Fort bij Uithoorn (QR Defense route)

'There is nothing to do but wait'

This fort is part of the Defense Line of Amsterdam and was built around 1911. In the summer of 1914, just after the outbreak of World War I, 200,000 Dutch men were called up to enlist in the army. One of them was writer and teacher Theo Thijssen. He was quartered at this fort. About life at the fort, he wrote:

"As for the work, our fort is almost ready, and now comes really the worst time: there is nothing to do but wait, wait. Occasionally a military walk, but soon we've walked enough and for our gunners, practicing with cannons can hardly last longer than five minutes, as the handling of modern artillery is so simple that even the dumbest fool needs no practice."

Thijssen teaches one of his fellow soldiers, a 34-year-old guy, to read and write so that 'this man can at least be grateful for the mobilization later'. Nevertheless, Thijssen considers his mobilization as a 'course in human understanding and social understanding that I wish for every schoolteacher'.

The fact that little was happening is underscored by the story of a soldier who fell into the ditch, which was reported in the local newspaper:

The soldier fell into the water while he was 'a great lover of fishing' watching the anglers too closely. To see better, he leaned forward, seeking support in a branch of a bush. However, the branch broke, and G. was under in no time, his cap on the young ones. A good swimmer, G. managed to get back to dry land with his own strength, so that only a wet suit and a blue decorated with green from the fatherland were the result.

Laurien van der Vaart