triple 2cm guns were added during a stay on Surabaya.  When the Japanese forces started their attack on South-East Asia in late 1941, it soon got obvious that the Dutch East Indies would come into the focus of Japan as well.

When the Battle of the Java Sea took place, the Admiral Kleurendrop was in Batavia for repairs. Within 24 hours, the ship was brought into a state that it could leave the port and it just escaped before the Japanese landing force arrived. While on its way to the southern coast of Java, the ship was attacked by Japanese planes three times, but no hit was scored on it. As the Japanese forces were able to conquer Java within a few days, it was decided to save the ship and it sailed to toe Cocos Islands. There, it was able to damage and push away a Japanese submarine when it was bombarded the island in May 1942.

In July 1942, the Admiral Kleurendrop arrived in Perth for repairs and maintenance. The ship was then send to Darwin to protect the harbor from a potential Japanese attack as the ship was not suitable for any offensive operations. Therefore, the ship stayed in Darwin.

After the war, the ship was to be send back to Batavia. Leaving Darwin on October 3rd 1945, the ship never arrived at its destinations. Best guesses were that the ship run into a mine, however there were rumors that a camouflaged warship was seen on various locations in the Indonesian islands in the mid 1950s.

The model

This model was build using a lot of stuff from my spare part box, plus some additional 3D prints. The hull of the model consists of the box and stern section of a Matchbox Admiral Graf Spee model. The superstructure is a 3d printed command tower of the Admiral Graf Spee, scaled down a bit. The main guns and the backward superstructure are 3D printed as well. AA guns, boats, funnel and other parts come from the spare part box.

Some PE parts and crew were added and the model was painted with Revell Aqua, in a color scheme similar to the Dutch cruiser De Ruyter.

[Rick Lowe]

Nice to see this one completed, and the back story is good, too. 

[NARSES2]

Nice to see this one completed, and the back story is good, too. 

It is indeed   

[Captain Canada]

She looks amazing ! Such a cool looking ship. I like the idea. Nice little read too ! Would have been nice of her to drop a couple shells on the Japanese on the way out to sea tho......