Date of birth:

January 15th, 1907 (Teteringen/North Brabant, Netherlands)

Date of death:

February 26th, 1947 (Near Bribie Island, Australia, a/b Dakota DT966)

Mentioned on:

Dutch Field of Honour Loenen

Nationality:

Dutch

Res.Elt.Vlg.
KNIL

Hendrik was born on 15 January 1907 in Teteringen and lived in the Dutch East Indies, where he served in the Military Aviation of the KNIL. Even before the KNIL surrendered in Bandung on 8 March 1942, the aviation division had fled to Australia to continue the fight against the Japanese occupiers on the side of the Allies.

The aviation division was established as the No. 18 Netherlands East Indies Squadron in Canberra and was based at MacDonald Airfield near Darwin from the end of 1942. Hendrik held the rank of 1st lieutenant pilot in the reserve with the Squadron and was deployed after World War II during the Indonesian struggle for independence to restore peace and Dutch authority. By that time, Hendrik was registered as a resident of Clayfield, a suburb of Brisbane in Australia.

On 26 February 1947, Hendrik crashed in Moreton Bay off Brisbane, near Bribie Island, presumably due to a technical fault in his DT-965 Douglas C-47 Dakota aircraft. He was 40 years old.

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• Photo 1: Oorlogsgravenstichting
• - MEIJER, H.G. & VIS, R., Het Vliegerkruis, De Bataafsche Leeuw, Amsterdam, 1997.
  - Hendrik Cornelis August Smits van Burgst | Oorlogsgravenstichting
  - Dapperheidsonderscheidingen aan Nederlanders voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog
  - Hendrik Smits van Burgst | Brabantse Gesneuvelden
  

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