Blang Pidië was a Dutch bivak of the 1ste Garnizoensbataljon on the Westkust van Atjeh between Tjalang and Tapatoean. In the Dutch staff history’s account (Deel VI, Hoofdstuk V), Blang Pidië is the Westkust bivak whose bivak — holding 1,500 Westkust women and children under three-brigade dekking in mid-March 1942 — was the principal concentration point of the Westkust evacuation, and the bivak whose attack by a 200-man bende on 16 March 16 March 1942 precipitated the Battle of Blang Pidië.
Pre-war garrison
As of 1 January 1940, Blang Pidië held four brigades of the 1ste Garnizoensbataljon. The bivak survived the 1940 reorganisations that dissolved the Tapatoean and Meulaboh detachments, and was one of the few Westkust bivaks to retain its 1ste Garnizoensbataljon garrison through 1941.
The 16 March 1942 attack
By 16 March 16 March 1942 the bivak at Blang Pidië held 1,500 women and children of the Westkust evacuation, guarded by three brigades. At dawn the bivak was attacked by “een bende van ongeveer 200 man.” The attack was beaten off; the detachementscommandant “met 2 brigades uitgerukt en had het terrein om het bivak van vijanden gezuiverd.” The Blang Pidië attack was the immediate trigger of Lt Zijlmans’s two-brigade relief column from Meulaboh, which fought the Battle of Blang Pidië — a 15-hour ambush march from Blang Pidië to Tapatoean on 17 March 17 March 1942, leaving 200–300 Atjehnese dead.
Significance
Blang Pidië is, in the staff history’s Atjeh chapter, the Westkust bivak whose 1,500-strong women-and-children concentration made it the principal target of Atjehnese attack in mid-March 1942, and the bivak whose attack precipitated the largest sustained infantry engagement of the Westkust campaign. The staff history’s emphasis on the bivak’s concentration function — and on the three-brigade dekking that successfully repelled the 200-man attack — frames Blang Pidië as the staff history’s principal narrative instance of the Westkust bivak as both target and stronghold of the evacuation.
See Also
- Nederlands-Indië contra Japan
- 1ste Garnizoensbataljon
- 2de (IIde) Divisie Marechaussee
- A. Zijlmans
- Evers
- Battle of Blang Pidië (16 March 1942)
- Evacuation of women and children from the Westkust of Atjeh (March 1942)
- Tjalang
- Tapatoean
- Meulaboh
- 1942
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
Military post on the Westkust road, between Lam lë and Tapa Toean.Bivak whose commandant still functions as schakel-officier.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 52, 328.
Source
Nederlands-Indië contra Japan, Deel VI: De strijd op Ambon, Timor en Sumatra, bewerkt door C. van den Hoogenband en L. Schotborgh (‘s-Gravenhage: Staatsdrukkerij- en Uitgeverijbedrijf, 1959), Hoofdstuk V (“De strijd in Noord-Sumatra (Atjeh)”), pp. 115, 133–137.
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. 52, 328.