Re: U.S. naval guns to Dutch

>The empty gun deck is not near the 6-inch guns (southwest outside the fort itself) but on the other side, inside the fort (north) - several hunderds meters downstream close to the confluence of both rivers. It has a far better shot at the mouth of the river. I would say it was probably the best place to fire in a straight line towards the ocean, over the last stretch of the combined Suriname and Commewijne rivers. Or maybe it was the site of some searchlight or fire direction apparatus?<

This emplacement’s location, within the old fort and much closer to the water, has me more and more convinced it is an older generation gun emplacement, the concrete hinting it was either late muzzleloading or early breechloading era. That rearward circular arc on the very rightmost (rearmost) portion of the concrete block looks to me to be appropriate for an old-fashioned gun carriage. Nothing on this structure appears remotely relevant to a searchlight shelter or fire control station.

>There were also two guns at Padang, see my earlier post: 14 plus 2 is 16, 5 outside Java and 11 on Java, makes at least 16.<

Yes, you did state two at Padang and I completely forgot that. Sorry.

>120 guns in total divided by, say 4 each, would need just 30 vessels to distribute. How many ships were under Dutch flags in 41?<

The actual number is 140 guns when one totals the ex-USN 4-inch and 3-inch BL guns offered for sale. In my photocopy of the letter, the number of Mark III 3-inch guns appears to be 60, the identical number for the Mark IX 4-inch guns, but Jan has a more legible copy, and the number thereon is clearly 80, so actually 140 guns in toto of these two calibers.

>Curaçao at least had the 7.5-inch guns from British stocks. Of the 7 guns of that cailbre, 3 went to Curaçao, 3 to Aruba, but number 7?<

I would suppose the seventh gun was a spare, being that by WWII, the British 7.5-inch gun was an older type and rather rare. The refineries at these two islands were vital, if only considering the number of shellings by U-boats during certain phases of the German submarine campaign there.