The achterlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M. (12 cm breech-loading rifled guns) were the modern steel artillery pieces trialled at Tjikarang on Java in October 1873 and sent with the second expedition against Atjeh — the first breech-loading rifled guns ever used on an Indische expedition. Borel, himself a kapitein der artillerie, consistently praises the achterlaadkanonnen and indicts generaal van Swieten for recalling them to Java in February 1874. The guns’ schokbuis (impact fuze) shells burst reliably on contact — in contrast to the tijdbuis (time fuze) shells of the voorlaadkanonnen that failed on Atjeh’s wet, bedekte terrain.
The First Use on an Indische Expedition
The despatch of the achterlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M. to Atjeh in 1873 was, in Borel’s account, a notable innovation: breech-loading rifled steel guns had never before been sent on an Indische expedition. The guns were trialled at Tjikarang on Java in October 1873 and judged to have “uitstekende diensten bewezen.” They formed part of the materieel of the two companies of vesting-artillerie sent with the second expedition, together with mortieren van 20 c.M. and the older voorlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M. The achterlaadkanonnen were the principal piece with which the nineteen-day bombardment of the Kraton from 6 January to 23 January 1874 was conducted. Their schokbuis shells burst reliably on contact with the earthen borstwering of the Kraton, in contrast to the tijdbuis shells of the voorlaadkanonnen, half of which failed to explode. Borel credits the artillerie alone with driving the enemy out of the Kraton.
The Recall to Java
After the fall of the Kraton on 24 January 1874 and the declaration that the offensive was over, van Swieten “stak het zwaard voor goed in de scheede.” Among the measures of force reduction that followed the expedition to Ketapang Doewa of 15 February 1874 was the recall to Java of one of the two companies of vesting-artillerie, with much of the materieel — including the achterlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M., “het beste geschut dat hij bezat.” “Wat den opperbevelhebber bewoog zich zoo ontijdig en onnoodig te ontdoen van het beste geschut dat hij bezat, valt moeilijk te beslissen,” Borel writes. The recall was, in Borel’s judgement, an act of strategic vandalism: it stripped the bezettingskorps of the one piece of modern materieel that could reliably engage the Atjehnese stellingen.
Pel’s Request for Return and the Vindication
kolonel Pel — who inherited the bezettingskorps on 26 April 1874 — “dacht er evenwel geheel anders over” than van Swieten on the question of artillery. As early as 28 April 1874 he ordered the vesting-artillerie to open fire from the voorlaad-kanonnen van 12 c.M. on all kampongs within range — daily, at varying hours. Half of the 12 c.M. puntgranaten failed to explode, exposing the inadequacy of the obsolete materieel. The bombardment led directly to the request to return the achterlaadgeschut from Java. With the returned achterlaadkanonnen the vesting-artillerie could at last engage the enemy stellingen effectively. The destruction of the Lampoe Oek fortification on 18 September 1874 — “What had not been obtained earlier through fierce struggle costing heavy sacrifices was now achieved by a few cannon shots” — was the work of the 12 c.M. achterlaadkanon. The destruction of Mandarsa Poeti on 5 October 1874, the silencing of the enemy lilla’s after the first enemy shelling of K. Radja on 24 August 1874, the bombardment of Pendetti on 15 May 1874 and the destruction of the enemy benteng south of K. Radja on 29 August 1874 were all the work of the achterlaadkanonnen. Borel’s proposal for the Indische Brigade in 1878 prescribed that the brigade be armed with steel achterlaadkanonnen with schokbuis — the modern materieel whose absence Borel had indicted throughout the book.
See Also
- Vesting-artillerie in Atjeh
- Voorlaadkanonnen in Atjeh
- Bombardment of the Kraton (January 1874)
- Destruction of the Lampoe Oek fortification (18 September 1874)
- Pendetti
- Generaal Pel
- Jan van Swieten
- G. F. W. Borel
- Indische Brigade (proposed)
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 24–29, 44, 48, 54, 102, 116–118, 124, 161, 175, 184, 191–198, 202, 336–337.