Moerdijk Bridges, military 1-I-28 RI - April 12, 1940
12th April 1940. Dear family… With this message, I inform you that I have arrived in Willemsdorp from Werkendam. We woke up at 2 o’clock last night, and now I am in Willemsdorp. It is a very small town near the Moerdijk Bridge, which we will have guard along with the surrounding positions. I hope to leave this place soon, as I am already fed up with it. It’s quite boring here. We have to sleep at a farmer’s place where everything is a bit crowded, but we manage to sleep together and it’s not too bad. 1-I-28 RI, Vesting Holland.
The sentence “Nu ik hoop dat ik hier weer gouw vandaan zal wezen, want ik heb het hier al gezien, het is maar een negerij” is notable. It expresses the dissatisfaction that the soldier feels about the conditions in Willemsdorp. As described by Mr. G.L. Van der Hum in his personal account of the May days of 1940 in the book “Dordrecht 1939-1945 Deel 1”, a company of the 28th Infantry Regiment was stationed at “de boerderij van Kaijen.” Some weeks prior, the ammunition had been confiscated upon the orders of the garrison commander of Dordrecht. This action was taken due to the discontent among the stationed soldiers regarding the living facilities. Almost all the soldiers of that company were captured by German paratroopers on May 10, 1940. *3
