The Lo-oe ambush (28 August 1876) was the last great Dutch reverse of the period described by H. F. Meijer in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883): an escort of 20 men under the European corporal De Jong, detailed to carry the post journal from Boekit Daroe to the western-line commander at Pakan Badak, was attacked and scattered in the covered ground west of the kampong Lo-oe — a march taken against orders over the short, dangerous road. The dead included 2 European fusiliers; the youngest Javanese soldiers of the detachment kept their footing only through the presence of mind of a single older fusilier, Wirokromo.
The roads and the order
From Boekit Daroe two roads went to Djempit: one northward over the kampong Lo-oe and the sawahs beyond, via Ketapan Doewa — the longer but safer, through open country — and one northwestward over the kampongs Lo-oe and Tjabang and the Kroeëng Daroe, by covered and intersected ground, direct to Djempit. The orders for all detachments and patrols were explicit: always take the longer, safe road.
The detachment and the forbidden road
Early on 28 August Corporal De Jong left Boekit Daroe with 20 musket-bearers — 3 European, 2 African and 15 native fusiliers, the natives all young Javanese — with full instructions on road, marching order and conduct in case of attack; the post commander had expressly named the longer road. At the fork in kampong Lo-oe the point asked which way to go. His answer: “the shortest, to Djempit” — and the point marched into the covered ground against orders. The soaked sawahs forced single file along the winding dikes.
The attack
African fusilier Stoom of the point spotted fresh footprints on the path and reported them; the order was: march on. Then the point sighted an Atjeher at the kampong edge, thought him unarmed, and only — when his klewang showed — warned the commander and fired at him. At the same instant the detachment was fired upon from the kampong edge, and from three sides Atjehers with klewang and lance rushed at the troop. The point was attacked from before and behind; European fusilier Martin and the native fusilier Ranti, marching last, were wounded and fell into the sawah; the two foremost, fusiliers Vivequin (European) and Stoom (African), saw themselves cut off, fired their rifles, sprang into the sawah and doubled back to the troop. They met Corporal De Jong, who, at the first volley, with his soldiers, had sprung from the dike into the mud of the sawah and who, on his feet again, was running — to hide in the kampong and emerge only at the arrival of the patrol that Second Lieutenant Van Haften was leading to the rescue from Boekit Daroe at the sound of the firing.
The attack on the main body of 15 young Javanese soldiers — bogged in the mud, unable to deploy — succeeded for the enemy at once: African fusilier Zerk was killed; the native fusiliers Sadio, Kassio, Manseggeesmit and Gromodjoj and the two Europeans of the point became the next easy victims; and the enemy swept on to finish the shaken troop.
The stand of Wirokromo
Then the native fusilier Wirokromo — seeing the danger into which his whole detachment had fallen through the confusion — had the presence of mind to stand fast at his place, gathered 8 or 9 of his young comrades around him and called to them: “halt! djangan lari, halt sadja, kaloe lari nanti di potong samoewa” — “Halt! don’t run away, just stand; if we run we shall all be cut down.”
They listened: the enemy did not dare to charge this well-closed group, and soon withdrew into the surrounding kampongs, taking five Dutch rifles with their ammunition. The nine-held group kept its defensive stand until Van Haften’s patrol arrived; it had found, first, De Jong with Vivequin and Stoom, and the fallen: Zerk dead, a dead Atjeher, five wounded fusiliers, and blood-tracks to the swollen Kroeëng Daroe, from which it was concluded that the last missing European fusilier — Van Wijk, severely wounded — had drowned. Nothing more was found of him.
The field search yielded the usual weapons discarded by the enemy. The whole affair had lasted only minutes; Van Haften’s patrol was back inside Boekit Daroe at half past nine. And, Meijer remarked, the recurring pattern was once again exact: a young and badly-knit detachment, left without its commander the very first moment, in covered country, against the first rule given — and once again the enemy had taught his lesson to careless marchers.
Assessment
With the Lo-oe ambush closes Meijer’s chapter of the offensieve handelingen des vijands before the last great march of the period: on 4 September 1876 a part of the troops moved into the XXVI Moekims to complete the closing of the XXII and XXVI Moekims from the sea, as Pel had planned. The event also survived in the war’s teaching literature as the standing counter-image to the stand of Dr. Döring’s escort a month earlier: the difference between a detachment that breaks and one that sticks together being, usually, one man.
See Also
- Wirokromo
- Korporaal De Jong (1876)
- Boekit Daroe
- Djempit
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
- Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VII, pp. 260–264; sketches no. 9 (terrain between Boekit Daroe and Djempit, and battlefield of 28 August 1876).