Netherlands in World War I

The Kingdom of the Netherlands was neutral during World War I. This was part of a strict policy of neutrality in international affairs that started in 1830 with the secession of Belgium, or the Southern Netherlands, from the north. It would end with the German invasion of 10 May 1940. In World War I the Netherlands would be in a tight spot as the country was relatively close to the Western Front and geographically positioned in between the German Empire, German-occupied Belgium and the United Kingdom. Both warring factions would regularly intimidate the Netherlands and put demands on it.

Monument commemorating 300 dead fishermen of Scheveningen.

Position prior to World War I

Prior to the First World War, the Netherlands hosted two major international peace conferences in The Hague. The First Hague Conference was held in May 1899 on the initiative of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II. Representatives of twenty-six nations conferred on the limitation of certain types of weapons, including poison gas, hollow point bullets and aerial bombardment from hot air balloons. The conference was a surprising success and agreements were made on the laws of war and subsequent war crimes.

In 1907, there was a Second Hague Conference at the instigation of the American president, Theodore Roosevelt. It had been planned for 1904 but had to be postponed because of the Russo-Japanese War. The second conference is generally considered a failure. The philanthropic American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie financed the building of the Peace Palace in The Hague to house the International Court of Justice. Today The Hague still is a centre of international law.

Dutch Politics

Royal House

The head of state of the Netherlands was Queen Wilhelmina. She was known as fiercely patriotic and strong-willed. Queen Wilhelmina leaned towards sympathy for France and Belgium, but only in private. In public she remained purely neutral. Her husband, the German prince-consort Henry Duke zu Mecklenburg-Schwerin, was openly pro-German. The army of his nephew, Frederick Francis IV Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, was part of the German army. Within the Prussian army there was the 'Husaren-Regiment Königin Wilhelmina der Niederlande (Hannoversches) Nr. 15', a Prussian cavalry regiment named after Wilhelmina of which she was honorary commander.

Government

On 29 August 1913 a centrist liberal minority cabinet was appointed under leadership of prime minister Pieter W.A. Cort van der Linden, an independent liberal MP. His cabinet would reign until 9 September 1918, an unusual long period for a Dutch cabinet. During this period the important post of minister of Foreign Affairs was taken by Jonkheer John Loudon. Minister of War was former general Nicolaas Bosboom (until 15 May 1917). Although the government as a whole was strictly neutral, the individual members had their preferences. Some ministers were in favour of France, but prime minister Cort van der Linden was privately seen as ‘German friendly’ and nicknamed ‘Kurt unter der Linden’ after Berlin’s main boulevard.

Declaration of neutrality

After the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia in the aftermath of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, the Netherlands declared themselves neutral on 30 July 1914. According to international law neutrality had to be declared in each instance of a war declaration between two sovereign nations. During the month of August many the Dutch declaration of neutrality had to be repeated regularly. The declaration consisted of eighteen articles. The most important were that hostilities were not allowed within the territory and waters of the Dutch Empire; that it was not allowed to use said territory and waters as a base for military operations; and that foreign soldiers whom, for whatever reason, crossed into Dutch territory would be interned in POW camps for the duration of the war.

The military

On 31 July, the Dutch government ordered a full military mobilisation of its 200,000 man-strong conscript armed forces, including reserves and regional militias. The chief of staff lieutenant-general Cornelis Snijders was promoted to full general and commander-in-chief, a function that only existed in war time. Snijders would be the first non-aristocratic Dutch general to become commander-in-chief, a position until then reserved for senior princes of the House of Orange.

The Dutch military strategy was purely defensive and rested on three pillars. First there was the ‘Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie’ (New Holland Waterline), a defensive ring of rivers and lowland surrounding Holland proper that would be inundated. An older version had existed since the sixteenth century. A second line of defence was formed by a circle of nineteenth-century fortresses and further inundations surrounding the capital Amsterdam, called the Vesting van Amsterdam (Fortress of Amsterdam). The third pillar was the Veldleger, or mobile field army, that would operate outside the Waterline in the rural eastern and southern provinces. In August 1914 the field army had an operational strength of 88,770 soldiers.

The main weapons were the Männlicher rifle and the Schwarzlose machine gun, both manufactured in Austria. Artillery was often out-dated, especially the artillery in the fortifications. At the start of the war there was no air force, only a starting aviation department within the army. It had a couple of Farman planes build in license. Later during the war foreign planes who had crashed into Dutch territory would be repaired to serve in the aviation department.

