The 1e Divisie Marechaussee uit Blang Kedjeren (also 1ste Divisie Maréchaussee, Iste Divisie) was the division of the Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen based at Blang Kedjeren — also written Blangkedjeren — in the highlands of central Atjeh, and the principal Maréchaussee formation of the Gajo Alas interior in the period between the dertiger jaren (1930s) and the Japanese invasion of March 1942. In the Dutch staff history’s account (Deel VI, Hoofdstuk V), the 1ste Divisie is the Blangkedjeren- and central-Atjeh-oriented Maréchaussee division whose eight brigades at Blangkedjeren — together with the four brigades at Koeala Bee — formed the principal Dutch force in the Alas valley theatre on the eve of the invasion. In Dames’s 1954 Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., the division is the unit through which the book’s two great themes — the plichtsbesef (sense of duty) of the Ambonese soldier, and the boundary between the tall story and the waarheid (truth) — are introduced in the prologue, by way of the kapitein’s Hotel de Boer story at the Soos (officers’ club) in Koeta-Radja in 1933.
The Dertiger Jaren: The Captain and the Dardanellen (1933)
The 1e Divisie Marechaussee uit Blang Kedjeren is the principal unit of the Marechaussee mentioned in the prologue of Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. — Dames’s 1954 portrait-volume of the Ambonese professional soldier of the K.N.I.L. Dames opens:
“In het 1933 of daaromtrent jaar zat de kapitein, commandant van de 1e Divisie Marechaussee uit Blang Kedjeren, op de Soos in Koeta-Radja een groot verhaal af te steken over een belevenis in Hotel de Boer.”
The captain of the division — travelling through Medan with his two dardanellen (the Ambonese orderlies/body-servants of the Maréchaussee system) — sat in the lobby of Hotel de Boer in veldtenue (field grey-green rather than the expected white) drinking a large bottle of beer, only to discover two Maréchaussees with drawn klewang (cutlass) and karabijn (carbine) in de aanslag (at the ready) standing behind his chair. The two Maréchaussees — having followed their captain into the hotel as bodyguards — had taken position behind his chair with drawn swords and cocked carbines.
“Deze twee dardanellen nu waren jaren terug op de Blang gekomen en steeds daar gebleven. Eerst nu kwamen ze eens in de bewoonde wereld terug” —
These two dardanellen had come to the Blang years before and had always stayed there; only now did they come back to the bewoonde wereld (the inhabited world, i.e. civilisation). The episode is the book’s first image of the plichtsbesef of the Ambonese soldier: the dardanellen who, in the chicest hotel of Medan, stood behind their captain with drawn swords because that was their duty.
The Point of the Anecdote
“Het verhaal van de kapitein was niet waar. Maar hij heeft het verteld en met zeer groot succes.”
The captain’s story was almost certainly embellished — but the Atjehmensen (Atjeh people, the colonial Dutchmen of long Atjeh service) at the Soos, who knew the hotel, “hebben het niet voor onmogelijk gehouden” (“did not consider it impossible”). The point is that the plichtsbesef of the Ambonese Maréchaussee was such that “de grenzen van het belachelijke verre konden worden overschreden” — the boundaries of the ridiculous could be far exceeded — and that “wij dan lang niet altijd gelijk hadden” — we were not always right. The division is the unit at Blang Kedjeren — one of the most afgelegen (remote) posts of the colonial army in Atjeh — and its captain’s Hotel de Boer story is the book’s methodological frame: the boundary between the tall story and the waarheid is the boundary the book will observe.
Organisation as of 1 January 1940
As of 1 January 1940, the 1ste Divisie Marechaussee was grouped as follows (each brigade of Maréchaussee numbering 20 men):
| Divisie | Headquarters | Brigades | Secondary posts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iste Divisie | Blangkedjeren | 8 | Koeala Bee (4 brigades) |
Total: 12 brigades (about 240 men).
Blangkedjeren was the principal Dutch administrative post of the Gajo Alas interior — the administrative centre of the onderafdeeling Gajo Alas, the southernmost of the Dutch Atjeh interior posts. Koeala Bee lay to the south on the Westkust.
