The Westerlinie (Dutch for “Western Line”) was the western of the four lines of the concentratie-linie around Kota Radja in Atjeh, a series of posts west of Kota Radja to connect it with Marassa and Lampassei. It was established by General Pel in May-June 1874 in response to the enemy’s resumption of the struggle after the departure of Van Swieten on 26 April 26 April 1874, and was the most important of the four lines because it included Oleh-leh, the principal landing-place and port of the Dutch garrison.
Background
In May-June 1874 the enemy resumed the struggle “with the greatest possible boldness and perseverance,” evidently in the hope of overwhelming the weakened garrison and recovering what had been lost. In the months of May and June the Dutch troops had to fight unceasingly; both the Dutch posts and the territory of the Dutch ally Toekoe Nek were repeatedly attacked. To protect the latter adequately, Pel occupied the Westerlinie — a series of posts west of Kota Radja to connect it with the territory of Marassa and Lampassei.
The Principal Post: Oleh-leh
The principal post on the Westerlinie was Oleh-leh on the coast west of the mouth of the Atjeh river. As the reede of Oleh-leh, especially during the west monsoon, proved to offer many advantages over that of the mouth of the Atjeh river, it was made suitable for unloading and loading by the construction of a temporary bamboo sea-head, replaced on 11 August 11 August 1874 by a wooden auxiliary head built by the engineers. In July 1874 Soerian was occupied after a fierce fight in which a first storming had failed, to maintain communication with Oleh-leh.
The Engineers’ Works
For the better preservation of the connection with the Atjeh river and to defeat the enemy’s attempts to cut the Dutch off from it, the Noorderlinie was also strengthened by the establishment of posts at Lamara and Kota Radja Bedil. The engineers had also to provide for the works at the sea-head on iron screw-piles at Oleh-leh, completed in September 1876, and at the railway between Oleh-leh and Kota Radja, completed in November 1876.
Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — the western line of 1876
H. F. Meijer, in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883), gives the western line of the consolidation year in its composition: Olehleh, Lampasei, Blang-Oë, Sinangri and Lampagar; plus Pakan Badak, Boekit Seboen, Djempit and Boekit Daroe — with Kroeëng Raba was added that summer — the line commander’s station first at Olehleh and then at Pakan Badak. The purpose of its works ran: protection of the submitted population of the IV and VI Moekims, control by passes of the growing traffic through Pakan Badak and by licence of the rice and betel trade between the IV Moekims and the Atjehnese enemy of the XXII Moekims, and the watching of the mountain over which went all the raiding ways from west and south. Its commander in the summer of 1876 was Lieutenant-Colonel of Infantry Haus, who from it ordered the Gli Taroem night ambush, and its post commanders combined in the patrol arrangement — three combined patrols per week at unfixed hours in fixed sectors, with the controleur’s interpreters from Olehleh going with or without him in charge — by which the increasing unsafety of the pacified zone was to be answered.
The line’s year contains in miniature the whole Dutch problem of those years: from the quiet eastern patrols of the spring to the disaster of the badly fortified post at Lampagar on the friendly ground, and the never-quiet April and June traffic between the IV Moekims and the enemy’s hungry districts.
See Also
- Concentratie-linie
- Noorderlinie
- Zuidoosterlinie
- Noordoosterlinie
- Oleh-leh
- Marassa
- Lampassei
- Soerian
- Lamara
- J. L. J. H. Pel
- J. van Swieten
- Toekoe Nek Radja Moeda Setia
- Aceh War
Source
De geschiedenis van Nederland in onzen tijd, by J. A. de Bruyne, Directeur der Hoogere Burgerschool te Zierikzee. Deel IV. 1872-1883. Nieuwe uitgave. Schiedam: J. F. Dupont, 1912, Hoofdstuk I, pp. 33-37, 64-65.