During the war, militarily sensitive border areas and places essential to the national defence would be declared in ‘state of siege’, a phase preceding the ‘state of war’. There, military authorities would rule under martial law and non-residents could only go there with a special permit. These prohibited border areas would expand during the war in order to fight espionage and expel suspect individuals.

Some Dutchmen did volunteer for service in the French, British and German or Austro-Hungarian armies, but exact numbers are unknown. An example is adventurer Louis Grondijs who served in the French Foreign Legion. The German army did not accept foreign volunteers, unless they possessed German nationality as well. Foreign volunteers were often directed to allied armies such as the Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian or Ottoman.

Prisoners of war

According to international law soldiers of the warring nations who entered a neutral country had to be interned for the duration of the war. Of the soldiers who entered the Netherlands on purpose or by mistake, 33,105 were Belgian, 1,751 British, 1,461 German, 8 French and 4 American. Among these were also pilots who had flown into Dutch airspace and crashed.

Monument build by Belgian POW's near Amersfoort.

Most Belgian and British POW's had fled to the Netherlands after the fall of Antwerp. The Belgians were held captive in Kamp Amersfoort. After a revolt resulted in the death of 7 Belgians, the camp regime was softened. Often their wifes and kids would seek accommodation in the vicinity.

Most British were members of the First Naval Brigade. They were interned in Groningen City, where they were held captive under a mild regime, allowing for trips into the city. Some British soldiers formed a cabaret group named 'The Timbertown Follies' with which they toured throughout the country. The proceeds were donated to charities. Others would knit jumpers and socks for the British navy.

Many German soldiers entered the Netherlands by mistake, especially at the beginning of the war, as the border between the Netherlands and Belgium can be confusing. German patrols were arrested. The German prisoner of war camp was at Bergen in the province of North-Holland.

Deserters

Deserters were not considered foreign soldiers when they entered neutral territory if they were unarmed, took of badges from their uniform and proclaimed themselves deserter to the proper authorities. Numbers are unknown, but most deserters by far were German. As deserters had no rights to hand-outs like free accommodation or food, some of them would be voluntarily interned in POW-camps.

Refugee's

After the German invasion of Belgium on 4 August 1914 a total of one million of seven million Belgians fled their country into the Netherlands. The first wave consisted of Belgian Germans, German-speaking East Europeans and Jews who fell victim to the Belgian public’s outrage directly after the invasion. Their businesses and homes were often raided by angry mobs.

The second wave was caused by the German army’s onslaught and war crimes against civilians. Between August and October 1914, a total of one million Belgians would flee to the Netherlands. Most of those refugees would return when the war concentrated itself around the Western Front. Others would move on to England and France. On average 100,000 Belgians stayed in refugee camps during the war. The largest refugee camp was in Nunspeet.

Apart from Belgian civilians there were political refugees from Germany such as the German-American socialist Carl Minster, Germans who escaped conscription into the army and from German camps escaped POW's, mostly Russians.

Incidents

Dutch shipping and sailors suffered most from war related incidents. Several ships were torpedoed by German U-boats or sunk by British sea mines. The fishing town of Scheveningen would loose 300 fishermen. In total 862 fishermen would die and 175 fishing ships would sink. Some sea mines would wash ashore and kill incautious bystanders or military specialists tasked with disarming the sea mines. In order to protect merchant ships the Netherlands negotiated with Germany a free channel from the coast via the Doggersbank to the north of the North Sea.

Both Allied and German air planes violated Dutch airspace. On several occasions both British and German lost pilots would drop bombs on Dutch towns. The worst incident occurred on 30 April 1917 when a lost British pilot of the Royal Naval Air Service dropped 8 bombs on the town of Zierikzee, damaging several houses and killing a family of 3 people. After initial denial, the British government apologised and agreed to compensate for damage and loss of life.

German Zeppelins going to or returning from bombing raids on England, would violate Dutch airspace due to weather conditions such as wind or fog. Coastguard soldiers would often open fire, as was the case with the LZ54 (L 19) that would later come down in the sea. It led to the King Stephen Incident, when British sailors would let the crew drown.

Bibliography in English

• Abbenhuis, Maartje. The Art of Staying Neutral. The Netherlands in the First World War, 1914-1918. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006.
• Linden, Henk van der. The Live Bait Squadron: three mass graves off the Dutch coast, 22 September 1914. Soesterberg: Aspekt, 2014.
• Ruis, Edwin. Spynest. British and German Espionage from Neutral Holland 1914-1918. Briscombe: The History Press, 2016.