Attack on Mibouw was the opening combat engagement of General Pel’s Campaign in Aceh, fought on 26 December 1875 when columns of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army commanded by General J. L. J. H. Pel stormed and captured Acehnese defensive earthworks at Mibouw near Pekan Badak.
Narrative of the Engagement
Following months of Acehnese guerrilla attacks against Dutch convoys along the Penajoeng and Pekan Badak line, General J. L. J. H. Pel launched a winter offensive on morning of 26 December 1875. Deploying two battalions of Barissans of Bangkallan, the right half-battalion of the 6th Infantry Battalion, and a field artillery battery, Dutch forces advanced across flooded sawahs (Sawah Cultivation and Supply in Aceh).
The assault columns stormed the fortified redoubt at Mibouw under heavy rifle fire. Madurese auxiliaries and European infantry scaled the parapets, driving Acehnese defenders from the settlement and securing the strategic gateway to the interior mukims.
Casualties and Tactical Results
As reported in contemporary dispatches in Atjeh gedurende de tweede expeditie en later (1876), the victory at Mibouw cost the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army two soldiers killed, along with two European officers and ten men wounded. The capture of Mibouw enabled Lieutenant Colonel Meijer to immediately launch the Crossing of Blankala Pass into the IV Moekims.
See Also
- 1875
- J. L. J. H. Pel
- Lieutenant Colonel Meijer
- 6th Infantry Battalion
- Barissans of Bangkallan
- General Pel’s Campaign in Aceh
- Crossing of Blankala Pass
- Pekan Badak
Source
Atjeh gedurende de tweede expeditie en later, Een Oud Officier, Batavia: Ogilvie & Co., 1876, pp. 11-15, 25-27.