Building the navy
During the early days of the Republic of Indonesia, the country was at war with it's former ruller, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In this period the newly formed Indonesian Armed Forces had to make due with what they could capture from withdrawn Japanese Forces, which had dominated the Islands for four years. As the Republic of Indonesia was only partly recognised in the world, it was hard to obtain heavy weapons, airplanes and ships. After much struggle and eventually pressure from the United States on the Netherlands resulted in the agreement of transfering eight Flower Class corvettes to the Indonesian Navy. This was only agreed on if the Indonesian goverment would promise not to use these ships in aggressive actions against the Dutch (as they where a strong ally of the US), and only would be used in therms of self-defence. However this promise was soon broken, the KRI Sulawesi was uppon commisiong immediatly send to West Java to support the Indonesian Ground forces and engaged the HMNLS Kortenear. This resulted in only minor damage to the Dutch ship, but the action was reported to the United States. Indonesia denied all charges saying that a Indonesian ship called the KRI Sulawesi had attack a Dutch warship. When UN officials came to investigate the incident, the Indonesian navy had quickly repainted and patched up the havocked vessel and named it the KRI Nusa Telu. As there was no proof that the Indonesian's actually attacked the Dutch, the go-ahead was given for the further delivery of the remaining 7 ships. However due to the report of the incident, the United Nations order the remaining 7 ships to be delivered without any armament, so they could be sure they wouldn't be used in offensive actions. The war between Indonesia and The Netherlands was already over before all ships had been delivered. There where no further incidents reported during the remainder of the war. After the war, all 8 ships recieved new armament from the United States.
Ship's specifications
Displacement: 925 long tons (940t; 1046 st)
Length: 205ft. (62.5m)
Beam: 33ft. (10.1m)
Draught: 11.5ft. (3.5m)
Propulsion:
*Single shaft
*2x water tube boilers
*1x 4-cycle triple expansion steam engine
*2,750 SHP
Speed: 16 knots
Range: 3,500 nautical miles (6,482km) at 12 knots
Complement: 85
Armament:
*1x 4'' Mk.IX single gun
*2x .50 Vickers machine guns (twin)
*2x .303 Lewis machine guns (twin)
*2x Mk.II Depthcharge throwers
*2x Depthcharge rails
(after refit)
*1x 5''/38 Mk12 single gun
*1x 3''/50 Mk17 single gun
*8x Oerlikon 20mm machine guns
*2x Mk.II Depthcharge throwers
*2x Depthcharge rails
Ships in service:
KRI Nusa Telu (ex. KRI Sulawesi) (1947-1961)
KRI Teluk Mentawai (1948-1961)
KRI Karimata (1948-1962)
KRI Wagio (1949-1962)
KRI Tanjung Oisina (1949-1962)
KRI Tanjung Nusanive (1950-1962)
KRI Tunjang Fatagar (1950-1963)
KRI Karang Tekok (1951-1963)