Table of contents

Chapter I (Monuments Under Blazing Sun)
presents the war memorials located on all six islands of the former Netherlands Antilles as solemn reminders of the involvement of the Dutch West Indies in World War Two.

Chapter II (World War Two and the common enemy)
This chapter is based on the premise: “One cannot adequately describe how wars were fought without giving some idea of what they were fought about.”
[Howard 2009, p. ix.]

Chapter III (“The West” caught up in World War Two)
Gives a brief summary of the colonial ‘spirit of the times’ and the constitutional forces then at work, that caused things to happen the way they did, including the “involuntary” but inevitable involvement of the Caribbean in the war.

Chapter IV (The Battle of the Caribbean)
contains fragments referring to and involving Operation Neuland, which was specifically orchestrated by Nazi Germany, and turned the sunny Caribbean Sea into a sinister, but significant war theatre in the early 1940’s.

Chapter V (War is Over)
notes briefly the constitutional changes in the Dutch West Indies after the war.

Chapter VI (A Body of Caribbean Legacies)
serves as a final commentary.