The Capture of Anagaloeng by Toekoe Djohan on 20 December–21 December 1893 delivered into the hands of Toekoe Djohan the kampong (village) called by the Achehnese de navel van het land and the granary of the XXII Moekims in Groot-Atjeh, after a furious fight against defenders who did not give way at once.
The advance
Pressing further into the kampong belt after taking Lam Barih, Toekoe Djohan reached Anagaloeng on 20 December 1893; dat hem den volgenden dag, na verwoed gevecht, in handen viel — which fell into his hands the following day after a furious fight.
Tactics
Hooijer described his usual tactic: the bands swarmed out over a great distance, enveloping the objective — a complex of pasture and arable land, coconut gardens, enclosed rice-plots, houses scattered within dense hedges, and fortifications concealed under greenery at the kampong edges, all bounded at the rear by the broad river describing an arc. His fighters, broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped, carrying a small head on a long muscular neck, lay behind the little dykes netting the rice-fields or hid in the vegetation of the raised mounds; their black heads bound with cloth showed above the grass on all sides; on all sides their shots rang out, faithfully answered from the barricaded kampong edges. Only when a defender’s fire fell silent — his ammunition spent or a man fallen — did the attacker venture forward, creeping like snakes from dyke to dyke or striding through the bushes on long, almost black-scorched legs about which the wide dark Achehnese trousers fluttered. Wie de meeste patronen had, was in doorslag ook nu, evenals in de vroegere oorlogen tusschen de Atjehers onderling, overwinnaar — whoever had the most cartridges was, as in the earlier wars among the Achehnese themselves, generally the victor, and at little cost of blood.
The resistance at Anagaloeng
At Anagaloeng, however, that was not the case. De klewangs moesten worden gezwaaid, de strijdkreet aangeheven, de door opium opgewonden voorvechters moesten, krijschend en springend als waanzinnigen, hun mannen voorgaan bij het bestormen van der Moslemin’s laatste reduit, voordat zij den strijd opgaven en het veld ruimden — the klewangs had to be swung, the war-cry raised, and the champions excited by opium, shrieking and leaping like madmen, had to lead their men in storming the last redoubt of the Moslemin before they abandoned the fight and quitted the field.
See Also
Source
De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh, door G. B. Hooijer, Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger, met 24 platen (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn; Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Centrale Boekerij, Amsterdam. OCR-filename: 20260719_140140_DLP-134-De_verlaten_posten_in_Groot_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 38, 40.