The bivak — the field camp or bivouac — was the nightly camp of a Marechaussee patrouille in the rimboe (jungle), built each evening with the klewang as the only tool: an afdakje (lean-to) made of the brigadezeilen (brigade tarps), a pagger (fence) of tiangs (poles) and blandars (horizontal beams) around it to break the eerste aanloop of a possible overval, a tentje for the dwangarbeiders, and afdakjes for the wacht and the posten. The bivak was both the daily camp and the daily act of construction that made the colonne method possible: a patrouille that built its own camp each night could operate indefinitely in the rimboe.
Construction
“Het bivak was heel eenvoudig een afdakje, gemaakt van de brigadezeilen, twee over elkaar heenstekende lappen van 19 meter lang.” The afdakje — the lean-to — was made of the brigadezeilen, two overlapping 19-metre tarps. The pagger — the fence around the bivak — was made of tiangs (poles) at 1½ metre intervals with five blandars (horizontal beams) bound along. “Het maken ervan [werd] altijd voorgeschreven, omdat men anders wel eens slappe broeders onder de brigadecommandanten kon krijgen” — the construction was always prescribed, because otherwise one might get weak brothers among the brigadecommandanten.
“Het gereedschap was de klewang en verder niet” — the tool was the klewang and nothing else. The ligplaats (sleeping place) of each man was “de lengte van een klewang” — the length of a klewang.
The pagger and the defence
The pagger was the defensive fence around the bivak, built to break the eerste aanloop (first rush) of a possible overval (surprise attack). The tiangs (poles) at 1½ metre intervals, with five blandars (horizontal beams) bound along, made a fence that would slow an attacker long enough for the patrouille to take up its weapons. The pagger was therefore both a defensive work and a discipline: a brigadecommandant who failed to build it was a slappe broeder (weak brother).
The tentje and the dwangarbeiders
The dwangarbeiders — the Buginese convicts who served as dragers for the patrouille — had their own tentje in the bivak. The colonne Schmidt’s twenty-five dwangarbeiders “hadden hun eigen tentje” — had their own little tent — separate from the soldiers’ afdakje. The dwangarbeiders also performed the geweldige prestaties of dragging the draagstokken over the steile hellingen, and cooked tea for the geheel in the patrouilleblikken.
The kongsies and the cooking
“Op patrouille werd dan verder zelf gekookt door de kongsis, ook wel droms genoemd. De Ambonezen deden met de Timorezen samen, de Menadonezen alleen en de enkele Soendanees of Madoerees van de brigade kwam bij de Javanen.” The cooking groups — kongsies or droms — were organised by bangsa: Ambonezen + Timorezen together; Menadonezen alone; Javanen + Soendanezen + Madoerezen together. Each kongsi cooked for itself on the modeleetketels.
The bivak and the colonne method
The bivak was the daily act of construction that made the colonne method possible. A patrouille that built its own camp each night could operate indefinitely in the rimboe; a patrouille that depended on fixed posts could not. The bivak was therefore the instrument of the colonne’s mobility: the small, highly trained patrouille, building its own camp each night, was the unit that could follow the bekas into the rimboe and engage the bende on its own ground.
Significance
The bivak is significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the daily act of construction that made the colonne method possible. The book’s argument is that the colonne method — small, highly trained patrouilles operating with local intelligence against a religiously motivated resistance — depended on the bivak: the patrouille that built its own camp each night could operate indefinitely in the rimboe. The bivak is therefore the book’s marker of the colonne’s mobility, and of the klewang’s double function as weapon and tool.
See Also
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- Colonne Schmidt campaign against the Tiriō Teungkoes (1910-1911)
- Klewang
- Pagger
- Kongsi
- Dwangarbeiders (Boeginezen)
- Bekas
- Rimboe
- Modelketketels (model-etabletels) van het K.N.I.L.
- Atjeh-oorlog
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
Military post. Examples: Geunteuët (marschbivak), Geumpang (bivak), Bakongan (bivak established 1926), Tangsé (bivakwith lieutenant’s dwelling within barbed wire).Meloewak and Koengké on the route from Koeta Tjané to Blang Kedjerën.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 49, 55, 61, 80.
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “De patrouille.”
Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 49, 55, 61, 80.