Memories to the Royal Dutch Navy.

[D_Dutch]

Hello,

I am writing this story in the memory of my great-grandfather Antonius Gerardus Christiaans, who passed away in 1971.
Each couple of days I shall tell a short story of his life, and his stories during the time that he was with the Royal Dutch navy.


His early years, Part one.

Antonius Gerardus, or "Anton" as everybody called him was born in 1902, in the Dutch city of Nijmegen.
He was the son of Antoon Christiaans and Anna Hendrika Jansen, he had 15 brothers and sisters, more then the half of them would die in their childhood.
In 1921 he went into service in the Royal Dutch Navy, and his first ship that he set foot on was the Schorpioen.
Allready in 1922 he made his first far away journey, to the Dutch Indies, with the Hr. MS. Zeeland.
In the pre-war period he would go to the Indies for more than 4 times.
In the beginning of 1932 he went to Shanghai with the Hr. Ms. Van Galen under command of Captain-Lieutenant (Kapitein-Luitenant Ter Zee) E.A. Vreede because of the January 28 incident.
That was a short war between China and Japan, before the Second China-Japanese War started in 1937.
But, a year later, his life would take a big turn, that he could never forget.
According to his sister and his oldest daughter (My grandmother) he was on the Hr. Ms. De Zeven Provinciën, when suddenly a mutiny broke out.
It is unclear if he was on board during the mutiny, or was on shore with other officers, but he was punished for the mutiny.
He was degraded to Sailor-Constable, or in Dutch Matroos-Konstabel.
Allready in 1926 Antonius Gerardus was promoted to Corporal-Constable, which was quite fast.
But two years after he was degraded, in 1935, he was promoted again to his old rank.
Again in 1937 Antonius Gerardus went to Shanghai for the second time, again with the Hr. Ms. Van Galen, to defend the international belonging there, during the Second China-Japanese war.

This is a list of the ranks he held before World War Two with the date that he was promoted:

30-03-1921: Promoted to Licht Matroos. (Unknown English translation)
30-06-1921: Promoted to Matroos 3e klasse. (Sailor 3rd Class)
28-02-1923: Promoted to Matroos 2e klasse. (Sailor 2nd Class)
31-03-1925: Promoted to Matroos 1e klasse. (Sailor 1nd Class)
30-04-1926: Promoted to Korporaal Konstabel. (Corporal-Constable)
12-06-1933: Degraded to Matroos Konstabel. (Sailor-Constalbe)
01-07-1935: Promoted to Korporaal Konstabel. (Corporal-Constable)


Here are the first photo's of Antonius Gerardus Christiaans.


One of the first photo's of Antonius Gerardus during his time with the Royal Dutch Navy.



Another early photograph, it has been taken in the Dutch city of Den Helder. Somewhere in 1921 or 1922.



Antonius Gerardus is on the left, with the award for 12 years of faithfull service.
The Dutch Ministry of Defence is denieing that he was awarded with this award and a replacement for this award is impossible, because of that.
The photo is possibly taken during the birthday of Queen Wilhelmina in 1933.



Antonius Gerardus in Shanghai, 1932. He is on the left of the standing soldiers.



Going towards the Dutch Indies, Antonius Gerardus is the man who is seated the highest.



It looks like this photo has been made on the same ship as the previous photo. Made in Surabaya. He is on the far right of the photo.



Getting charcoal(?) from a building. Antonius Gerardus is on the far right.



Antonius Gerardus (smoking a cigar) with his younger brother Henk.



Antonius Gerardus as a young man, in the uniform of the Royal Dutch Navy.





This was the end of part one, I hope you liked it, and if you have anything to say, go ahead! 

[Albatros]

Hello D_Dutch

nicely you show the interesting history about your grandpa here in the forum. 

Greeting,

Manfred

[Albatros]

Hello D_Dutch

I hope for part two.

Greeting,

Manfred

[D_Dutch]

Hello D_Dutch

I hope for part two.

Greeting,

Manfred

Hello Manfred,

Thank you very much for your reply, unfortunatly I'm unable to post a part two because the computer I normally use is broken. 
So I am using my father's laptop, but I can't scan photo's with them.
And I think that it's better and more interresting to post part two with photo's rather than without them
My own computer will be fixed within two weeks, so around that same time I'll post part two! 

[Albatros]

O.K. and Thanks for your answer,

Greeting,

Manfred

[D_Dutch]

My computer is finally fixed and my scanner is working perfect again, so here is part two. 

His later life, Part Two.


