The capitulation at Lae Boetar on 29 March 29 March 1942 — the surrender of Captain Kloprogge’s reduced Westkust force of about 140 men at the cultuuronderneming Lae Boetar 60 km north-east of Singkel — was the final act of the Westkust theatre of the Japanese invasion of March 1942, and the largest single Dutch surrender of the Westkust campaign. In the Dutch staff history’s account (Deel VI, Hoofdstuk V), the Lae Boetar capitulation is presented as the moral close of the Westkust campaign — a surrender forced not by enemy pressure but by the presence of the Westkust women and children in the convoy.
The approach to Lae Boetar (18–29 March 1942)
By 18 March 18 March 1942 the combined Meulaboh–Blang Pidië–Tapatoean column had reached the Bakongan bivak. The staff history records that “het gros moest tenslotte in Tapatoean en Bakongan worden achtergelaten” — the bulk of the 3,000 women and children could not be moved further south than Bakongan, owing to the approach of the Japanese battalion-strength force from the north and to the verraad of the convoy’s positions by the Atjehnese population. The European women and children were evacuated in private passenger cars over “smalle en slechte wegen” to the Lae Boetar onderneming, but “begrijpelijker wijze maakte dit geen goede indruk op de inheemse militairen, die hun gezinnen onder bescherming van enkele vrijwilligers hadden moeten achterlaten.” The Dutch geest of the indigenous soldaten collapsed; “gevallen van desertie waren schering en inslag.”
The 29 March 1942 capitulation
By 29 March 29 March 1942 Kloprogge’s reduced force — about 140 men — had reached Lae Boetar. The staff history records the decision in a single sentence: “Op 29 Maart liet kapitein Kloprogge, die de ongelijke strijd toch wilde doorzetten, met het lot van de vrouwen en kinderen voor ogen, overreden met het restant van de troepen (ongeveer 140 man) te capituleren.”
The phrasing is significant. Kloprogge is presented as willing to continue the fight (“die de ongelijke strijd toch wilde doorzetten”); the surrender is presented as a overreding — a persuasion — exercised by the lot van de vrouwen en kinderen. The decision is thus framed as a moral rather than a military one: the Dutch force could have fought on, but the cost would have been the women and children left behind at Tapatoean and Bakongan.
Refusal of four officers
The capitulation at Lae Boetar produced the staff history’s principal instance of Dutch officers’ refusal to recognise a surrender. Captain Steinhorst, Lt Mathus, Lt Thomson and the officier van gezondheid V. A. C. L. Dingemans — “deze militairen waren echter niet op de hoogte van de slechte aan gang van zaken in het Blangkedjerense en de algehele capitulatie” — refused to surrender and attempted to break through to the still-fighting Dutch forces around Blangkedjeren. Their fates are the staff history’s principal post-Lae Boetar narrative:
- Steinhorst: captured by opstandelingen and killed.
- Mathus and Dingemans: captured by the Japanese and “enige tijd daarna terechtgesteld.”
- Thomson: the only escapee, eventually reaching the Medanse before his capture on 26 April 26 April.
Significance
The capitulation at Lae Boetar is, in the staff history’s Westkust narrative, the moral close of the campaign — the moment at which the Dutch command’s responsibility for the women and children of the convoy took precedence over the operational decision to continue resistance. The staff history’s emphasis on the overreding by which Kloprogge was brought to surrender — set against the officers’ refusal and the killings that followed — is the staff history’s principal illustration of the moral weight of the Westkust evacuation on the Dutch command decision. The capitulation closed the Westkust theatre ten days before the general capitulation at Blangkedjeren — but in moral terms it closed the campaign.
See Also
- Nederlands-Indië contra Japan
- Captain L. H. J. Kloprogge
- F. Steinhorst
- E. F. K. R. Mathus
- M. C. Thomson
- Evacuation of women and children from the Westkust of Atjeh (March 1942)
- Battle of Blang Pidië (16 March 1942)
- Lae Boetar
- Sumatra capitulation (28 March 1942)
- 1942
Source
Nederlands-Indië contra Japan, Deel VI: De strijd op Ambon, Timor en Sumatra, bewerkt door C. van den Hoogenband en L. Schotborgh (‘s-Gravenhage: Staatsdrukkerij- en Uitgeverijbedrijf, 1959), Hoofdstuk V (“De strijd in Noord-Sumatra (Atjeh)”), pp. 136–137.