Word: helderness
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...Fighting the Japanese first became Conrad Helfrich's serious study when he was a chubby cadet at Den Helder, the Royal Naval College in Holland. The curriculum was pointed at the Japanese, because even then the Dutch Navy expected that some day it would have to fight Japan in the Indies. Cadet Helfrich took this and all phases of his studies very seriously. He never excelled at anything except at working hard. He got good grades, but he never won prizes. He sailed small boats, but never won races. The other cadets seldom saw him lounging about the streets...
...Berlin despite urgent popular pull for it, the R. A. F. further pointed out that it had bombed scores of authentic military objectives, such as potential jumping-off spots for an invasion, railroad centres like Hamm, Ehrang (near Trier), Osnabrück, Brussels, air bases at Norderney and Den Helder, industrial plants like Bremen's Deutsche Schiffund Maschinenbau (shipbuilding), and three of Berlin's railroad terminals...
Flushing, the best coastal harbor, and Den Helder, Holland's chief naval base, were heavily bombed, and even the ancient harbor of Stavoren on the Zuider Zee was shelled. Elsewhere, except in key defense towns like Breda, Tilburg and Maastricht, physical damage had not been great. For the rest, most of the great cities surrendered too quickly to be bombed...
...There was no other way. ... If we had fought on, not only our Army would have been destroyed but all civilians, women and children. . . . Today Rotterdam had her terrible share of what bombing means, and Utrecht, Den Helder and other centres were threatened likewise. . . . Our Air Force was too weak. . . . We were left to ourselves and so I had to make a grave decision which was a very difficult one for me to lay down our arms. ... All I can say is, trust in the future, behold your traditions. Long live Her Majesty the Queen! Long live the Fatherland...
...little resistance and retired in good order from their first line of defense along the Ijssel River, still held their Grebbe Line (second defense) and Holland Water Lines (third). They had mopped up most of the parachutists in and around Amsterdam. They still had The Hague, Leiden, Utrecht, Den Helder. They still held, with British and French, the island province of Zeeland in the rivers' mouths. But further resistance did indeed seem hopeless. Whole towns were bombed off the map. The flood water had not risen above the main causeway roads. Dutch glumness and anger at the surrender...