Jacometti, Johan Henri Azon.

Jacometti, Johan, born on 01-09-1887 in Lumajang, Nederlands-Indië, the son of Theodorus Azon Louis Jacometti (1833-1906) and his wife Maria Dionijsia Johanna, born Naessens (1859-1939), Johan was married with Emma Amalia Johanna Jas (1887-1984) and they had two children. Johan was posted to the Royal Military Academy as a cadet for the infantry in the Dutch East Indies. In June 1910 he was promoted from cadet corporal to cadet sergeant and seconded to Ede. By Royal Decree of 29-07-1911 number 33 he was appointed second lieutenant and on December 30 of the same year he left with the steamship Kawi with under his command a detachment of 2 non-commissioned officers and 20 juniors and with second lieutenant A.M. Sierevelt to India. On arrival he was posted to the Eleventh Battalion and in May 1913 transferred to the Garrison Battalion of the Western Division of Borneo at Pontianak. In December 1914 Jacometti was promoted to first lieutenant and in January 1918 transferred to the third depot battalion. In January 1920 he was granted ten months leave to Europe for eight years of service, with the stipulation that he would resign eight days before his departure for the Netherlands. On 04-06-1921 he returned to the Dutch East Indies by Djambi with a detachment of non-commissioned officers from the colonial reserve, strong 142 sergeants major, sergeants and fouriers under his command. He was appointed captain and transferred in that rank in May 1925 from Soerakarta (first half of the 21st battalion) to the western division of Borneo. In May 1927 Jacometti was given a leave of 8 months to Europe, commencing 01-01-1928. On his return to the Dutch East Indies (he returned to the Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft) he was posted to the 4th battalion at Tjimahi, appointed leader in May 1932 of the Barisan Corps at Bankalan on Madura; in connection with this he was taken to the army for remembrance. With effect from 01-06-1933, Jacometti was promoted to major, took early and honorable retirement in 1935 and returned to the Netherlands by the cruiser Johan van Oldebarnevelt on August 7 of that year. In the Netherlands, Jacometti became head of the Air Protection Service and resigned as such on 01-08-1939.

Johan was the Dutch Major who was killed in the Battle of the Grebbeberg.  Jacometti had already a carrier in the KNIL, the Dutch Royal Indian Army and retired because of his age of 52, but volunteered in the Army again with the threatening of a war. As a Reserve Major he got the command of the II Battalion of the 8^th Infantry Regiment (II-8 R.I.) that served in the Mai days of 1940 near the Grebbeline, the most important defence line close to Germany.   After the Germans, the SS 22th Panzer Division “Das Reich” under Oberstgruppenführer Paul Hausser, reached the Grebbeline on 12-05-1940, Jacometti organized a counter attack and leaded the attack personal. He thought that their were only little opponents and said to his men: we will whip them out and fight with the bare Klewang, a special Indian bayonet and approached with about forty men. This was a big mistake as their were much more SS’s soldiers as he was thinking of. Not good coordinated with the other Dutch companies too, Jacometty’s group landed under friendly fire and had to retreat. The opponents had no mercy with anyone and many SS soldiers were drunk during the attack. Crossing an empty field Jacometti was killed in this counter attack and his group left the battleground in a hurry. The Dutch Army (see About) had to surrender on Mai 14^th and lost about a 2000 men. A period of five years of occupation had arrived for the Dutch civilians with at the end 200.000 victims.  

Death and burial ground Jacometti, Johan Henri Azon.

Jacometti and all killed Dutch and German soldiers were buried on the war cemetery of the Grebbeberg. Johan Jacometti was posthumous awarded with the Bronze Lion.  Later the German victims were transferred to the large German cemetery of Ysselstein, 32.000 graves, one is the first killed German General during Operation Market Garden, Generalmajor der Infanterie, Friedrich Kussin 

, who was killed and scalped by the Britisch soldiers, near Oosterbeek. Another victim on the Grebbeline was the nephew of my mother, Jan Ackermans.

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