Ranjoe (modern spelling ranjau; also written ran(d)joes) — a sharpened-bamboo obstacle — is a defensive vegetation used in Atjehese and Dutch fortification practice in the Atjeh-oorlog, consisting of 60 to 70 centimetre-long sharply pointed pieces of bamboo driven into the ground in oblique rows behind one another, directed toward the side from which an attacker is expected to come. The ranjoe forms “voor dezen eene zeer werkdadige hindernis” — for the attacker a very effective obstacle. The biographer Van den Berg, in his footnote to the Missigit Longbatta operation, defines ranjoes as follows: “Ran(d)joes zijn 60 à 70 centimeter lange, scherp aangepunte stukken bamboe, welke, in eenige rijen achter elkander in schuinen stand in den grond gedreven (‘geplant’) en gericht naar de zijde, van waar een aanvaller moet komen, voor dezen eene zeer werkdadige hindernis vormen.”
Use at Missigit Longbatta
The Missigit Longbatta redoubt constructed by Snijders between 1 and 13 January 13 January 1875 was, in the design of Eerste-Luitenant Merz’s eyewitness account, to be surrounded by a horizontal wire entanglement, “waarom een twee meter breede ranjoebeplanting, welke laatste natuurlijk gaandeweg moest worden aangemaakt, door voor te schrijven, dat iedere man per dag in zijn vrijen tijd 30 ranjoe’s moest leveren.” The ranjoe planting was thus a cumulative obstacle, built up by the daily quota of 30 ranjoes per man, delivered by each soldier in his free time. The quota system is one of the few recorded instances of the systematic construction of a defensive vegetation obstacle by a Dutch garrison in the Atjeh war.
Significance
The ranjoe is a native Atjehese obstacle adopted and systematised by the Dutch. Its use at Missigit Longbatta — together with the bamboe-doerie hedge at Benting Kota Alam — illustrates the practical accommodation of Dutch engineer practice to Atjehese fortification conventions. The ranjoe also figures prominently in the larger Dutch fortification system of the Atjeh war, particularly in the perimeter works around Koeta Radja and the line of blockhouses along the Atjeh Tram.
See Also
- Bamboe-doerie
- Benting
- Missigit Longbatta operation (31 December 1874 – 13 January 1875)
- Benting Kota Alam operation (13 November 1874)
- T. W. G. Merz
- Cornelis Jacobus Snijders
- Bataillon Mineurs en Sappeurs
- Aceh War
- 1875
Source
D. van den Berg, Cornelis Jacobus Snijders (1852–1939): Een leven in dienst van zijn Land en zijn Volk (Voorburg: September 1944), pp. 31–32 (with footnote defining ranjoes). Koninklijke Bibliotheek shelfmark 0301 4872.