Dardanellen — singular dardanel — was the K.N.I.L. Marechaussee term for the two voorste Marechaussees at the front of any patrouille: the point-men or skirmishers whose task was to take the first fire, read the first sporen, and engage the first enemy. The term is one of the distinctive technical vocabularies of the Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen recorded in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., and the dardanel was the most dangerous and most decorated post in the corps. The book’s most fully drawn dardanel is Nussy, who “was dardanel geweest bij Vastenou en Dersjant, vermaarde patrouillecommandanten, die schitterende resultaten hadden geboekt.”
The term and its scope
The book introduces the term in the prologue, where the kapitein of the 1e Divisie Marechaussee uit Blang Kedjeren — travelling through Medan around 1933 — “had uit de Blang zijn beide dardanellen meegenomen.” The book glosses: “lieden, die dardanellen met iets uit het Nederlandse leger willen vergelijken, geneigd zijn hen officiersoppassers te noemen, terwijl zij, die er wat meer van weten, eerder denken aan een twee-manslijfwacht.” That is, those who would compare the dardanel to something in the Dutch army are inclined to call him an officer’s orderly; those who know more would rather think of him as a two-man bodyguard. The latter is closer to the truth: the dardanellen|dardanellen were the officer’s bodyguard in the rimboe, and the point-men of the patrouille.
The dardanel in action
In the colonne Schmidt, the dardanellen|dardanellen were the two voorste Marechaussees at the front of any patrouille. When Peutoeha Gam Masén was omsingeld and summoned to surrender, “hij trok zijn reuntjong, de Atjehse kris” and threw himself on “de twee voorste Marechaussees, de dardanellen van de luitenant.” Nussy — himself a former dardanel — shot, and Enoch worked with the klewang.
On 3 December 1911, the korporaal Nussy went out with his spits (the man ahead of even the dardanel), who soon turned back. Alone, Nussy gave the vogelgeluid signaal and waited. Three armed Acehnese approached; the voorste was Tgk. Tjhi Ma’at, who aimed his revolver at Nussy. Nussy shot first. The episode is the book’s set-piece of the dardanel’s work: alone, ahead of the patrol, reading the sporen and engaging the enemy first.
The dardanel as the corps’s most decorated post
Because the dardanel took the first fire and engaged the first enemy, the post was the most dangerous in the corps and the most decorated. Nussy — a dardanel under Vastenou and Dersjant — became a Ridder 3e klas of the M.W.O.. The pairing of the dardanel with the spits (the man ahead of even the dardanel) and the bekas spoorzoeker (the footprint-reader) made up the point-system of the Marechaussee patrouille.
Significance
The dardanellen|dardanellen are significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the distinctive technical vocabulary of the Marechaussee’s patrouille method. The term — which has no exact equivalent in the Dutch metropolitan army — marks the corps as a colonial institution with its own idiom, developed in the rimboe of Aceh rather than in the barracks of the Netherlands. The book’s set-piece dardanellen|dardanellen — Nussy above all — are the figures through whom Dames makes his argument about the moral economy of the colonial army: the men who went ahead alone, shot first, and earned the decorations that the slippendragers at Thenu’s funeral would carry.
See Also
- Nussy
- Vastenou
- Dersjant
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- Colonne Schmidt campaign against the Tiriō Teungkoes (1910-1911)
- Bekas
- Bivak
- Klewang
- Reuntjong
- Atjeh-oorlog
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), prologue “Bij ons…” and chapter “De colonne Schmidt.”