The Zuidoosterlinie (Dutch for “South-Eastern Line”) was the south-eastern of the four lines of the concentratie-linie around Kota Radja in Atjeh, placed under the command of Colonel K. van der Heyden from 1 April 1 April 1876 and frequently attacked by the enemy throughout the war. The line included the posts at Atoeh, Biloel, Boekit Daroe, and Pagger Ajer, and was the most troubled of the four lines.
Background
When General Wiggers van Kerchem arrived in Atjeh on 10 March 10 March 1876 to take command, in the first period of his administration he sought chiefly to better secure the various lines and to strengthen the defensive against the attacks that continued, especially in the neighbourhood of Atoeh. At his request a chief officer was placed at his disposal “to whom he could entrust the command of a part of the now very widely dispersed garrisons, since especially in the south-east the enemy’s boldness daily required new arrangements.” On 1 April 1 April 1876 Colonel K. van der Heyden accordingly took command of the Zuidoosterlinie, with instructions “to clear the terrain near the line of enemies as much as possible, to regulate the mutual connection of the posts properly, and to connect these both with each other and with the hoofd-stelling by good roads.”
The Attack of 13 February 1876
On 13 February 13 February 1876 a sad accident befell the Dutch troops on the Zuidoosterlinie. Captain J. M. E. van Swieten marched that day, with 2 officers, 47 armed and 13 unarmed men, from Kota Radja to Atoeh; the latter were convalescents of the left half 6th bataljon, returning to their corps, the armed men serving to fill up this bataljon. These soldiers, of whom the Europeans — 28 in number — were almost all newcomers, were not accompanied by sub-officers or corporals, and there was therefore little cohesion in the troop. Without having met an enemy, the detachment reached Pagger Ajer Missigit; but when it had passed this post by a distance of 1200 to 1500 paces, it was attacked by superior force. As the captain was apparently under the impression that Atoeh could soon be reached, he tried by salvos to keep the enemy at a distance and to continue the march as quickly as possible. As a result the troop soon fell entirely apart; and when at last, on the sawah plain between North-Atoeh, Tjot Behel and Kajoe-leh, about 1600 paces south of Lamsajoen, the enemy, estimated at 300 men strong, went over to a klewang-attack, panic arose among the soldiers; each sought a good hideout, but most were cut down, and only 13 men with 1st Lieutenant J. Bosman succeeded in reaching the Dutch post at Atoeh while fleeing. The latter officer died during the night of cholera. As soon as the fugitives arrived at Atoeh and reported what had happened, the commandant of this post at once sent a detachment of 50 men on reconnaissance and, if possible, for support. Held up by a superior enemy, this could not force a passage and brought back only the dying 2nd Lieutenant L. F. Bauduin and a severely mutilated native soldier. A second patrol of equal strength was then sent out; this succeeded in reaching the camping-place, from which it brought back the corpses of Captain Van Swieten and 17 rank-and-file to Atoeh.
The Campaigns of 1876-1877
Although the operations of May 1876 in the IX Moekims and of July 1876 in the IV and VI Moekims had the desired success, every success was only temporary. “Repeatedly the enemy took the offensive. Repeatedly patrols and transports were ambushed, often not without success, and there was scarcely a post at which one did not see enemies roaming about or that was not now and then fired upon.” In March 1877 the enemy was again punished by Van der Heyden at Biloei-Zuid.
Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — the line of 1876
H. F. Meijer, in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883), gives the south-east line as it knotted itself together in the year of the consolidation. The seven works of the first line — Biloel, Atoë, Atoë Noord, Kajoe-Lē, Lambaroe, Mesigit Pagar Ajer and Pagar-Ajer — formed the partition wall between the conquered ground south of the Atjeh River and the hostile people of the XXII Moekims; before it had been called the eastern line, after its forward growth, simply the south-east line (zuidoosterlinie). In the first weeks the task of the post commanders ran: to stop the enemy from piercing the line, to shield the peaceful people from molestation, to do him damage at every opportunity — preventing his farming on the line and his trade between hostile and friendly — but never to enter on invasions into enemy territory without leave of the commander-in-chief.
The history of the line in that year is the whole story of its poverty: too little sappers and no path, every post an island in a sea of wet sawahs, night-garrisoned and alone — with no possibility of night-help between posts, every commander knowing the article inscribed itself in his instructions: stand to the last in your own fort. From the last days of March 1876 the line was placed under a chief officer and soon, on 1 April, under Colonel K. van der Heyden, with instructions for road building and clearing, and the line commander’s own quarters set at Lambaroe. From spring to summer the line grew: fourage — from the depots of Lambaroe and Mesigit Pagar-Ajer — went out convoyed twice a week; three more forts — Atoë Noord, Biloel Zuid and finally the road between Biloel and Biloel Zuid — were made firm; by June the daily fight went on along its whole length from Lambaroe to Atoë as the guerilla returned to the attack (the ambushes of 21 March, 22–23 March and the lines of fire of June and August); and by late summer it had become what Meijer calls one of the safest of the Dutch lines, with transport wagons running its whole length in good weather.
See Also
- Concentratie-linie
- Westerlinie
- Noorderlinie
- Noordoosterlinie
- Atoöh
- Biloel
- Boekit Daroe
- Pagger Ajer
- K. van der Heyden
- J. M. E. van Swieten
- J. Bosman
- L. F. Bauduin
- 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. 75-79.