The ambush between Kota Alam and Oleh Karang (28 July 1876) was a bold attack by red-clad Atjehers on the Dutch escort of the medical officer Dr. Döring (medical officer 2nd class) on the sunken road between Kota Alam and Oleh Karang, in which the doctor — thrown by his horse, rallying the scattered soldiers himself on his own authority, and calling them on in Dutch and Malay — led a counter-charge that drove the enemy off with a loss of 12 dead. It was described by H. F. Meijer in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883).
The escort
On 28 July a detachment marched from Kota Radja to Oleh Karang to escort the medical officer 2nd class Dr. Döring, who made the march on horseback. The detachment — 31 non-commissioned officers and men under the Madurese barisan second-lieutenant Raden Ario Setjo Negoro of Bangkallang — comprised 1 European sergeant, 1 Madurese sergeant, 1 corporal, 1 bugler and 13 Madurese fusiliers of the barisan, plus 1 European corporal, 5 European and 8 native fusiliers of an infantry corps. The point was the European sergeant and 3 Madurese fusiliers, 20 paces ahead; Dr. Döring rode nearly at the rear.
The attack
The footpath between Kota Alam and Oleh Karang ran along the demolished work Lemboeq Oost, then over a sawah gone to grass and scrub, and crossed — on a footbridge — the ditch or channel from Tjapoetoe on its way to the Pidir dam, whose banks here were raised and bushy. When the detachment, marching in two files, had come to within about 25 paces of the bridge, it was suddenly and hotly fired upon from its left flank and front by enemies behind the bushes of the channel bank. Immediately, a large number of red-clad Atjehers with naked weapons in their hands sprang from behind the bushes and rushed at the detachment, which, with some killed and wounded, fell back in confusion to the south.
Dr. Döring’s horse took fright at the firing, shied and threw him; with one foot caught in the stirrup he was dragged while, around him, three soldiers fell mortally hit and a fourth grappled with the enemy. Freeing himself, Döring came up beside the European fusilier Bouman and a Madurese soldier, collected seven fusiliers around him and called on them to stand together; with them, firing, he fell back a few paces to a slightly covered position, where the barisan lieutenant Setjo Negoro joined him with seven more Madurese. When Atjehers now began, by a westerly circuit along the sawah dikes, to work round the little party’s left wing — spreading alarm through the troop — Döring called to them, first in Dutch, then in Malay: “Stand fast, stay together, help must come at once.” He moved the men slowly to a better-covered position to the east; from it the return fire grew so effective that the enemy, his circling attempts baffled, gradually drew back to his old position at the channel.
Lying with his men in their new position, Döring saw, about 150 paces ahead, two of the fallen soldiers; one still moved his arm as if calling for help — the doctor’s duty to render it. He urged the soldiers to dash forward with him and help the unlucky men; himself an example of disregard of death, he sprang ahead — but one soldier was already dead, the other dying, and of all those with him only two, the European fusiliers Van Rossum and Van Walderen, had followed. None of the Madurese barisan men — wherewith, Meijer notes, the lieutenant Raden Ario Setjo Negoro stood — obeyed. Döring, back under cover, saw some Atjehers leaving their position; guessing that enemy withdrawal had begun, he made the most of it: he cheered the soldiers again, made them give some powerful volleys, then placed himself with the Madurese lieutenant before the troop and ordered the charge.
The counter-charge
With a strong hurrah the soldiers, with both officers in front, charged the enemy position; it was abandoned. The enemy withdrew through the channel northwestward and, leaving it near kampong Lamkoeloepang, entered that kampong, where he stood and once more opened fire — to be driven out again, finally, by the 30-man patrol sent from Kota Alam under First Lieutenant Van Hoytema, who took over command and pursued him to the kampong.
Losses and assessment
Dutch losses were 1 European and 1 native sergeant and 3 Madurese fusiliers killed, and 7 wounded; the enemy left 12 dead on the ground and carried off his other dead and wounded. Meijer was explicit: that the ambush had failed, and that the soldiers had kept or regained cohesion, was only owing to the energetic bearing of the medical officer 2nd class Dr. Döring; otherwise the same would have happened here as on 14 July. And the effect outlasted the fight: the severe enemy loss at this ambush seemed to have impressed him, for for a considerable time convoys on that road were free of attacks. Meijer recorded the event among his counter-examples — evidence that the guerilla’s boldness could in a moment be broken by steadiness under fire.
See Also
- Dr. Döring (medical officer 2nd class)
- Raden Ario Setjo Negoro
- Kota Alam
- Oleh Karang
- Ambush between Pango and Kota Alam (14 July 1876)
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
- Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VII, pp. 239–245; sketches no. 7 (terrain and battlefield of 28 July 1876).