OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES

Egbert “Dutchie” Hughes – A Life at War

The following story is as told to me by Egbert “Dutchie” Hughes and represents his personal memories, as told to me, from birth to the end of the War:

On the morning of 10th May 1940, I was awoken by the drone of heavy bombers and the rattle of machine gun fire.  This could only be dog-fighting between the modern German fighters and the antiquated Royal Dutch Air Force in their ancient bi-planes.  I later learned that 65 of the 140 strong Dutch Air Force planes had been destroyed on this first day of fighting.

looked out of the window and noticed a lot of Dutch military activity; I got dressed and went down to speak to the soldiers and ask them what was happening.  Thewasy told me that Germany had invaded The Netherlands and that heavy fighting was going on in some areas.  German paratroops had landed in all the strategic areas such as the Ports, airfields and even the grounds of the Royal Palace in The Hague.  However, the Royal Family had already fled to England, via Zeeland, and would establish a Government in Exile there.

Reporting the news to the British People

The London Evening Standard - 10th May 1940

 

After five days of heavy fighting, the Dutch Military authorities decided to surrender because of the heavy loss of life that had already taken place and to prevent any further unnecessary bloodshed.  On 15th May 1940, General Henri Winkelman signed the Dutch Capitulation documents.  However, this was not before the Luftwaffe received the order to stop bombing and Rotterdam received a serious pounding and many civilians and Dutch and German troops were killed in the fighting.

During the fighting, the sky was filled with smoke and the smell of burning paper; the sky was full of bits of burning paper.  Thousands of people fled from the battle areas, mainly on bicycles, and escapees from the burning city of Rotterdam gravitated towards Gouda.  My mother took in 19 refugees; the ladies slept in our beds and the remainder – including us – slept on the floor.

The next morning, a Dutch Army vehicle stopped outside our door.  I went to see and it was laden with soldiers, all in a state of shock, one of them was crying and shaking like a leaf.  I got a glass of water and held it to his lips, but he was shaking so much, he spilled most of it and his teeth were rattling against the glass – I don’t know what happened to them.

A few days later, I was standing on the pavement and heard the sound of a heavy vehicle; I heard a German tank come round the corner, with many marching soldiers singing their marching songs.  I took an instant dislike to their jackboots and their awful helmets.  They came to a halt and started knocking on doors asking for their water bottles to be filled.  I think they had been told to be friendly towards the Dutch people, because they were not hostile.

They went on and assembled in the Market Place; some of them started to take over buildings such as schools and warehouses, and the Officer in charge settled himself in the Hotel de Zalm in the Market Square.  The Germans wasted no time in exerting their authority – posters and signposts appeared everywhere, telling us that the penalty for disobeying German orders would be death.

At some point, after the invasion, I returned to school, but one day a German teacher arrived – probably to promulgate some German propaganda – and I made my resentment noticeable.  I decided to leave school and took a day course in engineering at the Technical College; later, I changed to evening classes but this soon became impossible because of the curfew imposed by the Germans.

Image © London Evening Standard