The Destruction of the Lampoe Oek fortification (18 September 1874) was the operation by which a single 12 c.M. achterlaadkanon, firing from the new ooster-batterij, demolished the parapet of the Atjehnese stelling at Lampoe Oek — the position from which Majoor Romswinckel had been repulsed at such cost on 16 April 1874 — and so, by a few cannon shots, achieved what an infantry assault had failed to do. “What had not been obtained earlier through fierce struggle costing heavy sacrifices,” Borel writes, “was now achieved by a few cannon shots.”
The clearing of the field
For some weeks the vesting-artillerie had been pushing forward a new ooster-batterij to bring Lampoe Oek under fire. To clear the field of view, 150 klapperbomen (coconut palms) had to be felled; the work, done under enemy sharpshooters, cost nine wounded, including one officer.
The bombardment
On 18 September 1874 the 12 c.M. achterlaadkanon opened fire. It soon found the range and demolished the parapet, overthrowing the schanskorven (gabions) and dismounting the works. The Lampoe Oek stelling — where Romswinckel had been repulsed on 16 April — was abandoned in haste by the Atjehneezen, who left guns and tools behind. Borel’s verdict is delivered in a single cutting sentence: the episode was, for him, final proof that the échec of 16 April had been the fault not of Romswinckel but of van Swieten, who had recalled the vesting-artillerie and the achterlaadkanonnen to Java in the spring.
Aftermath
The Lampoe Oek site, once cleared, became in turn a Dutch nipa-benteng — a fortified post built of nipa-palm — and was itself the target of an enemy dawn attack on 1 February 1875. It stood inside the line of the future stelling-Pel. The lesson Borel drew — that artillery, not infantry assault, was the proper instrument against Atjehnese bentengs — would be repeated at Mandarsa Poeti on 5 October 1874, when a few 12 c.M. shells brought down the whole front wall of the old stone gebedenhuis.
See Also
- Lampoe Oek
- Majoor Romswinckel
- Vesting-artillerie in Atjeh
- Achterlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M.
- Jan van Swieten
- Battle of Lampoe Oek (16 April 1874)
- Mandarsa Poeti
- Stelling-Pel
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. p. 197.