The Battle of Pantei Tjermin and Kota Mogat was the first significant land engagement of the Atjeh War, fought on 8 April 1873 between the landing troops of the first Dutch Aceh expedition under General Köhler and Acehnese defenders at two coastal strong-points west of the Atjeh river mouth. It opened the land campaign that was to end three weeks later in the Dutch withdrawal after Köhler’s death.
Planning the Landing
All the transports and warships of the first expedition having arrived off the Atjeh roadstead on 5 April (the day before — 6 April according to Brooshooft’s narrative), the problem facing Köhler was how to reach the Kraton, which stood about one hour’s distance inland on the Atjeh river. To push troops up the river in boats or prahus was considered inadvisable because of the many bends, which would expose them for long periods to fire from concealed enemies on the banks. Landing east of the river and marching south had the disadvantage that the force would then have to recross the river to reach the Kraton, which lay on the left bank. Köhler therefore chose a landing-point about three-quarters of an hour along the beach west of the river mouth. Between that point and the river mouth stood two Acehnese fortified works: one at Kota Pantei Tjermin and one at Kota Mogat.
A reconnaissance was made ashore on 6 April, with Köhler personally taking part; the troops returned aboard in the evening.
The Landing, 8 April 1873
Early in the morning of 8 April the main landing began. Troops were ferried ashore in armed sloops; guns and horses on two rafts brought for that purpose. A couple of sloops capsized in the surf, but two companies under Captains Luimes and Lanzing were quickly formed up on the beach.
They were immediately attacked. More than 500 Acehnese, presumably hoping to destroy the Dutch before the rest of the force could land, charged them from the Pantei Tjermin fort and from behind the dunes. As Brooshooft described the scene, the Acehnese voorvechters (champions), in a state of war-dance (landakkende), with yelling cries and waving weapons, came on “under their usual war-dance, shouting and swinging their arms,” fired their firearms at close range and then rushed in with the klewang. The two Dutch companies stood fast: a rapid fire from the Beaumont rifles, followed by bayonet and sabre work. After a fight of only a few minutes the Acehnese found they had met their match and withdrew, leaving fewer than 82 dead (Brooshooft’s figure: “minder dan 82 dooden”) on the field.
Storming of Pantei Tjermin
As soon as possible part of the troops — the 12th battalion — pushed on against Pantei Tjermin, which was described as an oblong four-square enclosure surrounded by an earthen wall behind which ran a dilapidated masonry wall mounting four old cannon. They found it abandoned. The Dutch flag was hoisted, and the advance continued towards Kota Mogat.
Kota Mogat
Kota Mogat was a strong work with a high wall. After vain attempts to find an entrance by going around the fort, a storm was ordered for the afternoon — but the scaling ladders had mistakenly been stowed aboard the hospital ship, which was already filling with patients and could not be unloaded. Without ladders the high wall could not be climbed. The men were also exhausted by marching and by several small skirmishes in the neighbourhood, and the attempt was called off for the day.
Next morning, after a pair of warships had battered a breach from the seaward side, the attack was renewed, and — as at Pantei Tjermin the previous day — the fort was found abandoned; the Acehnese had clearly decided not to make their main stand on the seashore but to draw the Dutch into the interior.
Aftermath
Near the landing-place the Dutch now laid out a large bivouac, protected by numerous sentries and, on the seaward side, by armed sloops, against night raids. This beach camp became the base from which the advance on the Missigit and the Kraton was launched over the following days.
Significance
The easy abandonment of the two coastal forts convinced Köhler and his staff that the Acehnese plan was to give up the shore and offer their main resistance in the interior, around the Missigit and the Kraton — an impression that governed the subsequent advance of 10 April, the battle of the Missigit, and the death of Köhler on 14 April 1873.
See Also
- First Aceh Expedition
- Köhler
- Battle of the Missigit (10 April 1873)
- Death of Köhler
- Kraton
- Missigit Raja
- Kuala Aceh
- Atjeh River
- 8 April
- 1873
Source
Brooshooft, Mr. P. Geschiedenis van den Atjeh-oorlog 1873–1886. Utrecht: F. B. van Ditmar, 1886, Hoofdstuk IV (“De eerste expeditie (Köhler, van Daalen)”), pp. 47–48 (pp. 59–60 of the OCR).