HMS Timbertown, part 2

[Henk de Groot]

Many men of the Brigade came from the Western Isles, before joining the RNR, especially from the Isle of Lewis.

The internees were guarded, but that was not very strict, as you soon will find out.....

By the way, in her book 1915-the death of innocence, written by Lyn McDonald, is the story of an escape from the camp by

Able Seaman John Henry Bentham, joined by Bob Southin (page 318-325 , McDonald calls him J.S. Bentham).

On 11th Oktobre the men arrived in Groningen, with many citizens of Groningen as onlookers.

After being housed at the barracks, they were allowed to send a postcard home to their relatives.

Their guards were Dutch Army reservists. The British officers were housed in hotels, under word of honour.

The "other ranks" had a Dutch CO and their own NCO's leading them in the Rabenhaupt-barracks.

Their menu was as follows:

Breakfast consisted of a loaf of bread, which had to last the rest of the day.

"It tasted of nothing and we thought it was made of potato-peelings and husks"

A small piece of margarine and black coffee.

Porridge was not issued until much later.

Lunch consisted of either boiled pork with potatoes or boiled leg of pork with beans, covered in lard.

A cup of tea was accompanied by a piece of Dutch cheese.

They had to make do with this "diet" for a long time, until it could not been upheld at the end of the war'

because food was getting short as a result of the blockade against Germany.

Within a fortnight the men already housed in Groningen were joined by the group of 400 from Leeuwarden,

who were temporarely housed at the "Fongers Rijwielschool" in that city.

(I didn't succeed in discovering what that "school" consisted of, but it had surely something to do with bycycles!).

This is a first glimpse of life in an internment camp..........

To be continued....

Yours, Henk