They were built in Dutch shipyards to a design by the British Yarrow Shipbuilders, which was based on the destroyer HMS Ambuscade, which Yarrow had designed and built for the British Royal Navy.

[1][3] The ship was laid down on 26 August 1925, at the shipyard of Burgerhout's Scheepswerf en Machinefabriek in Rotterdam, and launched on 2 April 1927.

[4] On 23 August 1936, Piet Hein, the cruiser Java and her sister Sumatra, and the destroyers Van Galen and Witte de With, were present at the fleet days held at Surabaya.

Later that year on 13 November, both Java-class cruisers and the destroyers Evertsen, Witte de With, and Piet Hein made a fleet visit to Singapore.

She took part in Battle of Badung Strait in the night of 18–19 February 1942, where she was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese destroyer Asashio, with a loss of 64 men, including its captain J.M.L.I.