The ambush between Pango and Kota Alam (14 July 1876) was the annihilation of a Dutch fouraging detachment of 21 armed men and 14 unarmed men and market women sent, as every afternoon, from the post of Pango to fetch bread and meat at Kota Alam: attacking on open ground, killing 10 men and wounding 7, the enemy captured nearly all the detachment’s breech-loading rifles — the worst Dutch reverse on that much-contested road since February. It was described by H. F. Meijer in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883).
The road
The road between Pango and Kota Alam was still only a narrow footpath through closely overgrown country, now nearing the Atjeh River, now a hundred paces away, crossing here and there small open fields of grass or sugar-cane. The quadrangle Lamprit — Kota Alam — Pango — Oleh Karang was held by the left half of the 6th Infantry Battalion; bread and meat for Pango’s garrison had to be fetched every afternoon at Kota Alam under escort.
The ambush
At three in the afternoon of 14 July the detachment left Pango: the European sergeant Ribbink as commander, in all 21 armed men (1 native corporal, 10 European and 10 native fusiliers), with 6 unarmed native fusiliers as carriers and 8 native women who wished to go to market at Kota Radja by way of Kota Alam. Order of march: the corporal with the 10 Europeans in front, the unarmed men and the women in the middle, the 10 native fusiliers with the commander in the rear. The detachment marched in two files out of the flank — the rifles, carried over the shoulder, were not loaded.
Halfway, the heavy rifle fire of the attack was heard at both posts; at once both post commanders sent out patrols under officers — too late. The Kota Alam patrol met fleeing women and carriers with the news that the detachment, attacked on all sides by a superior force, had scattered; the Pango patrol under Second Lieutenant Lange reached the scene quickly but found, besides the dead and the severely wounded, only 5 armed fusiliers (1 European and 4 natives, 2 of them wounded) who had taken a stand behind a living fence and driven the enemy off.
What the inquiry found
The official inquiry established the story. As the head of the detachment neared the northern part of a small open field hedged along the river, one shot fell on its right flank, instantly followed by about twenty others; although fire was then laid along the whole length, most shots were aimed at the marching Europeans in front. The first victims were the European sergeant and the native corporal with several fusiliers; and before the rest could form for resistance the enemy fell upon them with the naked weapon and drove the detachment apart in panic. At the moment of the ambush the detachment had stood 50 to 60 paces long; it therefore could only have marched in single file — on the narrow footpath, unavoidable.
Five armed men posted behind the hedge, who estimated the enemy at about 30 men with rifle and klewang, had kept him down by their fire; so, too, had a few others along the river bank. Immediately after the break-up the enemy took the weapons from the Dutch dead and wounded and began a withdrawal; at once followed an Atjeher completely dressed in red — presumably the chief of the band — who gave a particular cry, whereupon all made off, carrying with them their own dead and wounded.
Losses
Dutch losses: killed — the European sergeant, the native corporal, 4 European and 4 native fusiliers (10 in all); wounded — 3 European and 4 native fusiliers. Of the 22 armed men, 17 had been killed or wounded. Into the enemy’s hands fell: 15 complete breech-loading rifles, 2 bayonets, 9 machetes with sheaths, 1 saw-knife with sheath, 15 rifle slings, 15 belts, 14 cartridge pouches, 11 cartridge bags, 10 machete-scabbard tips, 14 small oil flasks, 14 screwdrivers and about 600 cartridges. “Our defeat was thus complete,” Meijer wrote — and it could hardly have been otherwise: the detachment had simply marched on without the least precaution, without a single attempt to reconnoitre the ground, with unloaded rifles.
Assessment
Meijer quoted this disaster as the most damning instance yet of what he had charged on the troops throughout this period: security measures simply not applied. The same road, three weeks later, was to give the war a contrasting episode — the rally of the scattered by the medical officer Dr. Döring at the ambush of 28 July.
See Also
- Pango
- Kota Alam
- Ambush between Kota Alam and Oleh Karang (28 July 1876)
- Ambush between Oleh Karang and Kota Alam (18 June 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. 235–240.