Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service

Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service
Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service
Intelligence and special operations (wartime) overview
Formed1942
Dissolved1948
TypeMilitary intelligence (wartime)
JurisdictionNetherlands East Indies (government-in-exile; later NEI/Indonesia)
HeadquartersMelbourne, Australia (wartime); later Batavia (Jakarta)


Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) was a Dutch intelligence and special operations organisation established in Australia after the Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) in 1942 and later active in the NEI/Indonesia during the post-war transition. It was intended to provide Allied commanders with intelligence on political, military and economic conditions in Japanese-occupied territory and, through clandestine field work, to support reconnaissance and reporting from occupied areas.

NEFIS is often associated in Allied summaries with hazardous insertions of small reconnaissance parties into occupied territory (frequently linked to “NEFIS III” in post-war accounts), including the Java “Tiger” missions and other operations in the archipelago and New Guinea.