Van Galen of Shanghai Fame
Following up on last week’s Warship Wednesday of the Dutch Admiralen-class torpedobootjager (destroyer) Hr. Ms. Banckert, I would be remiss not to mention the China Station saga of her sistership, Hr. Van Galen (VG).
This continued a legacy of Dutch involvement in the Boxer Rebellion in which 35 Marines (Korps Mariniers) helped defend the Peking Legation Quarter, and remained in attendance of the country’s embassy into the 1920s.
Commissioned 22 October 1929, Van Galen was soon dispatched to the Dutch East Indies, where all seven of her sisters would eventually serve (until destroyed while fighting the Japanese in 1942).
However, Van Galen would make China a specialty, and spent several deployments in the waters there over the 1930s, protecting Dutch interests during the turbulent era.
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen (far right) in Shanghai, along assorted British and American cruisers. 2158_013844
On 22 February 1932, Van Galen was deployed to Shanghai during fighting between the Chinese and Japanese in the city, putting ashore a naval landing division (landingsdivisie) and Marine detachment on 1 March, to protect the international district there following the bombardment of the city by the Japanese navy.
The ship and her ashore detachment would remain in the city for two months.
Detachement mariniers van de torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen te Shanghai, in tropentenue 2158_061491
Marines from the destroyer HNLMS Van Galen marching along Nanking Road in Shanghai. March 1932.
Bayonet exercise by marines from the destroyer HNLMS Van Galen on the training ground in Shanghai, 1932. NIMH 2158_061489
Dutch destroyer Van Galen mariniers marines, Shanghai 1932, 2158_061488
The detachment boarded the destroyer on 27 April 1933 and returned to her homeport at Soerabaja (Surabaya).
She would return in 1935 for a port call, though she did not land any troops.
The destroyer returned to Shanghai on 23 August 1937, during a period of heavy fighting between the opposing forces involved in the Second Sino-Japanese War. During this stay, in addition to her ship’s landing forces, the ship disembarked a contingent of 150 Dutch marines (talk about cramped on a 1,600-ton tin can!) to help protect and evacuate European citizens residing in Shanghai. The detachment was housed ashore at the British Union Jack Club during its 11-week deployment.
A detachment of Dutch marines from the destroyer HNLMS Van Galen at the jetty on the Bund in Shanghai, August 1937. “SMJRMARNS Hein Harfst reports the detachment to LT1MARNS H. Lieftinck.” Note the 6.5x53mm Geweer M. 95 Dutch Mannlicher carbines, M23/27 helmets, and traditional klewang cutlasses. NIMH 2158_061492
Detachement mariniers van de torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen in Shanghai 1937 2158_061487
After the withdrawal of the defeated Chinese troops, the detachment embarked on 17 November, and Van Galen returned to the Dutch East Indies.
She would return to Chinese waters off and on until war came to Europe, and she alone was the only member of her class recalled to the metropolitan Netherlands in late 1939. There, while under refit in May 1940, she would attempt to come to the assistance of Rotterdam and was sunk by 30 successive Luftwaffe air attacks, presaging the fate of her seven Pacific sisters.
Het wrak van de Van Galen na de berging in de Merwehaven Oct 1941 2158_005609
As for the remaining Dutch in Shanghai, the Japanese ended the Foreign Concessions there in December 1941, and the Dutch consulate was taken over by Japanese troops.
By that time, the embassy at its Marine detachment had been moved to Chongqing, situated 500 miles further inland, in territory firmly under KMT control. Dutch consulate personnel captured in Beijing were detained at their homes for about eight months before being sent aboard the Italian liner SS Conte Verde to Lorenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique, for an exchange.
Meanwhile, a later 2,400-ton destroyer of the same name but different pennant number (D 803)– formerly the British N-class destroyer HMS Noble (G84)— would serve twice in nearby waters during the Korean War, earning two ROK Presidential Unit Citations as well as numerous accolades from COMSEVENTHFLT.
But that is another article.
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen (D 803) in Korean waters, circa 1951-52 NIMH 2158_005596