The bataljon barisan van Soemenēp (barisan battalion of Soemenēp, in eastern Madura; the same Madurese auxiliaries were also called, after the adjoining residency, the barisan of Pamekassan) was a battalion of the barisan — the native auxiliary infantry of the Netherlands Indies Army — serving in Atjeh during the period December 1875 – September 1876.
Service in 1876
H. F. Meijer, in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883), records its companies in every combined operation of the consolidation year — in which the Soemenēp and Pamekassan battalions stood nearly permanently attached to the European field battalions:
- One company, commanded by Captain M. A. Thieme, took part in the relief column of 6–7 March 1876 with the 8th Infantry Battalion, formed part of Major Diepenheim’s attacking column, and covered the transport of the wounded from the field to the hospital at Kota Radja on 7 March.
- A company of the battalion barisan of Pamekassan marched, with the 12th Infantry Battalion, on 22 March along the southern line to screen the building of Atoë Noord, and on 9 April into the VI Moekims with Major Jeltes after the Pantjoer patrol ambush.
- Three companies of the barisan of Soemenēp formed the bulk of the 2nd column, under Lieutenant-Colonel Engel, in the Biloel Zuid operation of 13–15 May.
- In May a company of barisan was sent to strengthen the post of Boekit Seboen when reports spoke of a thousand ill-disposed Atjehers near it.
Battleworthiness
Meijer’s judgment of the barisan as field troops in Atjehnese warfare was sober: with the Bangkallang battalion it belonged to “the least drilled and disciplined of all the infantry” on the war’s terrain, deserving praise when it held as at the stand of 28 July and the butt of his criticism where its young men — as in the Gli Taroem night — could no longer be kept silent by their officers.
See Also
- Barisans
- 1e Bataljon Barisan van Bangkallang
- M. A. Thieme
- 8e Bataljon Infanterie
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapters III, VI and VII.