| Original Message |
nuyt (no login)
Posted Feb 2, 2008 12:04 AM
Hi Nelson,
I have no definite answers to your questiosn but these bits and pieces might help:
In Suriname around the mouth of the same river there were at least two costal batteries during WW2.
1 Fort Nieuw Amsterdam, 6inch:
This fort on the corner of Suriname and Commewijne rivers still has the four wartime Bethlehem guns: http://www.dutchfleet.net/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=6955
At the fort I found a platform that may have been a 7 inch gun position. The concrete deck was turned into a People's open air theatre by the Suriname Revolutionary militia during the 1980s:
http://www.dutchfleet.net/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=7033
The Fort will get a Dutch manager and it will be turned into an open air museum starting this year. I will follow the process including the inventarisation of the exhibits informally.
2. Batterij Purmerend, 3 pieces 4 inch. I do not have the exact location of this battery, but I have been discussing this two weeks ago in Surinam. All I found sofar is a street named "gunput"...
Purmerend was an old WIC redoubt, just northwest of Leonsberg on the left bank of the Surinam river opposite Fort Nieuw Amsterdam, but still without oceanview.
The pictures on this discussion thread are supposeldly from that battery during WW2: http://www.dutchfleet.net/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=6966
3. There were searchlights at both batteries as well as at Pomona on the right bank, but further on the peninsula formed by the Commewijne river and the sea.
In Surinam also appears to have been one 4 inch AA gun, though later a 40mm gun is mentioned.
I think the numbers and batteries in the East have been lost on the old forum.
Here's what I found in my notes and docs tonight:
7 inch batteries under construction:
Cheribon: 2 guns
Soerabaja/Madoera: 4 guns
Ambon: 3 guns
Padang/Emmahaven: 2 guns
Semarang: 2 guns
IJA founs 11 guns on Java, makes at least 16 in NEI.
I must have more info....
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