Conrad Helfrich

Lieutenant-Admiral Conrad Emil Lambert Helfrich (11 October 1886 – 20 September 1962) was a Royal Netherlands Navy officer who served in World War II.

World War II

Helfrich was appointed overall commander of all forces in the Dutch East Indies in October 1939.¹ At the outbreak of the war in the Pacific he gave instructions to wage war aggressively. His small force of submarines sank more Japanese ships in the first weeks of the war than the British and American navies combined, an exploit which earned him the nickname "Ship-a-day Helfrich".² Admiral Helfrich worked tirelessly to establish co-operation with the Allied navies in the area since he knew that the Dutch could not hope to protect the Dutch East Indies by themselves.

Java Sea

When a combined naval command, comprising American, British, Dutch, and Australian forces (ABDA) was finally created in January 1942, Admiral Helfrich was bypassed for the post of Commander, Naval Forces, ABDA Command, in favour of the more senior Admiral Thomas C. Hart commanding the U.S. Asiatic Fleet of the United States Navy. Helfrich's mission to defend Java at all costs clashed with Hart's desire to conserve as many naval units as possible. On 12 February 1942, Helfrich succeeded Hart as commander of the ABDA naval forces in the Southwest Pacific and immediately went on the offensive.² The courage of the "Striking Force" was to no avail in the face of the overwhelming superiority of the Japanese navy and after the disastrous Battle of the Java Sea, most of the ABDA ships under his command had been put out of action and ABDA itself was dismantled. Helfrich spent the remainder of the war in Ceylon preparing the return of Dutch colonial administration to the Dutch East Indies.

Japanese surrender

In 1945, he was given command of all Dutch naval forces and promoted to lieutenant admiral. On 2 September 1945, he signed the aboard the battleship on behalf of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.