The Battle of Soerian (26 July 1874) was the first major Dutch offensive west of K. Radja, undertaken by kolonel Pel in person with the whole available force against the kampongs of Setee, Poe Oe, Soerian and Poengej Blang Tjoet, in order to gain a forward line covering the Marassa approach and the K. Radja–Oeleh Leh road, and to threaten the flank and rear of Toekoe Nanta of the VI Moekims. Borel insists the whole bloody fight could have been avoided if Soerian — in Dutch hands in February 1874 — had never been given back.
Pel’s object
Pel’s object, Borel writes, was fourfold: to conquer the kampongs Setee, Poengej Blang Tjoet, Poe Oe and Soerian; to bring Bital and Lamtermin under observation; and to threaten the rear of Toekoe Nanta, “onzen ijverigen tegenstander,” whose territory formed the single weak point of the future stelling between Oeleh Leh and Soerian. On the morning of 26 July 1874 the troops assembled at Blang Oe and advanced.
The fight
The enemy was prepared. The Dutch met immediate stiff resistance and failed to carry Soerian outright. They did, however, manage to surround a band of defenders inside a benteng near Soerian who refused quarter, and, because they would not surrender, killed them “tot den laatsten man” — about seventy enemy dead. Dutch losses were six dead and more than forty wounded, including three officers. A post was at once erected on the conquered ground. In the days following, the Atjehneezen abandoned all their remaining positions; the magnificent sawahs (irrigated rice fields) stretching to the edge of Bital and Ketapang Doewa fell into Dutch hands without further fighting.
Borel’s commentary
The relinquishing of captured ground was, in Borel’s view, the cardinal error of the afwachtende houding inherited from van Swieten. The fight at Soerian was also the first appearance of the Poengej Blang Tjoet position, which would become the western link of the defensive ring completed in May 1875. Poe Oe itself was occupied without a shot on 16 August 1874. The magnificence of the abandoned sawahs — stretching to the edge of Bital and Ketapang Doewa — gave the Dutch, for the first time since the landing, a real field of fire and a clear field of view west of K. Radja.
See Also
- Generaal Pel
- Soerian
- Setee
- Poe Oe
- Blang Oe
- Bital
- Toekoe Nanta
- VI Moekims
- Marassa
- Ketapang Doewa
- Sawah
- Completion of the defensive ring around Kota Radja (May 1875)
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 176–179, 183.