The Storming of Lampisang (May 1896) was the Dutch military assault of 23 May 1896 on the benting (fortification) of Toekoe Oemar at Lampisang — one of the defected warlord’s principal strongholds in Groot-Atjeh — in the closing engagement of the spring 1896 crisis. The storming cost the life of Captain Kramer and was the last of the seven officer fatalities of the spring 1896 operations; it was the only one killed at the storming of one of Toekoe Oemar’s bentings rather than at the relief of a Dutch post.
The strategic context
The Atjeh-Album of 1896 records that, after the relief of the four besieged Dutch posts at Anagaloeng, Senelop, Biloel and Lamkoenjit in April 1896, the Dutch turned to the offensive against the strongholds of Toekoe Oemar’s defected forces. The benting at Lampisang was one of the principal strongholds — and its storming on 23 May 23 May 1896 was the closing engagement of the spring 1896 crisis. The album’s narrative notes that Toekoe Oemar had, in his three years of alliance with the Dutch, learned much from Dutch fortification practice: Dat de schrandere Toekoe Oemar in drie jaren van zijn bondgenootschap nog veel van onze versterkingskunst heeft geleerd, en deze kennis terdege in praktijk zal gebracht hebben, zullen onze troepen wel hebben kunnen bemerken — That the clever Toekoe Oemar in three years of his alliance has learned much from our art of fortification, and will have put this knowledge thoroughly into practice, our troops will have been able to notice.
The engagement of 23 May 1896
The Atjeh-Album records that the telegraphic despatches of the period — quoted in the album — melden ook van de groote verliezen, die onze troepen geleden hebben — report also the great losses that our troops have suffered — at the storming of Lampisang. Captain Kramer’s death on 23 May 23 May 1896 is the last of the seven officer fatalities of the spring 1896 crisis, and it is the only one at the storming of one of Toekoe Oemar’s bentings. The album’s roll of the fallen gives Kramer’s date of death as 23 May 23 May 1896 and notes that his death — together with those of the six other officers — blijft voortleven, zoo lang Nederland roem mag dragen op het kranige Indische leger — will live on as long as the Netherlands may boast of the valiant Indies army.
The end of the spring 1896 crisis
The Atjeh-Album’s chronology of the spring 1896 crisis places the storming of Lampisang of 23 May 23 May 1896 as the closing event of the crisis. The album notes, prophetically, that Spoedig zal de rol van den Atjehschen veldoverste waarschijnlijk dan afgespeeld zijn — Soon the role of the Atjehnese field-commander will probably then be played out. The album’s framing of Kramer’s death as the closing event of the spring crisis places the storming of Lampisang as the moment at which the Dutch began to recover the initiative from Toekoe Oemar’s defected forces — though the album also notes that the Atjehnese commander’s rol was not yet afgespeeld.
Significance
The Storming of Lampisang is significant in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog as the closing engagement of the spring 1896 crisis — and the only one of the seven officer-fatality engagements at which the Dutch were on the offensive against one of Toekoe Oemar’s bentings rather than at the relief of a Dutch post. The engagement’s high cost — the life of Captain Kramer — was, in the album’s reading, the principal evidence of the way in which the three-year Dutch-Toekoe Oemar alliance had, by arming and training the future enemy, multiplied the eventual cost of the war.
See Also
- Lam Pisang
- Groot-Atjeh
- Toekoe Oemar
- Toekoe Oemar’s defection (1896)
- H. O. W. L. Kramer
- K. H. Westendorp
- J. W. Vuijk
- E. P. A. Geluk
- H. L. Maarschalk
- J. B. Zon
- C. G. A. C. Krohne
- Patrol of 7 March 1896 near Anagaloeng
- Relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit (April 1896)
- Battle of Tjot Rang (14 April 1896)
- Battle of Senelop (April 1896)
- Aceh War
- 23 May
- 1896
- Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896)
Source
Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, pp. 27–28 (Gevallenen, hun Roeping Vervuld!).