Date of birth:

October 22nd, 1927 (Bergen op Zoom/North Brabant, Netherlands)

Date of death:

May 30th, 1949 (Batu-Mandi/East Borneo, Dutch Indies)

Buried on:

Dutch War Cemetery Menteng Pulo
Plot: XII. Grave: 298.

Nationality:

Dutch

Sgt.OVW.5-4 RI

Jan was born on 22 October 1927 in Bergen op Zoom and lived in Breda. As a war volunteer, he joined the Royal Netherlands Army in Assen in the autumn of 1947, where he was assigned to the 5-4 Infantry Regiment. He eventually rose to the rank of sergeant.

Due to the outbreak of revolutionary violence during the Indonesian struggle for independence, Jan was sent to the Dutch East Indies to help restore peace and Dutch authority. After a month and a half of training, he left for the East on the Grote Beer, landing in Balikpapan on Borneo in early December 1947.

From there, Jan and his company were transferred to Bandjermasin, where he held various posts in the interior of the eastern part of the enormous island; the northern companies of his battalion were stationed in Tarakan, 800 kilometres away. The battalion relieved tired KNIL veterans on Borneo who had been in service since the start of the Japanese invasion in December 1941, had spent three years in Japanese camps and had been redeployed in August 1945.

Compared to Java and Sumatra, East Borneo is relatively quiet and the task of the Dutch military here consists mainly of making the Dutch authority known to the population. Nevertheless, the patrols are difficult due to the humid, hot climate, the mountainous interior and the muddy, swampy terrain.

During the Second Police Action from 19 December 1948 to 5 January 1949, the Dutch military also kept the situation under control; for them, the unrest would only begin afterwards with the appearance of a division of the Republican Navy causing unrest north of Bandjermasin.

Against the backdrop of increased Republican infiltration on the island, Jan was killed in action on 30 May 1949 in Batumandi, in the south of Borneo. He was 21 years old and was laid to rest at the Dutch military cemetery Menteng Pulo in Jakarta.

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• Photo 1: Oorlogsgravenstichting
• Photo 2: Oorlogsgravenstichting
• - Jan Cornelis van Drongelen | Oorlogsgravenstichting
  - Jan van Drongelen | Brabantse Gesneuvelden
  

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