The attack on the Boekit Roembia of 11 June 1890 was the assault by Dutch troops on the Acehnese positions on the left bank of the Idi-rivier on the east coast of Atjeh, culminating in the storming of the fortification on the summit of the hill Boekit Roembia. It was the action in which the then 2e luitenant H. N. A. Swart of the expeditionary 6th Battalion of Infantry at Idi was the first man into the enemy work and was immediately afterwards shot through the left upper arm — the deed for which he was appointed Knight 4th Class of the Militaire Willemsorde by royal decree of 30 August 1891 no. 2, and the whole of his first Atjeh service, which lasted six weeks. Du Croo printed the official, unadorned account of the day beside Swart’s own recollection given nearly fifty years later.
The official account
At 6.08 a.m. on 11 June 1890 the commander-in-chief, Major-General van Teijn, sent the order to advance. The 6th Battalion moved at once and the 14th Battalion Infantry immediately after. At 6.22 the 6th Battalion reached the Idi-rivier, crossed at once to the left bank and took position in the kampong Teukoe Itam: the 1st company on the western edge, the 2nd to its right in closed section column with front to the north, the 3rd on the south-western edge with front to the west, the 4th behind the centre in reserve. A company of the 14th Battalion occupied the northern edge of kampong Itam Noord, while the remaining companies of that battalion and a company of the 6th found covered positions in the kampong.
At 7.10 the advance began. Out of the mist before the fighting line came a wild La illaha ilallah from crowds of enemy in trenches. Delivering repeated volleys, the column continued to advance. Fire came in on the left flank, answered by a well-ordered volley from the 3rd company. Suddenly the fighting line struck occupied trenches, seen only when the troops were a few paces off, and the volley fire of a body composed largely of young soldiers passed into irregular rapid fire. The mountain battery had meanwhile fired heavily on the positions and on the enemy trenches lying before them on the eastern and south-eastern slopes; the enemy’s attention had been drawn from the advancing infantry. In vain the corps commander had “cease fire” sounded. Only with the greatest difficulty did the company commanders and their officers master the fire again, which then returned to regular volleys.
At 6.52 the commander of the 6th Battalion received orders to advance to the attack on the Boekit Roembia, the 14th Battalion covering his flank. Attacked frontally by the 1st and 2nd companies and enveloped on both sides, the troops were soon masters of the trenches and drove the enemy off, leaving twenty-seven dead. It did not come to a klewang attack. When the enemy abandoned his trenches and fled in fairly strong crowds westward and south-westward, he was pursued with volleys. The sky had meanwhile cleared and a light wind had lifted the smoke. The 6th Battalion was posted as far as possible under cover in the high alang-alang on the crest, and the tired troops were given some rest.
While this position was being taken, some shots came from a small fortification on the crest of an opposite height to the west, wounding the 2e luitenant H. N. A. Swart and the Ambonese fusilier Pelengkahu. A few volleys drove the enemy off. Immediately after the capture of the trenches the command “voorwaarts” rang out again and the attack was resumed. Through the palm gardens the march was extremely slow. When at 7.47 the troops had nearly passed through them, they came into more open ground about sixty metres from the fortification on the summit of the Boekit Roembia.
Having had a shot through his left upper arm, lieutenant Swart let himself be dressed by the officier van gezondheid J. A. Tamson, returned to the troops, resumed the command of his section and took part in the further operations of the column for the remainder of the day. The left wing, first to debouch from the palm gardens, came under fire, wounding an Ambonese fusilier of the 3rd company; that company’s commander at once had the fortification from which the shot came stormed. The 1st and 2nd companies attacked the enemy’s main fortification on the summit of the Roembia to the playing of the battalion band.
The 2nd section of the 2nd company, which had the least difficult ground to traverse, was first at the fortification. Its commander, the 2e luitenant H. N. A. Swart, led his men courageously in the storm and was the first to force his way in, followed at his heels by an Ambonese corporal and an Ambonese fusilier. When the enemy saw the attackers on the parapet he took to instant flight and was pursued with fire. The time was 7.55 a.m.
When the corps commander, Major Halewijn, had inspected the fortification he had it occupied by a platoon of the 1st company. He ordered the commander of the 2nd company to have hauled down a flag placed some 150 metres from the work. As the detachment charged with this neared the flag, some six of the enemy hidden in the alang-alang fled. The flag was hauled down and torn up. On the Dutch side one officer and thirteen men were wounded. At 3.30 p.m. the retirement on Idi began; it was completed at 4.30 p.m. and the bivouacs were occupied.
Swart’s recollection
“Ik heb dien dag geluk gehad,” the seventy-nine-year-old Swart told du Croo. “I was serving then with the 2nd Amboinese company. And with four Amboinese I was the first inside. But as I leapt over the breastwork into the benteng I at once took a shot through the left upper arm, and the Amboinese behind me had a finger shot off. And then a cheer — the battalion band played — the colours were planted — the Wilhelmus rang out — Van Teijn and Van Heutsz came into the benteng and Van Heutsz tapped me on the shoulder: ‘you brought that off, my boy!’”
He also remembered the artillery commander, captain Rost van Tonningen — later army commander — saying to him after he was bandaged: “Swart, come and have a glass of beer with me!”
Swart kept following the troop movements at the head of his platoon with his arm in a sling and returned to Magelang after six weeks.
Significance
The action was the first and, for eight years, the only Atjeh service of the man who would become the last military Governor of the province. It brought Swart both his first wound and the Militaire Willemsorde, and — more consequentially for his later career — the notice of Van Heutsz, then serving under van Teijn in the partnership whose activity, as du Croo argued, demonstrated that the Acehnese adversary had respect only for purposeful force.
See Also
- H. N. A. Swart
- Joannes Benedictus van Heutsz
- J. van Teijn
- Idi
- Boekit Roembia
- Militaire Willemsorde
- Rost van Tonningen
- 1890
Source
Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter II, pp. 10–11; Extract from the service record of H. N. A. Swart, pp. 173–174.