HNLMS'' De Ruyter'' ( nl, Hr.Ms. De Ruyter) was a
light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...
of the
Royal Netherlands Navy. She was originally designed as a ship with a lighter armament due to financial problems and the pacifist movement. Later in the design stage, an extra gun turret was added and the armor was improved. She was the seventh ship of the Dutch Navy to be named after Admiral
Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter.
''De Ruyter'' was laid down on 16 September 1933 at the
Wilton-Fijenoord
Wilton-Fijenoord was a shipbuilding and repair company in Schiedam the Netherlands from 1929 to 1999. Presently, the shipyard of Wilton-Feijnoord is part of Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam.
Merger of Wilton and Fijenoord (1929)
Wilton-Fijenoord had ...
dockyard in
Schiedam and commissioned on 3 October 1936, commanded by Captain A. C. van der Sande Lacoste. She was sunk in the
Battle of the Java Sea
The Battle of the Java Sea ( id, Pertempuran Laut Jawa, ja, スラバヤ沖海戦, Surabaya oki kaisen, Surabaya open-sea battle, Javanese : ꦥꦼꦫꦁꦱꦼꦒꦫꦗꦮ, romanized: ''Perang Segara Jawa'') was a decisive naval battle o ...
in 1942.
Design
''De Ruyter'' was designed during the
Great Depression, which, in addition to being a period of economic depression, was also a period in which
pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
was widespread in the Netherlands. For these reasons, the design was officially called a ''flottieljeleider'' (
flotilla leader
A flotilla leader was a warship of late 19th century and early 20th century navies suitable for commanding a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships, typically a small cruiser or a large destroyer (known as a destroyer leader). The flotil ...
) instead of a cruiser, and every effort was made to cut costs.
Its function was to aid the two existing cruisers of the in the defence of the
Dutch East Indies; the idea was that with three cruisers, there would always be two cruisers available, even if one cruiser had to be repaired.
However, due to the cost-cutting policy that went into her design, ''De Ruyter'' was not quite up to her task. Her main battery (7 × 150 mm guns) was underpowered in comparison to other light cruisers of the time (for example the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
), and the class had inadequate armour as well and lacked long range anti-aircraft guns. However, her fire control system was excellent.
Service history
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, ''De Ruyter'' saw repeated action in the
Dutch East Indies in fruitless attempts to ward off the Japanese invasion. She was damaged by air attack in the
Battle of Bali Sea on 4 February 1942, but not seriously. She fought in the
Battle of Badung Strait on 18 February.
In the
Battle of the Java Sea
The Battle of the Java Sea ( id, Pertempuran Laut Jawa, ja, スラバヤ沖海戦, Surabaya oki kaisen, Surabaya open-sea battle, Javanese : ꦥꦼꦫꦁꦱꦼꦒꦫꦗꦮ, romanized: ''Perang Segara Jawa'') was a decisive naval battle o ...
on 27 February, ''De Ruyter'' was the flagship of the Dutch Rear-Admiral
Karel Doorman
Karel Willem Frederik Marie Doorman (23 April 1889 – 28 February 1942) was a Dutch naval officer who during World War II commanded remnants of the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian Command naval strike forces in the Battle ...
, with his flag captain
Eugène Lacomblé
Eugène Edouard Bernard Lacomblé (26 October 1896 – 28 February 1942) was an officer in the Royal Netherlands Navy from 1914 to 1942. He began and ended his career on board a ship named after Admiral Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter.
Life
Afte ...
(who had previously served on board the ship as a lieutenant). Off the north coast off
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
on the evening of the 27th the remains of the
ABDA
The American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command, or ABDACOM, was a short-lived, supreme command for all Allied forces in South East Asia in early 1942, during the Pacific War in World War II. The command consists of the forces of Austra ...
fleet was surprised by the
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
heavy cruiser
The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval T ...
s and . Several minutes after the Dutch cruiser ''
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
'' had been torpedoed and sunk, ''De Ruyter'' was hit by a single
Type 93 torpedo
The was a -diameter torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), launched from surface ships. It is commonly referred to as the Long Lance by most modern English-language naval historians, a nickname given to it after the war by Samuel Eliot Mori ...
fired by ''Haguro'' at about 23:40 and was set on fire; the torpedo also disabled the ship's electrical systems and left the crew unable to combat the fire or the flooding. The ''De Ruyter'' sank at about 02:30 the next morning with the loss of 367 men, including Admiral Doorman and Captain Lacomblé.
Wreck
The wreck of ''De Ruyter'' was discovered by specialist wreck divers on 1 December 2002 and declared a war grave, with the ship's two bells—one now in the
Kloosterkerk in
the Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
—being recovered. The wreck of , was also found the same day by the same divers. The same dive group then found on 12 August 2004.
In 2016 it was discovered that the wrecks of ''De Ruyter'' and ''Java'', and much of ''Kortenaer'' had disappeared from the seabed, although their imprints on the ocean floor remained. Over 100 ships and submarines of various countries sank during the war in the seas around Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia; many are designated as
war grave
A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations.
Definition
The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...
s. There is known to be illegal scavenging of these wrecks, often using explosives; the
Netherlands Defence Ministry suggested that ''De Ruyter'', ''Java'', and ''Kortenaer'' may have been illegally salvaged. In February 2017 a report was issued confirming the salvaging of the three wrecks.
According to Indonesian journalist Aqwam Hanifan, the remains of Dutch sailors on ''De Ruyter'' and the other illegally salvaged ships were dumped in a mass grave in east
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
.
References in text
References
* van Oosten, Franz Christiaan. "Her Netherlands Majesty's Ship ''De Ruyter''." In ''Profile Warship'', edited by Anthony Preston, 73-96. Windsor: Profile Publishing, 1974. . .
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External links
Tabular record of movement
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Ruyter (1935)
Cruisers of the Royal Netherlands Navy
1935 ships
Ships built by Wilton-Fijenoord
World War II cruisers of the Netherlands
World War II shipwrecks in the Java Sea
Maritime incidents in February 1942