World War II
On May 16, 1940, he was promoted to Rear-Admiral and on June 13, 1940 on board the light cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter, he took command of the squadron of Rear-Admiral GW Stöve at Surabaya. Early 1942 he commanded the Combined Striking Force of ABDACOM, American British Dutch Australian Command. Doorman was killed in action when his ship HNLMS De Ruyter was sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea. Part of the crew was rescued, but Doorman, following old navy tradition, chose to go down with his ship. On June 5, 1942 he was posthumously made a Knight 3rd class in the Military William Order. The medal was awarded to the Rear-Admiral's eldest son on May 23, 1947 by Lieutenant-Admiral Conrad Emil Lambert Helfrich, on board HNLMS Karel Doorman, attended by Prince Bernhard.
Between 1946 and 2006 the Royal Dutch Navy named three vessels after Karel Doorman, including a former British Colossus class aircraft carrier, the largest ship the Navy ever commissioned.
Read more about this topic: Karel Doorman
Famous quotes containing the words world war, world and/or war:
“One ... aspect of the case for World War II is that while it was still a shooting affair it taught us survivors a great deal about daily living which is valuable to us now that it is, ethically at least, a question of cold weapons and hot words.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)
“There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.”
—Madeline Bridges (fl. C. 1840)
“I thought that’s what this war was about. Making people pay taxes when they didn’t have no say so about it.”
—Lamar Trotti (1898–1952)