Military History


Feature Writer: Christopher Eger
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Here we will delve into the world of human armed struggle on the battlefield, in the air, and on the seas. Covering naval history, land warfare, and aerospace conflict, find articles as varied as the Guerilla Campaigns in Missouri during the American Civil War, to biographies of military leaders and despots.

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The Weapons of War, Peter Fitzpatrick, by permission
feature articles
Christopher Eger

Yugoslav Submarines

In: Modern War

The coastal navy of Yugoslavia and its successor Montenegro employed a number of submarine designs for more that seventy years. The remnants are now for sale. more...

Russian Guns In Space

In: Modern War

Soviet and now Russian cosmonauts have carried firearms in space for decades and continue to do so. more...

US Survival Knives in Space

In: Modern War

From the first Mercury missions to todays Space Shuttle flights US Astronauts have been armed with rugged edged weapons. more...

US Aircraft Carrier Sunk 1964

In: Modern War

The USS Card was mined by sappers of a Vietnamese underwater demolition team while docked in the heavily defended Saigon Harbor, then capitol of South Vietnam. more...

US Horse Marines

In: Modern War

The US Marine Corps used horses often over the course of their service. The golden age of these Horse Marines was 1909-1938. more...

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Christopher Eger

May 4, 2008

Forgotten Admiral of ABDA

The grim and stoic Vice Admiral Conrad Emil Lambert Helfrich commanded with what he had and never shrank from the fight.


When Imperial Japan invaded the Royal Dutch East Indies (what is now Indonesia) at the start of World War Two in the Pacific, Admiral Helfrich was the man charged with stopping them. Born 1886 to a native Indonesian mother in the islands that would be his home for decades, he started his naval career in 1908 as an officer. Steady appointments and service in the Far East brought him to the rank of Vice Admiral and commander of all Dutch vessels in the Pacific in October 1939. His small surface force consisted of a few light cruisers and destroyers. This surface force, under his subordinate Rear Admiral Kaarl Doorman, joined the impossible ABDA fleet on the suicide mission to try and stop the Japanese in the Java Sea. After the combined fleet was annihilated in February 1942 Helfrich was made Operational Commander of all Allied Naval Forces in the Southwest Pacific until the Allied command was dissolved.

The Admirals small fleet of submarines sank or damaged no less than 18 Japanese ships in the first ninety days of the war- including Lt AJ Bussemakers O-16 which sank three Japanese troopships in a single day. This feat brought Helfrich the nickname of "Ship-a-day Helfrich" when these much needed victories were announced and renounced in every newspaper across the Pacific.

Bearing stigma from the loss of his surface fleet, the rest of the war was uneventful for the Admiral who rode a desk in Ceylon for the next few years. At the end of the war he was made commander of all Dutch Ships afloat both in the Pacific and in Europe (there were not many) and was present for the surrender of the Japanese aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Harbor, by far getting the last laugh.

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