JAKARTA - The death of Brigadier General Aubertin Walter Sothern Mallaby in the Surabaya battle has become a symbol of the psychological defeat of the allied forces. In the battle that took place between 27 October-20 November 1945, it turned out that not only Mallaby was killed, there was also Brigadier General Robert Guy Loder Symonds who was defeated on November 10, 1945.
The war, which lasted for 3 weeks and 3 days, became a fierce battle between 20,000 PETA infantry soldiers and 100,000 Surabaya people against the Allied Forces Netherlands East Indies and Dutch NICA troops with a total force of 30,000 troops.
Although the result of the war AFNEI and NICA won militarily, Arek Surabaya managed to win strategically and psychologically. The psychological defeat of AFNEI and NICA was caused by the deaths of the two generals of their troops, Mallaby and Symonds.
Mallaby died today, 10 November 74 years ago. It is known that the Surabaya battle started in the morning. At around 09.50 WIB, the Allied troops were shocked by the news of the death of the Commander of the British Army Artillery Detachment for the Surabaya area, namely Brigadier General Robert Symonds.
Symonds died when his Mosquito plane crashed on the runway at Morokrembangan Airfield. The news circulating at that time that the plane crashed because it was shot by Arek Surabaya troops.
However, the British dismissed the news. The Commander of the British Army in East Java, Major General EC Mansergh made a statement that Symonds died in an accident, not because his plane was hit by gunfire.
"The plane that was boarded by Brigadier General Symonds and Lieutenant Osborne immediately caught fire and caused both of them to die instantly," General Mansergh was quoted as saying in the November 13 1945 edition of Het Dagblad van Batavia.
Barlan Setiadiyaja denied this statement in his book Merdeka Or Die in Surabaya (1985). He explained that the plane in which Symonds was traveling crashed because of a shot from an Arek Surabaya named Goemoen.
When Goemoen saw a Mosquito plane passing by, he shot it with a cannon former Japanese soldiers he got from Don Bosco's arsenal. The plane caught fire and crashed on the runway at Morokembangan Airfield.
"I believe that's the Mosquito plane General Loder Symonds was in."
Barlans
Symonds' body was buried in Surabaya, then moved to Commonwealth War Cementry Blok V Menteng Pulo, South Jakarta.
Despite the different versions about Symonds' death, it still became a disgrace to the allied soldiers. Two generals were successfully defeated by the courage of Arek Surabaya's troops with all the limitations of their military strength.
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