Hein ter Poorten

Hein ter Poorten ( born November 21, 1887 in Buitenzorg, Java, † January 15, 1968 in The Hague, Netherlands ) was a lieutenant general of the Dutch army.

Life

After attending military school in Alkmaar, which he left on 25 July 1908 as a lieutenant in the KNIL served ter Poorten in the artillery structure workshop of artillery in Delft.

Shortly thereafter, he became interested in military aviation. In 1910 he acquired the license as a balloon commander and sent a request to the Colonial Secretary, who was supreme command of the Lord remained in the Netherlands KNIL forces, to allow him to flight training. The Minister granted the request and ter Poorten started his education first in Antwerp at a Belgian flight school and later in France. When the first Dutch professional officer he gained international ticket, which he had to privately finance the training on 30 August 1911. In the next few years he gained experience in many flight maneuvers where he participated as a pilot. On behalf of the Colonial Secretary, he examined the possibility of a squadron of the KNIL to set up Java.

In February 1913 ter Poorten returned to Java and once served again in the artillery. It was not until 1915 he came back with aviation in touch when he traveled as a Commissioner to the United States, where at the Glenn L. Martin Company two aircraft were made ​​ready for the KNIL used.

In February 1916 ter Poorten crashed with one of the supplied Glenn Martin aircraft on Java. He suffered serious injuries, the mitgeflogene KNIL commander JPM Michielsen was killed. Then got ter Poorten for health reasons a flight ban imposed four months. Therefore, he could not test fly the newly commissioned seaplanes for the KNIL in the U.S. in the sequence. Thus his career was ended in aerospace, ter Poorten returned to the service of the artillery.

Hein ter Poorten attended from 1919 in the Netherlands, the higher military academy in The Hague and served with the rank of Colonel in 1922 back to Java. He was assigned to the general staff of the KNIL, in which he served 1926-1931, and 1933-1936. Finally, he held the offices of an agency chief and inspector of artillery as a major general. 1939 followed ter Poorten Lieutenant General GJ Berenschot in the Office of Chief of Staff. After a plane crash, in which Berenschot on October 13, 1941, died, he took over the office of the commander of all Army units of the KNIL on Java and was promoted to lieutenant general.

Ter Poorten was responsible for the defense of Java, after the Japanese had begun in December 1941 with the invasion of Southeast Asia. To this end, he worked with the allied British, Australians and Americans and was a staff member of the ABDACOM, which gave him the management of all land forces. Ter Poor Tens headquarters was located in Lembang in West Java.

After the Japanese army began on March 1, 1942 with the invasion of Java and brought the Allies to the brink of defeat within a few days, to ter Poorten discussed with the Dutch Governor General Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer and then began surrender negotiations with the Japanese Lieutenant General Imamura Hitoshi that ended with the Dutch surrender on March 9.

The rest of the war spent Hein ter Poorten in various Japanese POW camps, first on Java, then to Taiwan and since October 1944 in Manchuria. He was liberated on August 17, 1945 and returned to the Netherlands.

By the end of his life Hein ter Poorten fought for the recognition of his services for the Netherlands, because he was confronted with the fact that he was made responsible for the capitulation of the KNIL on Java. He died in 1968 in ' s-Gravenhage. Hein ter Poorten was married twice and had two daughters from his first marriage.