The patrol to the Goeah Teroes on the Glé Betoes was a Dutch patrol of 25 September 1897 from the benting of Lho-Nga at Kroeng Raba against a band under Toekoe Hassan reported to be lodged in the Goeah Teroes, a great cave high in the mountains between Lho-Nga and Lepong. The patrol failed to surprise the band, lost its advance-guard commander and four men killed at the mouth of the cave, and returned the same day; a pursuit by marechaussée brigades on the far side of the mountain cost the life of a further officer and two men. P. H. R. Beuming narrates the episode as the sixth sketch of Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, under the title Een moeilijke tocht — a difficult march.
Composition and object
In the early morning of 25 September 1897 a patrol marched out of the benting Lho-Nga (Kroeng Raba) with a strength of three officers, four non-commissioned officers and eighty men, accompanied by an Acehnese guide; a hospital soldier with ten tandoes — linen hammocks fastened to a bamboo — and the necessary forced labourers followed in the rear-guard.
The patrol was charged with surprising a strong band of hostile Acehnese under a certain Toekoe Hassan who continually made unsafe the mountains between Lho-Nga and Lepong. According to intelligence reports the band was lodged in the Goeah Teroes (great cave) on the Glé Betoes — Beuming glosses the name as Nevelberg, mist mountain — a cave lying high in the mountains and resembling a veritable eagle’s nest.
The ascent
With the necessary security measures the march towards the mountains was begun in complete silence. It was still dark, but a misty light in the east announced the coming of the tropical day. Arrived at the foot of the mountains, a halt was made for a moment before beginning the perilous climb. Not only had they to reckon with the presence of the enemy, but the climbing of the steep rock faces demanded the greatest circumspection throughout.
Beuming observes that those who have seen from close at hand the Acehnese mountain chain that winds wildly along the north coast of Sumatra will have gained the impression that this range cannot be climbed except by the utmost exertion and under unbelievable difficulties.
Day had meanwhile broken. The transition from night to day and the reverse takes place, as is known, almost imperceptibly under the equator; soon Mata-hari — eye of the day, as the sun is called by the inhabitants of the Indies archipelago — appeared in golden rays above the horizon.
The climb through the heavily overgrown terrain proceeded extremely slowly; repeatedly a halt had to be made so as not to lose the rear-guard. The advance-guard, under the command of 1st Lieutenant J. van Greuningen, had the heavier task in that the guide could no longer find the mountain path leading to the cave, so that the party clambered upward at hazard.
Beuming adds a general remark drawn from the experience of the war: that the experience gained in the Atjeh war had led to many sad discoveries concerning too great a trust placed in guides, and that it had repeatedly happened that guides led detachments astray and even lured them into ambushes.
The point of the column, consisting of a European sergeant with ten fusiliers, hacked a way through the wilderness with the kapmes; rocks of dizzying height had to be climbed, and with the aid of ropes and hooked staves the men hoisted one another up. Eén misstap, en men viel te pletter in den afgrond — one false step, and a man fell to pieces in the abyss.
Discovery
After climbing some hours in this fashion the guide reached a plateau formed by nature. The signs of the enemy’s immediate proximity were present here: this appeared clearly from some banana leaves on which the remains of a fresh rice meal were to be seen.
Soon they heard from above in the mountains the shrill oe-oe-la-loe-loe-loe that the echoes seemed to prolong endlessly. The Acehnese had noticed the patrol and were on their guard. The surprise had failed; that the guide was not a stranger to this appeared only too probable.
They now climbed on as cautiously as possible; not a word was spoken. All felt that the moment when they would stand face to face with the enemy would soon come. Suddenly the stillness was broken by an irregular rifle fire that came from above out of the rocks.
The action at the cave mouth
The difficulty was how to reach the entrance of the cave without serving the enemy as a target. So far there had been no losses to lament, but as they neared the cave the danger of being hit grew greater, the more so because the Acehnese, covered behind the rock faces, had a certain shot.
The commander of the patrol, Captain J. N. C. Baron van Heerdt, had meanwhile appeared at the front and gave Lieutenant Van Greuningen orders to climb to the cave with his section, spread out in a wide circle. Scarcely had some paces been taken when the enemy opened a frightful fire; on all sides pieces of stone flew about as the bullets struck the rocks.
Lieutenant Van Greuningen had already approached close to the cave with a dozen fusiliers when suddenly, from behind a rock face, about fifteen Acehnese appeared and opened a murderous fire à bout portant on the lieutenant and the fusiliers who had followed him. Lieutenant Van Greuningen fell dead, struck by two bullets; the European fusiliers Winkelman, Tuk and Dissel shared the same fate with him, while the native fusiliers Bongsowikromo and Tanja were severely wounded.
