Overval — the surprise attack — was the tactical form characteristic of the aggressive Dutch operations in Atjeh after 1896, in which a party surrounded a dwelling or encampment by night and opened fire without warning.
The method is described, without being named, in the account H. van Kol gave the Tweede Kamer on 16 November 1897 of the killing of Toekoe Tjoet Machmoed Lam Tenzah on 16 May 1897: the chief was killed with his wife, children and seven followers as they slept, “door salvo’s te geven door de dunne wanden der woning, tot elk geluid verstomde.” — by giving volleys through the thin walls of the dwelling, until every sound was silenced.
The tactic belongs to the system defended in the same debate by the Minister of Colonies Cremer, in which strong mobile columns operating from a few concentrated kampementen replaced the static garrisons of the geconcentreerde stelling, and in which, as he put it, whoever wished to fight had to join the bands — “een gevaarlijk bedrijf wegens het optreden onzer actieve colonnes.”
Troelstra characterised the same tactics as “eene aggressieve taktiek” which, more than any other, would cost sacrifices in money and human lives.
See Also
- Killing of Toekoe Tjoet Machmoed Lam Tenzah (16 May 1897)
- Post-1896 system in Atjeh
- Atrocities in the Aceh War as alleged in the Tweede Kamer (1897)
- H. van Kol
- J. T. Cremer
- Pieter Jelles Troelstra
- 1897
Source
Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer: Debatten bij de behandeling der begrooting van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1898, uitgave van de Sociaaldemokratische Arbeiderspartij in Nederland (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br P95-178, pp. 10–11, 34, 54.
Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer: Debatten bij de behandeling der begrooting van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1898 (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.