Word: conrad
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...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...
When the U.S. Navy's Admiral Hart brought his Asiatic Fleet of cruisers, destroyers and submarines from the Philippines into Conrad Helfrich's home waters, Admiral Helfrich yielded the Allied naval command to his senior. Under Admiral Hart, the little Dutch Fleet joined the little U.S. Fleet. Along with others in the Dutch high command, Conrad Helfrich grimly set himself to a bitter task: to convince Washington and London that Java could be held, that the chance was worth the maximum risk of ships and planes...
...Indies got a few, then a few more Flying Fortresses and fighters, in command of the U.S. Army's Major General Lewis Hyde Brereton; no more of the heavy cruisers Conrad Helfrich desperately wanted, no more destroyers than Vice Admiral William A. Glassford Jr., the U.S. Fleet's battle commander, had brought from the Philippines. They were perhaps all that the U.S. could get there in time, but they were not enough...
Java was already in the vise and the time and chance for an all-out test of Conrad Helfrich's long-planned offensive defense had gone, when he succeeded Admiral Hart in the supreme Indies naval command. His main base at Surabaya was under continuous bomber attack, first from carriers, then from captured land bases. Very soon, Vice Admiral Helfrich had on his hands a desperate job of defense, very close to home...
...Japs landed-at Rembang, only 109 miles in Surabaya's rear and 70 miles from the town where Conrad Helfrich was born. Admiral Helfrich's naval war was not over; there would be still more Jap convoys to harry and ravage. But the land battle for Java had begun. Soldiers and airmen would now do the fighting for the sailor's home...