The Completion of the defensive ring around Kota Radja (May 1875) was the linking-up, in the first days of May 1875, of the various Dutch posts into an unbroken line running from Blang Tjoet on the left bank of the Atjeh-rivier westward over Longbatta-Mesigit, Lohong, Lamara, Gitjiel, Setee, Lamteboe, Poengej Blang Tjoet, Poe Oe, Soerian and Blang Oe to the sea-strand at Oeleh Leh — the line thereafter known as the stelling-Pel — and the immediate granting to generaal Pel of three months’ leave, on 12 June 1875, for the recovery of his shattered health.
The line
The desired connection between the various posts had been obtained. The Dutch now possessed an unbroken line running from Blang Tjoet on the left bank of the Atjeh-rivier, westward over Longbatta-Mesigit, Lohong, Lamara, Gitjiel, Setee, Lamteboe, Poengej Blang Tjoet, Poe Oe, Soerian and Blang Oe to the sea-strand at Oeleh Leh. K. Radja was now completely covered on south and east as well, forming the purposeful central position it should have been from the beginning. With this achieved, operations could be suspended or postponed.
Pel’s leave
On 12 June 1875 Pel — exhausted, after “ruim een jaar” of command in which he had restored the position from allerdonkerendst state — was granted three months’ leave to recover his health at Buitenzorg in Java. Borel praises Pel’s “doorzicht, beleid en rusteloos streven” and declares that “het vaderland was hem daarvoor veel dank schuldig.” Even the strongest constitution, he adds, would have succumbed in Atjeh.
Borel’s verdict
For Borel the completion of the ring is a vindication and an indictment at once. A vindication, because Pel had carried through, against the inherited afwachtende houding and with inadequate troops, what van Swieten should have done in February 1874. An indictment, because the same line — the stelling-Pel — had been obtainable “a year earlier” at far lower cost, had van Swieten not abandoned the captured ground. The ring was strong but, as the night attack of 22 November 1875 and the breakthrough of June 1878 would prove, not impregnable. Borel would have preferred fewer, stronger posts and a real mobiele colonne always ready behind the line — the doctrine he develops in his last chapters and in his March 1878 article Een vaderlandsch belang.
See Also
- Generaal Pel
- Stelling-Pel
- Kota Radja
- Oeleh Leh
- Longbatta-Mesigit
- Lamara
- Soerian
- Poe Oe
- Blang Tjoet
- Blang Oe
- Setee
- Afwachtende houding
- Jan van Swieten
- Mobiele colonnes (Borel)
- Night attack on Longbatta-Mesigit (22 November 1875)
- Enemy breakthrough in the IV, VI and IX Moekims (June 1878)
- Pel’s Buitenzorg planning session (1875)
- Een vaderlandsch belang (Borel, 1878)
- 1875
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 253, 263.