The Trip to Tibang-Poei and Birah — tocht naar Tibang-Poei en Birah bij Bat Dilip ter opsporing van het op 17 April ‘96 verloren gegane geschut — on 29 November 1896 was a Dutch search operation to recover the artillery lost on 17 April 1896 during the battle of Senelop — the bloody lifting of the besieged Dutch posts of Senelop and Lamsoet in the first semester of 1896. The trip was undertaken twelve days after the formal handover of command from Stemfoort to Van Vliet, and was one of the principal operations of November 1896. The trip took the Dutch to the kampongs of Tibang-Poei and Birah near Bat Dilip — the area in which the artillery had been lost — and represented the Dutch commitment to recovering the matériel which had been abandoned in the chaos of the April battle.
The Lost Artillery of 17 April 1896
The artillery which the trip of 29 November 1896 sought to recover had been lost on 17 April 1896 during the battle of Senelop — the bloody lifting of the besieged Dutch posts of Senelop and Lamsoet, which had been undertaken in the immediate aftermath of the Umar defection. The loss of the artillery had been a significant blow to the Dutch — both militarily, as it deprived them of the firepower needed for the forward operations, and symbolically, as it represented the most visible material loss of the first semester of 1896. The Dutch had attempted to recover the artillery in the months following the battle, but the operations of the first semester — the three-day offensive, the tuchtiging of Lam-Krak, and the Ladoeng landing — had not resulted in its recovery. The trip of 29 November 1896 was thus a renewed attempt, undertaken in the second semester under Van Vliet’s new governorship.
Significance
The Trip to Tibang-Poei and Birah of 29 November 1896 is significant in the documentary record of ATJEH ‘96 — Tweede Deel as one of the principal operations of November 1896. The trip — undertaken twelve days after the formal handover of command from Stemfoort to Van Vliet — represented the Dutch commitment to recovering the matériel which had been abandoned in the chaos of the April battle, and demonstrated the continuity of the Dutch pacificatie (pacification) policy across the transition from Stemfoort to Van Vliet. The trip was the last major operation of November 1896, and was followed, in December 1896, by the cholera epidemic which would prevent the colonne tegen Oemar (column against Umar) from taking the field.
See Also
- ATJEH ‘96 — Tweede Deel (book by A. Kruisheer)
- C. P. J. van Vliet
- J. W. Stemfoort
- Tibang-Poei
- Birah
- Bat Dilip
- Battle of Senelop (17 April 1896)
- Defection of Teuku Umar (29 March 1896)
- Three-day Dutch offensive of 23–25 May 1896
- Tuchtiging of Lam-Krak Moekims (9–10 June 1896)
- Ladoeng Landing and Glé Broeë Attack (22–23 June 1896)
- Handover of Command from Stemfoort to Van Vliet (17 November 1896)
- Cholera Epidemic in Atjeh (December 1896)
- Groot-Atjeh
- Aceh War
- 1896
- 29 November
- 1913
Source
ATJEH ‘96. Tweede Deel (2c Deel), door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 3 kaarten en 6 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-90-Atjeh_96_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_3_kaarten_en_6_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt., pp. 9, 146, 149, 150.