The attack on Lemboeq N.O. (23–24 January 1876) was the first great surprise attack of the Aceh War in 1876: in the middle of the night about a hundred Atjehers crept out of the kampong Pinang, entered the weak Dutch post of Lemboeq N.O. (Lemboeq Northeast) north of the Atjeh River, killed four of its defenders — among them the young Lieutenant Regensburge — and wounded twenty-two more before being driven out. The event was described from the official reports by H. F. Meijer in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883).
The post and its garrison
Lemboeq N.O. was one of the links in the chain of posts that, from Kota Alam to Moesapi, had to protect the Dutch establishments at Panteh Peiraq and Penajoeng against enemy attack. Together with Lemboeq O. and Lamprit, it lay closest to the dreaded kampong Pinang, where the enemy held his strongest positions — only 400 to 500 metres away. The post was a small square redoubt of about 25 metres’ face with coconut-tree palisades that stood only 1.5 metres above the ground; two bastions on the diagonal, one armed with a 12 cM. gun and the other with a 12 cM. mortar; the gate in the west face; and — a fatal weakness — the kitchen standing some forty paces outside against the thickly wooded kampong edge, with but a single oil-lamp pole for outside lighting.
The garrison consisted of one platoon of the 2nd company of the left half of the 9th Infantry Battalion: 2 officers, 20 European and 40 native non-commissioned officers and men, plus a few artillerymen. The post commander was Captain Kal.
The attack
Between one and half past one in the morning of 24 January, about a hundred Atjehers, favouring themselves by the deep darkness, crossed the sawah from the edge of kampong Pinang and settled behind the kitchen without being noticed by the watch. While the main body halted on the sawah in the direction of Lamprit, no more than twenty or twenty-five Atjehers stole up to the west face. Before the two sentries on that face had seen them and could give the alarm, the Atjehers sprang over the low palisade, spread through the interior, fired their rifles and blunderbusses (donderbussen), and rushed with lance and klewang (the Atjehnese sword) towards the soldiers’ quarters.
A murder scene began. The post commander managed to collect 30 to 40 men near the powder magazine at the northwest salient, but their fire had to stop for fear of hitting their own people. Lieutenant Regensburge, running from his quarters towards a bastion, received a mortal wound in the chest. In the barracks a native sergeant, a native corporal and a woman were slain with the klewang, and many soldiers were wounded. The Atjehers seized a number of rifles, machetes, belts and cartridge pouches and then forced the gate open from inside — either to escape or to admit the reserve waiting on the sawah.
The rescue and the losses
The tumult at the gate was noticed by some of the men standing at the magazine; their fire drove the enemy out through the open gate, and sergeants and men hurried to close it. Artillery sergeant Hagen sent two canister shots after the fleeing Atjehers. Inside the work it became silent, broken only by the moaning of the wounded, who could not immediately receive medical help. The fallen were counted: besides Regensburge, two native non-commissioned officers and a woman were dead; 4 European and 16 native non-commissioned officers and men and 2 native women were wounded. The enemy left five dead inside the work and another outside; his booty was 11 rifles with slings, 7 machetes and saw-knives, 7 belts and 7 cartridge pouches with contents, while the Dutch captured 4 blunderbusses, 5 flintlocks, 1 percussion rifle, 4 lances, 6 klewangs and 2 badeh-badehs (Atjehnese shields).
Among the enemy dead two men were recognised who had come daily to the market (pasar) to sell coconuts and sugar — a sign of how familiar the enemy was with the post. Two of the dead, Meijer noted, had been market acquaintances of the garrison.
Assessment
Meijer conceded that the enemy had been lucky, although his plan had probably not fully succeeded: had the reserve entered through the opened gate, the small garrison might have been overwhelmed. The honour of saving the post belonged to the calm of a few European non-commissioned officers and men at the gate — artillery sergeant Hagen, infantry sergeant Lin, quartermaster-sergeant (fourier) Tascher, and the European fusiliers Wolbrink, Hupje, Joosten and Bink, all of whom Meijer recorded by name and pay-list number. He judged the event a hard lesson in the need for storm-proof works, obstacle zones and lighting — the very weaknesses that would again be punished at Lampagar in May.
See Also
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
- Kota Alam
- Lamprit
- Grass-fire attack on Lamprit (8 February 1876)
- Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876
- 9e Bataljon Infanterie
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VI, pp. 104–107.