Although there are photo's of Antonius Gerardus Christiaans in the late thirties, it is unclear what he did between the beginning of 1938 and May 1940.
Even the Dutch archives of the Royal Dutch Navy don't have this information.
Until now the Dutch Ministry of Defence is also refusing to acknowledge that he had been awarded two long service medals for 12 and 24 years in 1933 and 1946, while the archives of the Dutch Royal Navy has the prove of this.
Antonius Gerardus was married to Maatje Duvekot, who was born in Vlissingen, and together they had four children, three girls and one boy.
In May 1940 Antonius Gerardus was placed on the "Vliegkampschip" Hr. Ms. Veere, and fought against the German Luftwaffe.
A couple of months later, in July 1940, he was fired from the Dutch Royal Navy because of the German occupation of the Netherlands.
During this time the parents of his wife also came to Nijmegen, where he lived, because Middelburg, the city where they lived was not safe because of the Germans.
In May 1943 Antonius Gerarudus, together with his wife and his oldest daughter Anna (My grandmother) were called up to go to concentration camp Amersfoort.
My grandmother never really wants to talk about what happened in there when she was there, but she told me that she and her mother saw her father being pushed in a train by SS soldiers and waved her father goodbye, not knowing where he was going.
Now the family had almost no income, and Maatje Duvekot (the wife of Antonius Gerardus) had to care for her children and her parents, with almost no money.
She became very ill, but she managed to get in contact with her husband via a nephew who was forced to work in Germany.
This nephew passed letters from Maatje to Antonius Gerardus, who wrote letters back, and gave them back via his nephew.
Antonius Gerardus was transported from camp Amersfoort to Stalag VA, at Ludwigsburg.
Apart from a Prisoner of War camp this was also a transport camp for Jewish people.
In the Netherlands life was getting harder every day, and on the 22nd of February 1944, the city of Nijmegen was destroyed by Allied bombers.
More than 700 people died, including a sister of my grandmothers husband, who was forced to work in France.
In October 1944, Maatje Duvekot died of cancer, almost 38 years old, and left four children behind.
My grandmother remembers that while there were German soldiers shooting in the streets and bombs flying everywhere (During Market Garden)  the family buried Maatje Duvekot at the graveyard.
In May 1945, Antonius Gerardus was liberated by a couple of soldiers of the Free French Army, and he could finally return home.
In a large truck he and a couple of other soldiers stopped at his house, and when he entered his house the first thing he asked to his children was where his wife was.
They all pointed to a large painting of her, and he knew that his wife had died.
He became traumatized by this for the rest of his life.
Weirdly enough, already in August of the same year, he got married again, with a former NSB woman.
NSB was the Dutch National-Socialists Party. (Or in Dutch; Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging.)
It was said that she married him so that she didn't had to go to a special camp and wasn't being shaved.
It became a bad marriage, and there were unofficially divorced a couple of years later.
In the November , 1945, Antonius Gerardus went to the United Kingdom, and was stationed on the H.M.S. Royal Arthur for a short time.
In July 1946, he was awarded for his Long Service of 24 years. (But now the Ministry of Defence is saying that this never happened.)
In 1950 he was promoted to Korporaal-Geschutskonstabel.
Antonius Gerardus stayed with the Royal Dutch Navy until his retirement in December 1962.
He moved to the western part of the Netherlands and repaired bicycles there, and often had a talk with princess Margriet of the Netherlands, when she went to play tennis.
His only son also joined the Royal Dutch Navy, and fought in Korea.
Antonius Gerardus moved back to the Netherlands in the sixties and shared the last years of his life with alcohol, unable to cope with the loss of his first wife and his experiences during the Second World War and his own country refusing to give him the appropriate honor.
He lived with his older sister in his last years and died in 1971, only 69 years old.
He was cremated and his ashes were spread across the sea.
Almost 37 years after his death, he finally was honored for his actions during the Second World War.
In July 2008 he was posthumously awarded with the Mobilisatie-Oorlogskruis (In English; Mobilisation-War cross.)

These are the first four photo's of the second part.
I'll post more photo's next week. (I'm also very busy with some Kriegsmarine material.)

Antonius Gerardus in Indonesia, he is on the left side.




On a ship, maybe these were made during some exercise, Antonius Gerardus is the one in the back.



Loading a cannon, a very nice photo of equipment, look at the right person with a headphone and holding something in his hands.
Antonius Gerardus is the one in the middle.




The second wedding of Antonius Gerardus in 1945.
You can clearly see the new style uniform.

[Albatros]

Thanks for part Two, very interesting

Gruß,

Manfred

[lbaars]

Hi D_Dutch, I stumbled onto this site I was looking for a translation for the word Korporaal-Konstabel so I googled it and the name Antoon Christiaans, my uncle, the reason why I was looking up the word in the first place.   So this a treat.    Thank you so much for sharing this information and the pictures.

[gerardus]

Dear mr Dutch,
I know Mr. Christiaans very well, and would like to discus a few points in your story about him,
Regards P