How many JSARs went to Indonesia?

[BBBQ 0]

I have a low serial number JSAR with information generously provided here as “Disposition Date 10/25/1941, Transferred to J.A. Inc - N.P.C. I'm wondering how likely it is that my rifle actually made it to Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) and saw action. It seems like it got a lot of use somewhere and the dates seem right... but the story is not so clear to me. I have just finished going through Bruce Canfields book Johnson Rifles and Machine Guns and still have questions.

 

1) What was the cutoff date for deliveries to Indonesia (or was there one)?

From pg 76 of the book: “On August 19, 1940, the Netherlands Purchasing Commission placed an initial contract for 10,200 Johnson semiautomatic rifles”  

 

And on pg 121: “By this time (late September of 1941), the first M1941 Johnson semiautomatic rifles were beginning to come off the Cranston assembly line.” On this message board, ArtR states “the earliest recorded assembly dates of 9/10/41” (ArtR, Nov 3, 2021).

Some delivery/disposition dates from other members previous posts I have seen on this message board:

#0219 – 09/29/41, NPC.  “You have a prewar which could have actually made it to the Dutch East Indies.” (B. Alpert, Sept 24, 2012)

#0400 - 10/1/41, NPC. “This is an early JSAR which might possibly made it to the Dutch East Indies before they fell to the Japanese later in December.” (B. Alpert, June 25, 2017)

#0939  - 10/15/41, NPC. “This one may have actually made it to Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) which did not fall to the Japanese until December 1941.” (B. Alpert, March 5, 2018)

The Japanese started landing in Indonesia as early as December 15, 1941, and it was basically all over by March 8, 1942.

 

From the book, pg 161 “The previous fall of the Netherlands East Indies resulted in the cancellation of all outstanding NPC contracts and a relatively large number of completed but undelivered Johnson rifles and light machine guns.”

So what do people think was the cancellation date? And was that really the end... for clarity does cancelled contract mean they accepted no more deliveries?

 

2) How many JSARs made it Indonesia?

The book states (pg 124), “a shipment of 2599 M1941 Johnson semiautomatic rifles out of the initial order of 10,200 had reached the Netherlands East Indies”. No reference cited.

In another place (pg 162), there is this: “the Japanese captured most of the Johnson rifles (approximately 4,800) and Johnson light machine guns (estimated at 600) that were on Java when the East Indies surrendered.” The reference here (#342) is “Jim Pullen files”

There is this other statement on the JSAR Wikipedia page: “The M1941 was ordered by the Netherlands for issue to the KNIL in the Dutch East Indies, but only 1,999 rifles were shipped to the Dutch East Indies before the Japanese invaded.” The reference is “Lohnstein, Marc (23 August 2018). Royal Netherlands East Indies Army 1936–42. Men-at-Arms 521. p. 22.” I have not read it.

So... was it 1999, 2599, 4800, or did they eventually get most of the 10200 maybe after the war?

[kennethg 0]

BBBQ,

Your question prompted me to get my JSAR acceptance date and go on the internet and see what I could find.

The below link is to a thread on “Yesterdays Weapons Forum”, posted Mon Feb 11, 2008 4:29 pm

The posts author seems to be knowledge on the history of the KNIL in the Dutch East Indies and the Netherlands

This is just a small portion of what he wrote. His entire post is a good read.

“Between November 1941 and February 1942 4025 rifles were sent to the Dutch East Indies.
In total 1999 rifles reached the Dutch East Indies on time”.

 

http://www.yesterdaysweapons.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3643 

[BBBQ 0]

Thanks kennethg for the link. To me the 1999 number is the only one with a traceable reference. Most people focus on the US military use of the JSAR... the Indonesia story is pretty interesting to me but there is little coverage on it and conflicting info. What did Japan do with them after capture? Are there any known Japanese capture JSARs? Seems odd, especially since Japan had no semi-auto rifle in ww2. Then they capture a few thousand, and ... ? it seems the story is they did zero except leave them for the Dutch when they got forced out.

[metrotps 0]

If you look in this link at the rifles that the IJA and the IJN used in WWII you will see that the vast majority were of domestic design and manufacture. There are some exceptions but IMHO the officer core were of the same mindset, concerning rifles, as the Germans.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_military_equipment_of_World_War_II