World Battlefronts: Home Is The Sailor

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Then the Allies hit hard: U.S. sea attack, Dutch and U.S. air attack ravaged the Japs' warships and transports. But, if it had ever been early enough, it was now too late. The Japanese secured their bases in lower Borneo, in Sumatra on Java's western flank, in the Guineas, in Amboina and elsewhere in the east.

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.

The Last Shore. Java's long, open northern shore along the Java Sea has no "logical points of attack." It is all vulnerable, replete with accessible ports and easy landing places. Admiral Helfrich's task was now to defend that shore by keeping the Japs away from it.

It was an impossible task. Admiral Helfrich had to be prepared for invasion convoys on his left (Sumatra), at his center (Borneo), from his right (Bali). Exactly what he had long dreaded, what he had long planned to prevent, had now come to pass: the Japs were too many and too close.

The 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.