The Conquest of Lemboe (7 November 1874) was the operation by which overste Diepenbrock, at the head of two half-battalions and a field-artillery battery, finally carried the kampong of Lemboe — the “key to the dike” at the southern end of the Pedir-dijk — six weeks after the conquest of Langkroek and almost a year after the position had been briefly held and then abandoned in the battle of Lemboe of Christmas 1873.
The object
Lemboe was, in Borel’s phrase, “the key to the dike.” It had been briefly in Dutch hands on 25–26 December 1873 and then abandoned by van Swieten; the Atjehneezen had since heavily fortified it. The bend of the Atjeh-rivier at Kota Alam just downstream, and the III Moekims beyond, were both commanded from its works.
The march
At four in the morning of 7 November 1874 Diepenbrock marched. The attack came from two directions at once: from Penajoeng and from Langkroek, across the open sawah (irrigated rice field). Contrary to expectation, resistance was light. The western part of Lemboe — known as Berauw — with the main dike fortifications, fell first. Three posts were at once built, including a strong southern rivier-benteng armed with an 8 c.M. rifled gun, and a north-eastern post.
Casualties and Borel’s verdict
The day’s cost was slight — Diepenbrock himself and some twenty men and coolies wounded, one officer’s servant killed — but Diepenbrock was among the wounded. The lightness of the resistance surprised the Dutch; Borel attributes it partly to the demoralisation that had followed the fall of Langkroek and the destruction of Lampoe Oek. He contrasts the easy conquest of 7 November 1874 with the costly failure of December 1873, and uses the contrast to hammer home his old thesis: that van Swieten’s abandonment of captured ground had multiplied Dutch losses. The conquest of Lemboe opened the way for the conquest of Kota Alam six days later, on 13 November 1874.
See Also
- Kolonel Diepenbrock
- Generaal Pel
- Lemboe
- Berauw
- Pedir-dijk
- Penajoeng
- Langkroek
- Kota Alam
- III Moekims
- Sawah
- Battle of Lemboe (25–26 December 1873)
- Conquest of Kota Alam (13 November 1874)
- Jan van Swieten
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 200, 209–211.