Wedding Bernard & Dulcie Knuppe, Melbourne, 1946

The marriage of Bernard Knuppe and Dulcie Knuppe-Kelly was recorded in the Argus of Melbourne, 8 April 1946 trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/1668637 (photo with caption "Adjutant Bernard Knuppe, Dutch Forces, and Mrs. Knuppe cutting the cake at the wedding reception at the Dutch Club.")

Bernard Knuppe served in the Netherlands army before and at the start of WWII.

Summary from letters from Mr Bernard Knuppe to Dr. Jack Ford, 1989-1990:
I was a Sergeant in the Netherlands Army in 1940, stationed at the border of Germany in a place called Vierlingsbeek on the river Maas. The 10th of May in the early morning, the Germans invaded Holland. I got orders from my captain to bring my platoon back to try to make a stand. As we all know now, there was no hope. We got bombed by plenty of German planes but had no plains in the air to stop them. We went further and further back until I landed in a hospital near Belgium because I was slightly wounded by bomb shrapnel on my legs. The next day, a colonel Dr. Kogh told us, that the ones who could make it, were welcome to come with him on a big truck, to try to get to England, before being taken prisoner by the Germans. I went with some other soldiers on that truck through France and left Cherbourg about the 17th of May on a trawler and arrived safely in England. In England we formed a small army of about 2000 men from all different sections: Artillery – Airforce – Infantry, etc. We did duties at the coast line and at airfields. When the Japanese came into the war, a call went out for men to help to fight the Japs in Java (Netherlands East Indies). I volunteered and left 10-1-1942 on board a Dutch ship called Columbia. While at sea on the way to Java, the Japs, we were told, had invaded the place, so instead we landed in Ceylon and did commando training there and in India. I got an infection on my toe and landed in the 15th British General Hospital in Colombo. After an amputation of part of my toe, I was unfit for the time being. Also, my leg which was hurt in Holland, started to go bad because of the hot climate. One day we got orders to sail somewhere, which was to be Australia. In Australia, we were assigned to NEFIS III to get parties into the islands in New Guinea behind the Japs, to get information about what was going on etc. and those Intelligence reports were passed on to General McArthur’s Intelligence H.Q.
I missed out to go with the others, because I had to go to Hospital again (Caulfield Repat). After discharge from Hospital and not being 100% fit to be a commando anymore, I landed a job to go to New Guinea to supply the parties in the field by airplane. In the period 1943-45, I was based at Merauke, Hollandia (currently Jayapura) and Morotai (Maluku islands). The following items were dropped: food, weapons, clothes, radios, ammunition etc., even a goat for one of the members of the party who was very sick, perhaps cancer. They milked the goat and he got the milk to help him get better. He came out alive. Also, when a party was in trouble when the Japs were after them, I dropped them an outboard motor and thank God they got away okay. Furthermore salt, shells and other items were dropped to give to the local population for information and to get them on our side.
In September 1944 I was very lucky. I got out of a plane the last second, before it left for Brisbane. That plane crashed with all on board killed and was found in February 1989 near Cairns QLD. The reason I got out, was that just before it left New Guinea, I was called back to fly with a U.S. plane to drop supplies as I was familiar with the job and so they asked me to fly with them to show the way to the party in the Yemele.
When the war ended in 1945 I went to what is now Indonesia and did similar duties there, until I got demobilised in 1947 in Australia, where I had been married in 1946. And have lived there ever since.
By the end of the war I was glad, that the slaughter was over. I was promoted to Warrant Officer, received the Cross of Merit from the Queen of Holland, also a war remembering cross for service 1940-45 in Holland and the Pacific.

From a 1990 letter by Mr. Bernard Knuppe to Dr Jack Ford: "I was lucky because working for A.I.B. Allied Intelligence Bureau, I was supplied mostly with U.S. gear weapens uniform etc. etc. but dropped all supplies with Dutch planes. B25 Mitchel Bomber, D.C. 3 Douglas or Catalina flying boat."

courtesy Knuppe family archives, courtesy Dr. Jack Ford, www.linkedin.com/in/jack-ford-2728a056/

Taken on: April 1, 1946

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