Mesdames WAAS and WAKEMAU (Civilians)

Place of Birth: Dutch East Indiës

Died: 7 September 1944

Buried: Cairns War Cemetery – Plot A – Row E – Grave 1 (Coll.)

No personal information is known about these two women.

In the newspaper articles it is reported they are from the Red Cross, one of them possibly on her way to a Red Cross function, and were mother and daughter.

It was believed that they were Ambonese.

[The Ambonese people are an Indonesion ethnic group of mixed Malay-Papuan origin who live on the Island of Ambon.

Ambon is located in the Maluku (Moluccas) islands, just south of the much larger island of Seram (Ceram). The people on the island suffered greatly during the war. Ambon, Borneo, Hainan, New Britain and Java were the sites of some of the greatest disasters for Australian prisoners of the Japanese during World War II.

In early 1942 when the Japanese began occupying the Netherlands East Indies many Dutch civilians and military personnel were evacuated or escaped to Australia. Some of the Royal Netherlands Navy [RNN] vessels of the fleet also escaped to Australia.

During the war the 1 N.E.I.T.S. [Netherlands East-Indiës Transport Service], provided a regular twice a week route to Merauke from Melbourne via Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns. It was a four-day round-trip with overnight stays in Brisbane and Merauke.

Royal Netherlands East Indiës Air Force C-47 Dakota DT9-41 was on the return leg when it left Merauke air base, Dutch New Guinea Thursday 7 September 1944 bound for Cairns, a flight that usually took about four hours.

On board were 18 Dutch nationals and 2 Australians.

The four crew members of the N.E.I.T.S were Luitenant Hermanus J. H. Daanen, Captain; Sergeant-majoor Willem A. Torn, Co-pilot; Sergeant Jacques F. Damwijk, Engineer; Sergeant Eugene Kerdijk, Wireless Operator.

Members of 120 Squadron NEI-AF who were on their way for some rest and relaxation in Australia: Luitenants Bernard van Aken, Rudolf Braakensiek, Hendrik P. Levy, Otto Leyding, Robert J. Salm and Jan S. Zwart and Sergeant Abraham C. Scholte. Sergeants Martinus J. Straub and Marinus Boogerman of the Netherlands Naval Aviation Service.

Two other pilots who expected to be on the Dakota were reassigned to fly their Kittyhawks to Canberra for maintenance but their luggage remained on board the Dakota.

Luitenants Robert E. J. Boereboom and Samuel Jacob were Royal Netherlands-East Indies Army officers who were part of the NEFIS [Netherlands-East Indiës Forces Intelligence Service].

Luitenant Commander Joseph R.L. Lebeau of the Royal Netherlands Navy.

Two women civilians, Mevrouw [Mrs.] Waas and Mevrouw [Mrs.] Wakemau who were reported to be with the Red Cross. 

The Australian military officers: Squadron Leader Leslie Dawson R.A.A.F. [Royal Australian Air Force] and Lieutenant Hector W. H. Armstrong A.A.S.C. [Australian Army Service Corps].

The crew of the Dakota radioed they would be landing in 10 minutes at Cairns but nothing more was heard from them. They were experiencing bad weather when approaching Cairns in the late afternoon. It was thought the plane crashed into the sea. 

An extensive search for the missing plane was undertaken by the Air Force over the sea and land, and were supported by the army, police, and scores of civilians in remote areas. No trace of the plane could be found, and the search was called off after three weeks by the Dutch authorities. It was the first transport plane lost by the Dutch Air Transport Command in its 2½ years of activities in Australia.

Throughout the newspaper reports on the missing plane, sometimes Mervrouw Wakemau’s surname was different. There was Wakewan, Wakewae, Makewau but mostly Wakemau. Her name on the grave is Mervrouw Wakemau.

Wreckage of the plane was discovered 45 years later in January 1989 by seven members of the Australian New Zealand Scientific Exploration Society (ANZSES) when they were collecting plant specimens on the mountain peaks north-west of Mossman, North Queensland.

They contacted Air Force officials in Canberra about their find. The registration markings still visible on the tail confirmed it was the missing plane.

News of the discovery was sent to The Hague in the Netherlands and so began the difficult task of tracking down and notifying the next of kin.

Permission was given on Tuesday 24 January 1989 for a recovery mission to retrieve the remains of the passengers and the many personal items from amongst the crash debris.  Access to the site was only accessible by helicopter. The operation was conducted by No. 27 Squadron with the helicopter support from No. 35 Squadron, Townsville. The mission concluded on Saturday 11 February 1989.  

Many articles were published in the Dutch Australian Weekly regarding the discovery of the crash site and the progress of the family notifications.

March 6 page 1

‘To the already published list of victims the following is added: Mervrouw Waas of the Red Cross.

The Ministry of Defence is diligently looking for relatives of Mervrouw Waas, whose details are not known.’

March 6 page 2

‘On Board the crashed Dakota apart from the fighter pilots of the 120th squadron were also officers of the Dutch intelligence service, various government officials and two women, one of whom probably had a function at the Red Cross.’

April page 14

‘The air force in The Hague is eagerly looking to the not yet found Ambonese family of Mervrouw Wakewau, her daughter Mervrouw Waas and Luitenant Vlieger Otto Leyding, who were among the victims in the Dakota. The families of the remaining victims have been found.’

No further mention was made in later newspaper editions if their families were found.

On Saturday 29 July 1989 the remains of the 20 crash victims were laid to rest together in a large single grave in the Cairns War Cemetery with full Military Honors.

The armed honor guard at the monument consisted of special units of the Australian land, air and naval forces.

Relatives, especially from America, Netherlands and Australia that had traveled to Cairns, were highly impressed with the ceremony.

Dutch Australian Weekly (Sydney, NSW : 1951 – 1993), Monday 21 August 1989, page 8

In 1993 all were registered in the Queensland Birth Death and Marriage register with the death recorded as 7 September 1944.

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