Dutch Fliers Interview Files, 2012-2014 Series 2947
During World War II, the Royal Netherlands Air Force needed a training base after being driven first from the Netherlands by Germany and then from the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) by Japan. U.S. Army Air Force General Henry Arnold arranged for them to establish the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School at the Jackson Army Air Base at Hawkins Field in Jackson, Mississippi. The school trained Dutch and Indonesian pilots and air crew from 1942 through 1944, and many of the students and their families developed close ties to the state. In 2012, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History began a collaboration with Mississippi Public Broadcasting and the Mississippi Humanities Council to preserve some of the Dutch fliers' stories, which resulted in the 2013 MPB documentary, Dutch Wings Over Jackson.
This government records series consists of eleven audio files, six video recordings, and sixteen PDF transcripts of sixteen interviews conducted by MDAH staff members Amanda Lyons and Will Morgan and MPB producer Larry Uelmen during the making of the documentary. They include conversations with pilots Rudolf Idzerda, Willem "Wim" Bakhuys Roozeboom, and Charles "Dick" Schillmoller, as well as relatives and locals who had interactions with the "Flying Dutchmen" while they were in Mississippi. The audio interviews, which were produced as digital MP3 files by MDAH, are available online with their transcripts. The video interviews, which were recorded by MPB and shared on DVDs with MDAH, are accessible as MP4 files with their transcripts only in the William F. Winter Archives and History Building.
Read MoreDuring World War II, the Royal Netherlands Air Force needed a training base after being driven first from the Netherlands by Germany and then from the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) by Japan. U.S. Army Air Force General Henry Arnold arranged for them to establish the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School at the Jackson Army Air Base at Hawkins Field in Jackson, Mississippi. The school trained Dutch and Indonesian pilots and air crew from 1942 through 1944, and many of the students and their families developed close ties to the state. In 2012, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History began a collaboration with Mississippi Public Broadcasting and the Mississippi Humanities Council to preserve some of the Dutch fliers' stories, which resulted in the 2013 MPB documentary, Dutch Wings Over Jackson.
This government records series consists of eleven audio files, six video recordings, and sixteen PDF transcripts of sixteen interviews conducted by MDAH staff members Amanda Lyons and Will Morgan and MPB producer Larry Uelmen during the making of the documentary. They include conversations with pilots Rudolf Idzerda, Willem "Wim" Bakhuys Roozeboom, and Charles "Dick" Schillmoller, as well as relatives and locals who had interactions with the "Flying Dutchmen" while they were in Mississippi. The audio interviews, which were produced as digital MP3 files by MDAH, are available online with their transcripts. The video interviews, which were recorded by MPB and shared on DVDs with MDAH, are accessible as MP4 files with their transcripts only in the William F. Winter Archives and History Building.