Panton Laboe was a place on the oostkust (east coast) of Atjeh, in the afdeeling Oostkust van Atjeh south of Lho Seumawé and west of Idi, that appears in the Dutch record across two periods: first, as a coastal place named in the 1880s pamphlet literature on the Atjeh War in connection with the coastal lights (kustlichten) held to be needed for world trade; and second, as a Dutch bivak of the Korps Maréchaussee in the Dutch staff history’s account (Deel VI, Hoofdstuk V), whose garrison was the first Dutch force in Atjeh to sight the approaching Japanese invasion fleet on the night of 11–12 March 12 March 1942.
The 1880s: coastal lights and the Atjeh War
Panton Laboe is named in the Dutch pamphlet Beschouwingen over Atjeh en onzen oorlog met dat rijk by Een Ooggetuige (1880s) in the course of the author’s discussion of the Atjehnese coast and the coastal lights required for world trade. The pamphlet was issued with a folded map — the *Kaart van het Oorlogstooneel, de Vaarwaters en vereischte Kustlichten voor den Wereldhandel* — “Map of the Theatre of War, the Waterways and required Coastal Lights for World Trade” — which set out the Atjehnese coast, the waterways around it, and the positions at which coastal lights were held to be needed. Panton Laboe is one of the coastal places named in the pamphlet as points on the Atjehnese coast whose development was, in the author’s view, central to the settlement of the country and to the development of its trade.
The reference to Panton Laboe in the 1880s pamphlet literature is a document of the geography of the Atjehnese coast as it was known to Dutch observers during the middle phase of the Atjeh War, and of the strategic and commercial thinking that underlay the Dutch continuation of the war. The author’s argument for the lighting of the coast was part of his wider argument that Atjeh, properly developed, could serve as a station for world trade on the great sea-route between the Suez Canal and the Far East.
The pre-war garrison
As of 1 January 1940, Panton Laboe held three brigades of the Vde Divisie Maréchaussee. In the 1940–1941 reorganisations the Panton Laboe brigades were assigned a defensietaak — “het beveiligen van de vernielingswerken der olieterreinen in de omgeving van Koeala Simpang” — together with the brigades of the Vde Divisie at Lho Soekoen and Paja Bakong and the brigades of the 1ste Garnizoensbataljon at Lho Seumawé and Lokop.
The 11/12 March 1942 sighting
As detachementscommandant at Panton Laboe, Lt Westerweel had under his command, on the night of 11–12 March 12 March 1942, three brigades of the Seulimeum-colonne. He received a report from the kustwacht that hundreds of lights had been observed on the sea off the coast. He immediately dispatched one brigade by auto in the direction of Idi, where the lights had been sighted, with orders to establish what was happening. At daybreak the brigade-commandant reported by telephone that nine large ships were lying in line off the coast and that troops were being put ashore. After a brief patrol the brigade was nearly cut off by a Japanese patrol and forced to return. Westerweel alarmed the other posts and informed the Territoriaal Commandant at Takengon; he was ordered to move his brigades to Takengon as quickly as possible, which he did, arriving in the late evening.
Significance
Panton Laboe is significant within the AcehWiki corpus for two periods of Atjeh’s history. In the 1880s, it is recorded in the contemporary Dutch pamphlet literature on the Atjeh War as a coastal place whose development was central to the author’s argument on the coastal lights and the strategic value of the Atjehnese coast for world trade. In 1942, it is the bivak whose kustwacht report of the night of 11–12 March 12 March was the first Dutch observation of the approaching Japanese invasion fleet. The Panton Laboe sighting — transmitted by Westerweel to the Territoriaal Commandant at Takengon — was the operational trigger of the Dutch central-Atjeh reorganisation of 12 March 12 March, and the first link in the chain of engagements that would close with the capitulation of 28 March 1942 at Blangkedjeren.
See Also
- Beschouwingen over Atjeh en onzen oorlog met dat rijk
- Een Ooggetuige
- Kaart van het Oorlogstooneel
- Nederlands-Indië contra Japan
- 5de (Vde) Divisie Marechaussee
- J. F. Westerweel
- Lho Seumawé
- Idi
- Takengon
- Japanese invasion of Atjèh
- Aceh War
- 1880s
- 1942
Sources
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. 114, 143.
Beschouwingen over Atjeh en onzen oorlog met dat rijk, door Een Ooggetuige, met een Kaart van het Oorlogstooneel, de Vaarwaters en vereischte Kustlichten voor den Wereldhandel (Rotterdam: Van Meurs & Stufkens, [c. 1880s]). Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, shelfmark 1830 C17 2611 / 1830 0947 8285.