Kingdom of Netherlands – East Indies (Indonesia) Christmas Flight of the Pelican 1933 Copper Medal 41mm (30.53 grams) Reference: N# 227563 1933, Pelican flying over globe. ♦KERSTVLUCHT DE PELIKAAN♦ Smirnoff Soer J. Grosfeld CH v, Beukering HEEN: 18-22 Dec.33 TERUG 23-30 Dec.33 HOLLAND-INDIE, Clouds above sun with signatures of the 4 pilots, surrounded with text. Smirnoff (autograph) Soer (autograph) J. Grosfeld (autograph) CH v Beukering (autograph)
Medal Notes: This token commemorates the Christmas flight from Holland to the Dutch Indies (Indonesia) in 1933 in a record time of just a few days. The airplane with the name Pelican transported mail, left off from Schiphol airport, picked up some mail as well in Jodhpur (India) from another plane that had stranded there. The pilots Smirnoff, Soer, van Beukering and Grosfeld had to return the airplane with mail returning from Batavia (now: Jakarta) to the Netherlands before the beginning of the New Year. It was such a huge event for aviation that the flight crew received a Royal award.
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The East Indies, and the Indies, are archaic terms referring to the lands, as the names suggest, east of the Indian subcontinent, most particularly Maritime Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. In a more strict sense, the Indies were used from a European perspective to refer to the islands of Southeast Asia, especially the Indonesian Archipelago and the Philippine Archipelago.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands, commonly known as the Netherlands, is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territory in western Europe and in the Caribbean.
The four parts of the Kingdom – Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and the Netherlands – are constituent countries (landen in Dutch) and participate on a basis of equality as partners in the Kingdom. In practice, however, most of the Kingdom affairs are administered by the Netherlands – which comprises roughly 98% of the Kingdom’s land area and population – on behalf of the entire Kingdom. Consequently, the countries of Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten are dependent on the Netherlands for matters like foreign policy and defence, although they are autonomous to a certain degree with their own parliaments.
The vast majority in land area of the constituent country of the Netherlands (as well as the Kingdom) is located in Europe, with the exception of the Caribbean Netherlands: its three special municipalities (Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius) that are located in the Caribbean. The constituent countries of Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten are located in the Caribbean as well.
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