The vesting-artillerie in Atjeh comprised the two companies of siege artillery sent with the second Dutch expedition against Atjeh in December 1873 — the first use of vesting-artillerie on an Indische expedition. Armed with achterlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M. (the first breech-loading rifled guns ever sent on an Indische expedition), mortieren van 20 c.M. and the older voorlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M., the vesting-artillerie bore the principal share of the nineteen-day bombardment that drove the Atjehneezen from the Kraton. Borel — himself a kapitein der artillerie — consistently praises the vesting-artillerie and indicts generaal van Swieten for recalling one company and most of the modern materieel to Java in February 1874.
First Use on an Indische Expedition
The despatch of two companies of vesting-artillerie to Atjeh in 1873 was, in Borel’s account, a notable innovation: vesting-artillerie had never before been sent on an Indische expedition. The companies were armed with the new achterlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M. — breech-loading rifled steel guns whose schokbuis shells burst reliably on contact — trialled at Tjikarang on Java in October 1873 and judged to have “uitstekende diensten bewezen.” The artillery train also included mortieren van 20 c.M. — heavy mortars used to throw shells into the interior of the Kraton — and the older getrokken voorlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M., whose tijdbuizen failed on Atjeh’s wet, bedekte terrain: half the 12 c.M. puntgranaten failed to explode. From the captured Mesigit a kanonbatterij was built in its eastern face, and for nineteen days — from 6 January to 23 January 1874 — these batteries bombarded the Kraton “met meer of minder kracht.” Borel credits the artillerie alone with driving the enemy out: the Dutch had over-estimated the effect, believing the wall was thick stone — actually it was an aarden borstwering hidden by bamboo-doeri. He notes with characteristic indignation that the vesting-artillerie was “met geen wapen op meer stiefmoederlijke wijze bedeeld” in belooningen.
The Recall to Java
After the fall of the Kraton on 24 January 1874 and the declaration that the offensive was over, van Swieten “stak het zwaard voor goed in de scheede.” Among the measures of force reduction that followed the expedition to Ketapang Doewa of 15 February 1874 was the recall to Java of one of the two companies of vesting-artillerie, with much of the materieel — including the achterlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M., “het beste geschut dat hij bezat.” “Wat den opperbevelhebber bewoog zich zoo ontijdig en onnoodig te ontdoen van het beste geschut dat hij bezat, valt moeilijk te beslissen,” Borel writes. The Javaansche hulptroepen of Mangkoe Negoro and Pakoe Alam and a veld-batterij were likewise sent back to Java in February. The recall was, in Borel’s judgement, an act of strategic vandalism: it stripped the bezettingskorps of the one piece of modern materieel that could reliably engage the Atjehnese stellingen.
Pel’s Bombardment Policy and the Request for Return
kolonel Pel — who inherited the bezettingskorps on 26 April 1874 — “dacht er evenwel geheel anders over” than van Swieten on the question of shelling kampongs. As early as 28 April 1874 he ordered the vesting-artillerie to open fire from the voorlaad-kanonnen van 12 c.M. on all kampongs within range — daily, at varying hours, with the goal of damaging the enemy and preventing “samenscholen van groote massa’s volk.” Half of the 12 c.M. puntgranaten failed to explode, exposing the inadequacy of the obsolete materieel. The bombardment led directly to the request to return the achterlaadgeschut from Java. The newly raised 22ste compagnie vesting-artillerie and the Tweede compagnie vesting-artillerie arrived in Atjeh in the course of 1874 and 1875. With the returned achterlaadkanonnen the vesting-artillerie could at last engage the enemy stellingen effectively: the destruction of the Lampoe Oek fortification on 18 September 1874 (“What had not been obtained earlier through fierce struggle costing heavy sacrifices was now achieved by a few cannon shots”), the destruction of Mandarsa Poeti on 5 October 1874, the silencing of the enemy lilla’s after the first enemy shelling of K. Radja on 24 August 1874, the bombardment of Pendetti on 15 May 1874 and the destruction of the enemy benteng south of K. Radja on 29 August 1874 were all the work of the vesting-artillerie. Borel, who personally traced the new zuider-face battery on the morning of 14 August 1874 under a twelve-shot Atjehnese salvo, was an artilleryman writing about his own arm.
See Also
- Indische Leger
- Achterlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M.
- Voorlaadkanonnen in Atjeh
- Bombardment of the Kraton (January 1874)
- Destruction of the Lampoe Oek fortification (18 September 1874)
- Generaal Pel
- Jan van Swieten
- G. F. W. Borel
- Majoor van Zijll de Jong
- Kapitein von Ende
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 24–29, 44, 48, 54, 102, 116–118, 124, 161, 175, 184, 191–198, 202.