The 6e Divisie Marechaussee (also 6de (VIde) Divisie Maréchaussee) was the Bakongan division of the Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen on the Westkust of Aceh — the southernmost Maréchaussee division on the Westkust, garrisoned at Bakongan from at least the 1930s through the 1940–1942 Japanese invasion period. In the dertiger jaren (1930s), the division’s 1st brigade was commanded by the sergeant 1e klasse (sergeant first class) Thijs de Fretes and hosted the Marechaussee 1e klas (Maréchaussee first class) Tanamal — the two set-piece Ambonese soldiers of Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L.; in the 1940–1942 period, the division’s seven brigades at Bakongan formed the Dutch anchor of the Westkust evacuation of March 1942, before being evacuated to Malakka at the end of December 1941 under Captain Supheert as part of the pre-invasion drawdown.
The Dertiger Jaren: Thijs de Fretes, Tanamal, and the Colonel’s Visit (1933)
The 6e Divisie is the principal unit of the Marechaussee mentioned in the chapters “Thijs” and “Dominee Thenu” 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. The 1st brigade of the 6e Divisie was commanded by the sergeant 1e klasse Thijs de Fretes — the woudloper (jungle-runner) and jager (hunter) whose plain-spoken Dutch and uncanny marksmanship in the rimboe (jungle) made him one of the book’s set-piece portraits of Oom Ambon. Dames records the 1st brigade command in a single, dense sentence: “Thijs was commandant van de le Brigade van de 6e Divisie Marechaussee, sergeant le klasse dus, maar de kaderschool had hij nimmer bezocht” — “Thijs was commander of the 1st Brigade of the 6e Divisie Marechaussee, sergeant first class therefore, but the cadet school he had never attended.” His nephew Pietje de Fretes — the quartermaster (fourier) and later second lieutenant (onderluitenant) — was also at Bakongan with the division.
The 6e Divisie also hosted the Marechaussee 1e klas Tanamal — the “man with the formidable face” whose ongelooflijk lelijke snuit (incredibly ugly snout) became één en al vrolijkheid (all merriment) at feestjes (parties) where he served as voorzanger (cantor). Dames records: “Tanamal was: de Marechaussee 1e klas” at Bakongan in the dertiger jaren. The division therefore hosted two of the book’s set-piece Ambonese soldiers: Thijs the jager and Tanamal the natural shot.
In 1933 the division received a visit from the colonel (kolonel) of the Korps Marechaussee. Dames records the visit in a single, dense sentence: “Toen in 1933 de kolonel op Bakongan was, had de zelfbestuurder van Troemon het over een solitair, die gevaarlijk was voor de bevolking en schade aanrichtte” — “When in 1933 the colonel was at Bakongan, the zelfbestuurder (native ruler) of Troemon spoke of a solitair (rogue elephant) that was dangerous to the population and caused damage.” Thijs promised the colonel the rogue elephant’s tanden (tusks) before the beast was shot — and shot it at five metres’ distance. The colonel’s visit to Bakongan in 1933 is therefore a visit to the 6e Divisie.
Organisation as of 1 January 1940
As of 1 January 1940, the Dutch staff history records the following deployment for the 6e (VIde) Divisie Marechaussee (each brigade of Maréchaussee numbering 20 men):
| Divisie | Headquarters | Brigades |
|---|---|---|
| VIde Divisie | Bakongan | 7 |
Total: 7 brigades (about 140 men).
Bakongan was the principal Dutch post on the southern Westkust, in the afdeeling Westkust (Westkust administrative division) of Aceh.
The Evacuation to Malakka (December 1941)
The 6e (VIde) Divisie’s Bakongan outpost was one of the Westkust outposts dissolved in the pre-invasion drawdown: at the end of December 1941 the outposts at Tapatoean and Bakongan were evacuated by the eight Maréchaussee brigades stationed there. The eight brigades (the four from Tapatoean plus the seven from Bakongan, minus three brigades left at Lho Seumawé) were sent under Captain T. J. F. M. Supheert via Medan to Malakka to conduct guerrilla operations against the Japanese on behalf of the Dutch allies. The evacuation to Malakka was part of the broader redeployment of Dutch forces in the context of the Japanese advance through Southeast Asia: with the British retreat in Malaya and the anticipated Japanese invasion of Sumatra, the Dutch colonial command transferred the 6e Divisie from its Aceh posting to reinforce the Malakka theatre. The vacated Bakongan bivak was later reoccupied as a concentration point by the Westkust evacuee convoys of March 1942.
The evacuation of the 6e Divisie reduced the Dutch Maréchaussee presence on the Westkust of Aceh at a critical moment — the months immediately before the Japanese landings of 12 March 1942. The 1ste hoofdgroep (Westkust) of the Dutch response to the 12 March 1942 Japanese landings — under Captain Kloprogge — was organised without the 6e Divisie, whose brigades had been transferred to Malakka weeks before.
Significance
The 6e Divisie Marechaussee is significant in two complementary colonial-Acehnese sources. In Dames’s 1954 Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., the division is the woudloper unit of the dertiger jaren — the formation at Bakongan through which Dames makes his argument about the woudloper tradition of the old Marechaussee: the men who knew the rimboe and its dieren (animals) as well as they knew the kampong (village). The division is the book’s principal unit of the dertiger jaren chapters, and the unit visited by the colonel in 1933. In the Dutch staff history’s Atjeh chapter (Deel VI, Hoofdstuk V), the division is the staff history’s principal narrative unit of the southern Westkust outposts and of the structural drawdown that left the southern Westkust without a Dutch garrison at the moment of the Japanese invasion. The dispatch of the eight Tapatoean–Bakongan brigades to Malakka under Captain Supheert — for which the staff history refers the reader to Deel III for the operations of the troops sent to Malakka — is the staff history’s principal instance of the structural abandonment of the southern Westkust as a Dutch theatre of independent operation.
See Also
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- 1e Divisie Marechaussee uit Blang Kedjeren
- Thijs de Fretes
- Tanamal
- Pietje de Fretes
- Bakongan
- Westkust (of Atjeh)
- Zelfbestuurder van Troemon
- Tapatoean
- Lho Seumawé
- Supheert
- L. H. J. Kloprogge
- Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L.
- Nederlands-Indië contra Japan
- 1933
- 1940
- 1942
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), chapters “Thijs” and “Dominee Thenu.”
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. 114–121.