The karabijn der Maréchaussée was the carbine with which the Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh was armed — first the Beaumont-karabijn and later the Mannlicher — and which, with the klewang, constituted the corps’s characteristically light armament.
The two patterns
The 1930 jubilee number records that the maréchaussées “waren bewapend met een karabijn, eerst de Beaumont-karabijn en later de Mannlicher, en het specifieke wapen van den Atjeher, een klewang, waarmede hij thans zelf werd bestreden” — were armed with a carbine, first the Beaumont carbine and later the Mannlicher, and with the specific weapon of the Atjehnese, a klewang, with which he was now himself fought.
The Beaumont was the older Netherlands service pattern; the Mannlicher the magazine rifle that succeeded it, the carbine version of which was carried by the corps.
Tactical importance
The light armament was one of the reasons for the corps’s mobility. The jubilee account observes that the maréchaussées “verplaatsten zich in hun gehardheid en ook door hun lichte bewapening gemakkelijk” — moved easily by reason of their hardiness and also of their light armament — which fitted them for the patrouille work of pursuing the resistance into the interior.
An instance of the carbine’s use under extreme conditions is recorded from the Westkust engagement in which Captain J. Paris fell: the maréchaussée-soldier Leleng, having lost the use of his left hand through a wound, took part in the firing into the alang-alang by placing his carbine between his knees and discharging it with his right hand.
See Also
- Korps Maréchaussée te voet in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Klewang
- Beaumont-geweer
- Karabijn (M. 95)
- Leleng
- Patrouille (Maréchaussée)
Source
Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh: De Atjehsche Garde, 1890 - 2 April 1930, Extra Jubileum-nummer of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië issued for the fortieth anniversary of the corps (1930), pp. 1-16. Offprint DLP-143, Bibliotheek KITLV, accession 621 116 794.