Word: helfrich
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...times the few ships actually in his command. "Don't fret," he would say, "the day will come when an English admiral, because of our superior knowledge of these waters, will ask us to command a combined fleet." The chief of the United Nations naval staff under Conrad Helfrich in Java this week is the Royal Navy's Rear Admiral A. S. E. Palliser...
...Helfrich's prophecies sometimes caused trouble. Two years ago he visited Singapore. There were cocktails and good companions, but something in the leisured air of Singapore got his Dutch up. He barked that the Japs were going to attack Malaya, Singapore and the Indies, and when they did the defense would be a joint job for the British, the U.S. and the Dutch. His half-amused, half-horrified hosts asked each other: "Did you hear what that Dutchman said?" and word got back to The Hague that an alarmist admiral was disturbing the peace of the Pacific. Admiral Helfrich...
...Admirals Helfrich and Furstner, by then the dominant figures of The Netherlands Navy, were already at work on war plans and naval expansion. Their plan was offensive: continuous reconnaissance, hard and rapid stabs at the Jap, as far away from the Indies as possible. Their new Navy was geared to this plan. When war came they had five light cruisers, eight destroyers, 20 submarines and about 30 torpedo boats, designed for maneuver in the narrow Indies waters. They also had a small but growing naval air force...
Alone, these forces would be no match for the Japanese, and Conrad Helfrich knew it. To cut up Japan's sea lines before they could be knitted right around the Indies, he counted on: 1) maximum support from the U.S. and British Pacific fleets; 2) the effectiveness of his own hit-&-run offensive...
...Conrad Helfrich, the war with Japan really began last July. When the Japanese sent warships into the Gulf of Siam and the South China Sea, he saw that they were after bases in Siam and Indo-China, and he begged his Government to let him attack forthwith. The Indies Government was more than half-willing, but after consultations with Washington and London the answer to Admiral Helfrich was: "No." He took his orders, but grumbled a warning: "If we give them time to prepare bases in Siam, they will be ready to attack Singapore in half a year...