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.

I 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.  They 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.

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 saw 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.
 

German propaganda poster urging Dutchmen to join their forces

Failed because of the superior German attitude towards the Dutch
 

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.

Map showing Gouda  (top right) in the direct invasion line to Rotterdam

 

It did not take long for the Germans to round up all the Foreign Nationals and, early one morning, they came and took my two brothers away – giving them time only to pack a bag.  They told me that I would be next, as soon as I was old enough.  Ted and John were taken to an Internment Camp at Schoorl, in Northern Holland in transit to a camp near Breslau in Poland.  John spent the next five years there, but Ted was released with the warning that he would also be sent there in due course.
 

Reporting the news to the British People

The London Evening Standard - 10th May 1940

 

Image© London Evening Standard

 

This was not to happen as we spent the next few years dodging the Germans.  John had been the bread winner and so we had been deprived of a source of income.  I decided to apply for a job with a company who made buses for the Dutch Railways.  I reported to the foreman who told me that I had to pass a test before I could be employed.

He took me to a long bench, fitted with several vices holding a long drive shaft and he gave me a scriber, a long metal ruler, a centre punch, a hammer and a cross-cut chisel.  My task was to make an oil groove along the length of the drive shaft.  I spent three days on this test and suffered a bloody left thumb but the foreman was pleased with the result and I got the job.

My first job was bending the tubular steel to make the frames for the seating on the buses and later, to make the fittings that would be necessary for the proper working of the automatic doors.  Very shortly afterwards, the Germans took over the factory to manufacture and repair military vehicles.

I thought it a good idea to slow down the progress on the German vehicles, if I could, and I saw an opportunity to start a one man saboteur action.  I could trust all my workmates except the doorkeeper and so I had to be wary of him.  One of my better moves was to damage a machine tool which would take two months to replace.  Another way of slowing them down was to alter the measurements on some of their drawings so that the finished components would be too big or too small to be of use – delaying their progress again.

Welding was a major part of the construction process, but the welders only had an oxygen bottle on their trolleys and the acetylene had to be accessed from a plant outside via valves around the site.  I was responsible for maintenance of the plant and for the correct mixture of calcium carbide and water in the acetylene supply.  This was another opportunity to delay production by increasing the amount of calcium carbide in the water.  The plant walls were made of compressed straw in case of an explosion, and that is just what they got.  Mind you, I was the one who had to repair the damage and get the acetylene supply going again!  It soon became obvious that I would be in serious trouble if the Gestapo became suspicious – especially being a Brit.  I hate to think what they would have done to me.

I had to jack in the job, even though this would mean there was no money coming in again.  However, help was at hand; one day, a gentleman from the International Red Cross came to see us and told us that he was able to offer the British citizens a monthly loan so that they were not forced to work for the enemy.  My brother and I quickly accepted this offer, which had to be repaid after the war – although we were never asked to repay it.  It was a life saver and I have no idea how they organised it with a War on.