Riouw Archipelago is a large group of more or less tiny islands, located west of Sumatra Island and south of Singapore Island. The biggest islands in the archipelago are Batam Island (Pulau Batam) and Bintan Island (Pulau Bintan) with the capital the town of Tandjoengpinang. In December 1941 there were stationed several KNIL troops intended only for garrison duty. They were all under command of KNIL Major J.H. de Vries.
Bill Reynolds- a Navy Captain in World War One and a mining engineer later- fled in Singapore from the north of Malaya peninsula where he had his own mine, which he had thoroughly blown up before the Japanese troops arrival. He immediately offered his services to the Naval Command in Singapore to help them blowing up the harbor installations in Singapore Naval Base, which were pretty much intact by a sudden and quick Royal Navy retreat. The Naval Commander was so impressed by his enthusiasm and fanaticism that he finally asked him if he could help to evacuate 262 Dutch people from the Bintan Island, which was about 128 km SE of Singapore.
You could hardly find a better men for this mission than Bill Reynolds. A 49-years old Reynolds was an excellent navigator, who spent almost twenty years of his life in Malaya, Burma and on the islands of the Dutch East Indies. With a help of eight Chinese sailors he repaired the old Japanese fishing boat Kofuku Maru ("Lucky Ship"), which he had confiscated in the Singapore Harbor and safely brought those Dutch people from Bintan Island to a small port of Rengat on the Indragiri River, Sumatra Island. Several minutes after he anchored at port of Rengat, a little bit bigger boat crashed into Kofuku Maru, nearly sank it. The men on the boat were horrified when they saw a tall and angry Australian coming out from his cabine. They weren't scared much by his height, sun-burned skin, dirty shorts or cornered jaw under the dark glasses, which couldn't hide the anger, than by the bunch of juicy Australian terms of abuse, he destined to the men sitting at the boat, which crashed into Kofuku Maru. Only when this "flood" of terms of abuse ended, he looked down to see who dared to crash into his ship. It was a tiny diesel engine boat. At his bow stood a young army medical orderly, and near the helm was sitting and staring into Reynolds a young British army officer, a Captain of the Gordon Highlands. His name was Ivan Lyon*.

The Imperial Japanese troops have eventually occupied the Riouw Archipelago and had there stationed a small army garrison throughout the war.