Hein ter Poorten
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Hein ter Poorten, 1887-1968, was the commander of the Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger (Royal Netherlands Indies Army; KNIL) in the Pacific campaign of World War II. Ter Poorten was also Allied land forces commander in the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, during early 1942.
He was born on Java, which was then part of the Netherlands East Indies. After having been sworn in as an artillery officer in 1911, Ter Poorten helped to found the army air force, and in 1919 began a course at the Hogere Krijgsschool staff college in the Netherlands.
He steadily rose up the ranks upon his return to the East Indies, and by July 1939 was the Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger (Royal Netherlands Indies Army; KNIL) Chief of the General Staff. Lt Gen. Gerardus Johannes Berenschot's death in a flying accident in October 1941 saw Ter Poorten, by now a Lieutenant General, promoted to Commander in Chief of the KNIL.
Ter Poorten was regarded by his contemporaries in the army as a skilled commander with a firm understanding of military affairs in the East Indies, and thus was able to get on well with his subordinates and fellow officers; his relations with the civilian administration were less successful.
In January 1942, following the outbreak of war with Japan, Ter Poorten was appointed commander of land forces in the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, a short-lived unified command of all Allied forces in South East Asia.
By March, Ter Poorten became the de facto head of all Allied forces on Java, following rapid Japanese advances and the break-up of ABDACOM. It was left to him to unconditionally surrender the island to the Japanese. He spent the rest of the war in various prisoner of war camps, and in 1945 returned to the Netherlands, where he died in 1968.