With ape-like nimbleness an Acehnese clambered down and made himself master of the rifle and cartridge pouch of the fallen fusilier Tuk; he then horribly mutilated his corpse. This frightful drama took place in an indivisible moment; because of the almost impassable terrain it could not be prevented.
The storming of the cave
Meanwhile the rest of the advance-guard clambered on, firing continually, towards the cave and at last reached the entrance. From every corner of the cave the patrol was fired on; the native fusilier Siman was struck in the head on this occasion and fell dead.
Captain Baron van Heerdt, who had taken over the command of the advance-guard from the lieutenant so lamentably killed, ordered rapid fire into the cave. Unable to withstand this, the Acehnese fled deeper into the cave; great bloodstains on the ground and along the walls showed that victims had fallen on the enemy’s side too.
On penetrating into the cave it appeared that it had several exits. Everything was carefully searched, but no trace of the enemy was any longer to be found. The commander, seeing the uselessness of further pursuit, resolved to take up the retreat.
The descent
After some well-earned rest had been taken and the wounded bandaged anew, the party set out for the benting, the tandoes with the killed and wounded in the middle. The rear-guard, consisting of forty bayonets under the command of 2nd Lieutenant G. E. Visser, covered the retreat.
The descent went extremely slowly, and with the tandoes especially it was breakneck work; the swaying drew many a cry from the wounded. At last, after a march full of difficulties, they reached the foot of the mountains, and after some hours’ marching they descried in the distance the zinc roof of the benting glittering in the fierce sunlight. Aan veler lippen ontsnapte een “Goddank!” — a “thank God” escaped many lips.
When the patrol had properly closed up again in the open terrain, the commander, seeing that the men were dragging themselves along the ground with fatigue, addressed them with a Komaan, mannen, nog een klein uurtje en dan zijn we thuis — come on, men, another little hour and then we are home. These heartening words did not miss their effect.
Return and the marechaussée pursuit
The whole garrison stood on the eastern face awaiting the patrol’s arrival. They already knew what had befallen it, because during the fight a forced labourer had been sent off by the commander to fetch reinforcement from the four brigades of marechaussée who likewise lay in garrison in the benting Lho-Nga. Three brigades had immediately marched out under the command of 1st Lieutenant C. F. A. Wagener, to try to catch the enemy on the other side of the Glé Betoes.
Beuming records the scene of the return: it was moving to see how the men crowded about the tandoes; many a soldier turned his head aside at the sight of his fallen comrades, and tears glistened in many eyes. He adds a reflection on the reputation of the colonial soldier at home — that one does wrong to judge him during his furlough, with his bounty money in his pocket, surrounded by a troop of pocket-picking friends, as he had sometimes been depicted in the days when the Koloniaal-werfdepôt was still established at Harderwijk, and that those conditions had fortunately changed to the advantage of the Indies army.
The wounded were brought into the sick-room and treated at once by the officer of health. That same day the dead were carried to Koeta Radja to be buried on the Petjoet cemetery, the resting place of so many brave comrades in arms.
The next day the marechaussée brigades returned from the pursuit. After a violent fight in the mountains the enemy had managed to escape, carrying his dead and wounded with him. The marechaussée patrol had likewise a sad loss to lament: Lieutenant Wagener and two marechaussées were killed. Aan den tocht naar den Glé Betoes, zijn voor ons droevige herinneringen verbonden — to the march to the Glé Betoes sad memories are attached for us.
See Also
- Goeah Teroes
- Glé Betoes
- Lho-Nga
- Kroeng Raba
- Toekoe Hassan
- J. N. C. Baron van Heerdt
- J. van Greuningen
- C. F. A. Wagener
- G. E. Visser
- Kerkhof Petjoet
- Korps Marechaussee
- 25 September
- 1897
Source
Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, met speciaal vervaardigde kaart en toepasselijke photo’s, bewerkt door P. H. R. Beuming, oud-onderofficier van het Ned.-Indische Leger (Amsterdam, December 1911; uitgegeven ten bate van het te stichten Herstellingsoord voor Rijks-Ambtenaren). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br N 82-144
Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, met speciaal vervaardigde kaart en toepasselijke photo’s, bewerkt door P. H. R. Beuming, oud-onderofficier van het Ned.-Indische Leger (Amsterdam, December 1911). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.