Operations 1940–1942 and the Pre-Invasion Drawdown
The 1ste Divisie’s Blangkedjeren brigades were progressively drawn upon for the pre-invasion reorganisations of 1940–1941. The staff history’s account of the first phase of reductions (the reductions of 1940) records the dissolution of the Blangkedjeren-oriented detachments as part of the general reduction from 14 divisies to the smaller garrison force. The 1ste Divisie’s brigades were among those dissolved in the first phase of reductions, and the divisional formation was effectively wound up during 1940–1941.
By March 1942 the Iste Divisie’s residual Blangkedjeren strength had been consolidated with troops of various other units at Blangkedjeren under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Blogg. The Divisie’s Koeala Bee brigades, meanwhile, remained on the Westkust, where after the 1940 reductions they formed part of Captain Kloprogge’s reduced IIde Divisie command.
The Blangkedjeren Capitulation of 28 March 1942
After the Japanese landings of 12 March 1942, the residual Dutch forces in the Gajo Alas interior — now under Lieutenant-Colonel Blogg — surrendered at Blangkedjeren on 28 March 1942, the last of the four Atjeh capitulations. The Blangkedjeren capitulation closed the regular Dutch campaign in Atjeh, and is treated by the staff history as the closing episode of the Gajo Alas theatre. The staff history’s emphasis on the division’s progressive reduction through 1940–1941 is part of the compilers’ broader argument that the Dutch pre-invasion force drawdown structurally disabled the Maréchaussee’s capacity to mount sustained resistance.
Significance
The 1e Divisie Marechaussee uit Blang Kedjeren is significant in two complementary colonial-Acehnese sources. In Dames’s 1954 Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., the division is the unit through which Dames introduces the book’s two great themes: the plichtsbesef of the Ambonese soldier, and the boundary between the tall story and the waarheid. The division is the book’s principal unit of the prologue, and the unit whose captain’s Hotel de Boer story sets the methodological frame for the book as a whole. In the Dutch staff history’s Atjeh chapter (Deel VI, Hoofdstuk V), the division is the staff history’s principal narrative unit of the Gajo Alas interior — the most remote of the Dutch Atjeh garrison’s areas of responsibility — and of the structural drawdown that reduced Dutch military presence in the southern Atjeh interior to a minimum by the time of the Japanese invasion. The division’s Blangkedjeren brigades formed the backbone of the Dutch defence at the Blangkedjeren capitulation of 28 March 1942, the closing capitulation of the regular Dutch campaign in Atjeh.
See Also
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- 6e Divisie Marechaussee
- Blang Kedjeren
- Koeala Bee
- Westkust (of Atjeh)
- Gajo Alas
- Blogg
- L. H. J. Kloprogge
- Hotel de Boer
- Koeta-Radja
- Medan
- Dardanellen
- Klewang
- Karabijn (M. 95)
- Atjehmensen
- Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L.
- Nederlands-Indië contra Japan
- Japanese invasion of Atjèh
- Sumatra capitulation (28 March 1942)
- 1933
- 1940
- 1942
- 2e Divisie Marechaussee
- G.C.E. van Daalen
- Gajoetocht (1904)
- Gajoeland
- Takengon
- Alaslanden
- Beren (dwangarbeiders)
- Tangsi
- Kandoerie
- Duivel op de Blang (1909-1910)
- 1904
- 1909
- 1910
- 1926
- 1930
- Aceh War
Sources
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), prologue “Bij ons…”.
Nederlands-Indië contra Japan, Deel VI: De strijd op Ambon, Timor en Sumatra, bewerkt door C. van den Hoogenband en L. Schotborgh (‘s-Gravenhage: Staatsdrukkerij- en Uitgeverijbedrijf, 1959), Hoofdstuk V (“De strijd in Noord-Sumatra (Atjeh)”), pp. 114–118.
Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia. OCR-filename: 20260709_002148_DLP-81-Atjeh_OCR.txt.