Play as · WW2 1939 · L3 · Allies (eventual)

Netherlands - 1939

The Netherlands in 1939 maintains the declared neutrality that kept the country out of the First World War. Queen Wilhelmina presides over a constitutional monarchy that has carefully positioned itself between the great powers for decades. The standing army is small but trained; the Royal Netherlands Navy is competent and Dutch East Indies-deployed; the colonial economy of the NEI produces around 8% of global oil supply through Royal Dutch Shell - a strategic resource that will set up the Pacific war's opening and its outcome simultaneously.

Starting position

The Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) is the strategic heart of Dutch colonial wealth. Oil from the East Indies fields, plus rubber, tin, and quinine, makes the NEI the resource colony that Imperial Japan will target in late 1941 to escape the US oil embargo. The Royal Netherlands Indies Army (KNIL) is mid-tier - capable for colonial-policing duties, undermatched against a peer-conflict assault. In Europe, the Dutch declare neutrality in September 1939 and prepare defensive water-line inundation positions. The 1940 German invasion in May overruns Dutch territory in five days; the Dutch government and royal family escape to London and govern from exile through the war.

What turns the campaign

What the Netherlands wants is the declared neutrality respected (the same gambit that worked in 1914-18), the Dutch East Indies kept from Japanese seizure even after the European campaign collapses, and the Dutch government in exile maintaining the resistance and the colonial relationship through the duration. What the Netherlands fears (and largely experiences) is the German invasion that ends neutrality in days, the Rotterdam bombing that pressures surrender, the Japanese conquest of the NEI in early 1942 that ends the colonial economy, and the post-war independence movement in Indonesia that the exile government cannot suppress on return.

Signature challenge