The 3de Garnizoensbataljon was a garrison battalion of the Netherlands Indies Army stationed on the noordkust and oostkust of Atjeh during 1940–1941, and one of the four garrison battalions (together with the 1ste, 2de and 4de) that formed the Dutch garrison-infantry strength of Atjeh on the eve of the Japanese invasion of March 1942. In the Dutch staff history’s account (Deel VI, Hoofdstuk V), the 3de Garnizoensbataljon is the oostkust-oriented battalion whose progressive reduction through 1940–1941 led to its formal dissolution in 1941, with its surviving detachments at Sigli and Lho Seumawé transferred to the 2de Garnizoensbataljon.
The 3de Garnizoensbataljon was the third Dutch colonial garrison battalion in Atjeh, responsible for the eastern and northern Atjeh coast (Oostkust and Noordkust) districts. As of 1 January 1940, the 3de Garnizoensbataljon held 34 brigades in total, distributed across multiple detachments in the Sigli–Lho Seumawé corridor and the eastern Atjeh coast. It was reduced through the two-phase pre-invasion drawdown of 1940 and 1941, and formally dissolved following the 15 February 1941 reduction that stripped it of its remaining troop detachments.
Organisation as of 1 January 1940
As of 1 January 1940, the 3de Garnizoensbataljon was grouped as follows:
- Staff: Kotaradja
- Padang Tiji: 3 brigades
- Sigli: 8 brigades
- Meureudoe: 3 brigades
- Samalanga: 4 brigades
- Bireuën: 4 brigades
- Lho Semawe: 4 brigades
- Boeloe Blang Ara: 4 brigades
- Langsa: 4 brigades
Total: 34 brigades (each brigade of garrison infantry numbering 21 men, for a battalion strength of about 714 men).
The battalion’s principal task was the defence of the noordkust and oostkust of Atjeh, with particular attention to the oil-bearing region around Lho Seumawé and Koeala Simpang and to the oostkust border with Sumatra’s Oostkust.
Reductions of 1940–1941
In 1940, shortly after the outbreak of war with Germany in May 1940, the outposts at Bireuën, Langsa and Kotatjane were evacuated by the units stationed there — totalling 12 brigades — and assigned to a wartime task outside Atjeh. In 1941 the detachments at Padang Tiji, Meureudoe, Samalanga and Boeloe Blang Ara — totalling 28 brigades — were dissolved. Of the brigades thereby released, 15 were formed into a column for use outside Atjeh, and the remainder were used to reinforce the 2de Garnizoensbataljon at Kotaradja.
By 1941 the 3de Garnizoensbataljon consisted only of the detachments at Sigli (8 brigades) and Lho Seumawé (4 brigades), the latter assigned to a defensive task (the protection of the demolition works at the oil-drilling sites). The detachment at Tjalang (1ste Garnizoensbataljon) and that at Sigli (3de Garnizoensbataljon) were transferred to the 2de Garnizoensbataljon, so that the 3de Garnizoensbataljon no longer had any troops and was formally dissolved.
Significance
The 3de Garnizoensbataljon is significant in the staff history’s account as the garrison battalion responsible for the eastern and northern Atjeh coast, and as one of the principal formations reduced and dissolved in the two-phase pre-invasion drawdown of 1940–1941. Its dissolution on 15 February 1941 was the culminating event of the Dutch pre-invasion troop reduction in Atjeh, and the formal close of the 3de Garnizoensbataljon’s presence as a distinct military formation in the eastern Atjeh garrison.
The 3de Garnizoensbataljon is, in the staff history’s Atjeh chapter, the principal instance of the formal dissolution of a Dutch garrison battalion in Atjeh before the Japanese invasion. The transfer of the Sigli and Lho Seumawé detachments to the 2de Garnizoensbataljon — and the formal dissolution of the 3de’s staff — symbolised the Dutch abandonment of the oostkust as a separate theatre of operations, and the consolidation of the surviving noordkust strength under Lt-Col Bekkers at Kotaradja. The dissolution also marked the formal Dutch acceptance that the oostkust oil installations at Lho Seumawé and Koeala Simpang could no longer be defended by garrison infantry, but only by the defensive task of indigenous brigades armed solely with carbines.
Source
Strength and deployment as of 1 January 1940
The staff history records the 3de Garnizoensbataljon’s total strength as of 1 January 1940 at 34 brigades, grouped as follows:
- Staf: Kotaradja
- Padang Tiji: 3 brigades
- Sigli: 8 brigades
- Meureudoe: 3 brigades
- Samalanga: 4 brigades
- Bireuën: 4 brigades
- Lho Seumawé: 4 brigades
- Boeloe Blang Ara: 4 brigades
- Langsa: 4 brigades
Total: 34 brigades (each brigade of garrison infantry numbering 21 men, for a battalion strength of about 714 men). The battalion’s principal task was the defence of the noordkust and oostkust of Atjeh, with particular attention to the oil-bearing region around Lho Seumawé and Koeala Simpang and to the oostkust border with Sumatra’s Oostkust.
The 15 February 1941 reduction and dissolution
In 1941 the detachments at Padang Tiji, Meureudoe, Samalanga and Boeloe Blang Ara — totalling 28 brigades — were dissolved. Of the freed brigades, 15 were formed into a column for use outside Atjeh, and the remainder were used to reinforce the 2de Garnizoensbataljon at Kotaradja. On 15 February 1941, as part of this second and final phase of the pre-invasion drawdown, the 3de Garnizoensbataljon was reduced to its Sigli (8 brigades) and Lho Seumawé (4 brigades) detachments only — the latter assigned to a defence task (security of the demolition works at the oil-drilling grounds). The detachments at Tjalang (1ste Garnizoensbataljon) and at Sigli (3de Garnizoensbataljon) were handed over to the 2de Garnizoensbataljon, so that the 3de Garnizoensbataljon no longer had any troops remaining at its headquarters and was formally dissolved.
The brigades released by the dissolution of the 3de Garnizoensbataljon’s headquarters and war detachments were redistributed: a column of 15 brigades was formed for assignment elsewhere outside Atjeh; the remaining brigades were absorbed into the 2de Garnizoensbataljon at Kotaradja (reinforced with 8 brigades from the dissolved Sabang war detachment) and the 1ste Garnizoensbataljon (whose staff was moved to Medan).
The first reduction phase (1940)
The first phase of the pre-invasion drawdown, carried out through 1940, reduced the 3de Garnizoensbataljon by the dissolution of multiple war detachments. Shortly after the outbreak of war with Germany (May 1940), the bivouacs at Bireuën, Langsa and Kotatjane — 12 brigades in total — were vacated by the units stationed there and earmarked for a war task outside Atjeh. After the first-phase reductions, the 3de Garnizoensbataljon retained its headquarters and a reduced number of detachments.