World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseHein ter Poorten was born in western Java in the Dutch East Indies. In 1911, he became an artillery officer, and in the subsequent years immediately after he played a role in the founding of the air branch of the Dutch Army. In 1919, he studied at the Hogere Krijgsschool staff college in the Netherlands. In Jul 1939, he was named the Chief of the General Staff of the Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger, or the Royal Netherlands Indies Army, and in this capacity he saw his home country invaded and conquered in the following year. In Oct 1941, Lieutenant General Gerardus Johannes Berenschot passed away in an air accident, and ter Poorten succeeded him as the commander in chief of the Royal Netherlands Indies Army. In Jan 1942, one month after the opening of the Pacific War, he was named the commanding officer of all ground forces in the Allied American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, which failed to halt the southward conquest by Japan in early 1942. Although he had 25,000 Indonesian colonial troops on Java under his command, plus 7,000 American, Australian, and British troops in support, most of his troops were too poorly trained to face the Japanese. On 8 Mar 1942, he surrendered Java to Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura at Kalidjati. He remained a prisoner of war throughout the war and did not return to the Netherlands until 1945. He passed away at The Hague in the Netherlands in 1968.

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