Behrens

Behrens — kapitein Behrens, later kolonel — was the Dutch maréchaussée-officer who commanded the 5e divisie at Leuhong in the years 1912–1913. He appears in the 1930 40-year jubilee photographs of the Korps Maréchaussée as “rechts beneden: Behrens” — at the right-below position in the Vier vermaarde maréchaussée-officieren photograph. Zentgraff also places him, in the same period, at Ladang Rimba bivak in the Westkust revolt of 1925–1927.

Wounding of Tgk. di Paja Bakong (Mata Ië) at Aloeë Garöt, 1913

The Heer der bronnen Tgk. di Mata Ië — younger brother of Seupot Mata — had been hunted since 1905. Bijna alle goede patrouilleleiders in die jaren hebben weleens zijn spoor gevonden; Van der Vlerk en Behrens zaten hem soms dicht op de hielen, doch altijd ontkwam hij en dit maakte de faam zijner mystieke krachten nog grooter (almost all good patrol-leaders in those years sometimes found his spoor; Van der Vlerk and Behrens sat sometimes close on his heels, but he always escaped, and this made the fame of his mystic powers still greater). In 1913 Behrens fell on him at Aloeë Garöt zóó snel op het dak dat zijn tulband en rozenkrans in de struiken bleven haken, als het haar van Absalom — so quickly on the roof that his turban and rosary caught in the bushes like Absalom’s hair. The Tengkoe was aan het been gewond (wounded in the leg). His onkwetsbaarheid (invulnerability) was broken, but he held out another four years, until a patrol under the Inlandsche sergeant Toegimin surprised him at Samarkilang on 16 July 1917.

The hunt for Tengkoe di Barat, 1912

Tengkoe di Barat — de Heer van het Westen — was een Atjehsche Maarten van Rossum, die te vuur en te zwaard woedde. Jaren had men op hem gejaagd. Behrens, pas bij de maréchaussée ingedeeld, zat hem toen met twee brigades op de hielen, en in de spits liep een voortreffelijk spoorzoeker, de Amboneesche sergeant Dambohpulu. — Behrens, just assigned to the maréchaussée, sat then on his heels with two brigades, and at the point walked an excellent spoorzoeker, the Ambonese sergeant Dambohpulu. At the Aloeer Soea Dambohpulu found versche bekas (fresh tracks) of the bende’s fourageurs — the leaves in places wat vaster in den grond getrapt (somewhat firmer trampled into the ground) than was normal, a sign of human concealment. The brigade followed; the tracks were five days old, then three, then fresh. Behrens zocht de 16 beste maréchaussée’s uit de twee brigades, en zond de anderen naar het bivak terug — chose the sixteen best men of the two brigades and sent the others back to the bivak. They came upon the blauwe rook (blue smoke) of four hutjes below a waterfall; op handen en voeten kropen de mannen door de ruigte (on hands and knees the men crawled through the brush). The Tengkoe’s wife placed herself vóór haar man — before her husband — and one bullet passed through her body into his. Beiden zakten ineën; zij stierf kort na hem. This was in the loop of 1912: the end of Tengkoe di Barat.

The false T. Radja Sabi, December 1913

When the *false T. Radja Sabi (1913)|false T. Radja Sabi]] appeared at Lho Soekon on 6 December 1913, Behrens kwam er voor over en vroeg of hij den jongen eenige vragen mocht stellen (came forward and asked if he might put some questions to the boy); luitenant Bannink was present. Behrens informeerde bij den jongen naar de bijzonderheden van verschillende overvallingen door de troepen waarbij T. Radja Sabi aanwezig was geweest (inquired of the boy about the particulars of various overvallen by the troops at which T. Radja Sabi had been present). Het bleek onmiddellijk dat hij van die tastbare feiten niets wist — it appeared immediately that he knew nothing of those tangible facts. Behrens and Bannink kregen geen goeden indruk van den jongen (got no good impression of the boy). At Leuhong the boy was nogeens stevig door Behrens aan den tand gevoeld, and viel door de mand; hij bekende een onderschoven object te zijn (fell through; he confessed to being a put-up job). Behrens’s zeer besliste rapport was overridden by gouverneur Swart.

Ladang Rimba bivak and the death of luit. Molenaar

In the Westkust revolt of 1925–1927 Behrens was at the Ladang Rimba bivak. Toen Behrens — de latere kolonel — er de lucht van kreeg hoe het in het bivak Ladang Rimba toeging, trok hij er onmiddellijk op uit, en gaf den vijand een — when Behrens got wind of how things were going in the Ladang Rimba bivak, he immediately went out and gave the enemy a [blow]. Eerst na 1926 was alles weer normaal — only after 1926 was everything normal again. In the same period luitenant Molenaar, behoorend tot eene patrouille onder Behrens, bij een nachtelijken aanval op het erf van het schooltje te Teureubangan werd gedood — lieutenant Molenaar, belonging to a patrol under Behrens, was killed in a night attack on the schoolyard at Teureubangan; dit was het proefstuk van Teukoe Nago om aanvoerder te kunnen worden — this was the test-piece of Teukoe Nago, to be able to become aanvoerder. Of the slain lieutenant’s case Zentgraff notes that Behrens had geen uitdaging noodig om den vijand op te zoeken — needed no challenge to seek out the enemy.

Significance

Behrens was one of the most persistent hunter-commanders in the last phase of the Atjeh-oorlog: he broke the Paja Bakong-oelama’s and the Tengkoe di Barat resistance, was the sharp questioner who exposed the false T. Radja Sabi, and continued the work in the Westkust rising of the 1920s. His partnership with sergeant Dambohpulu is the type of the trimoerti — baas, pang, keutjhi — that the maréchaussée-brigade required.

Against Tgk. di Barat

By December 1911 the situation in Keureutòë was reported as favourable: “Behrens and his men were on the track of Tgk. di Barat: it might still take a couple of months, it might take a year or longer — but the irrevocable end was approaching.”

Tgk. di Barat had returned from the Meergebied to the plain of Lho’ Soekon and Lho’ Seumawè in order to reorganise the resistance with Tgk. di Mata Ië. The marechaussée awaited him; their blows first struck Tgk. di Mata Ië, but on 22 February 1912 Behrens surprised Tgk. di Barat with two brigades, “and that was the end for Tgk. di Barat. From that moment the situation in the whole North Coast division became stable.”

The surprise, narrated by H. C. Zentgraaff and reproduced by du Croo, was made possible by the Ambonese tracker sergeant Dambohpulu, who found the traces of the Teungkoe’s foragers at the Aloeë Soea and followed them for days. Because provisions had run short, Behrens picked the sixteen best marechaussée from his two brigades and sent the rest back to the bivouac — “it was now a picked band.” When smoke was seen rising from a small aloeë, the sixteen were divided into three groups; the group under sergeant Hanff flew through the stream and let itself fall with the water down the waterfall to the huts, where Tgk. di Barat, his wife, two followers with their wives and four children were living. The Teungkoe and his wife were mortally wounded by a single bullet as she stood before her husband.

Against Tgk. di Mata Ië

In 1913 Behrens fell upon Tgk. di Mata Ië by the Aloeë Garöt “so swiftly upon him that his turban and rosary remained caught in the bushes, like Absalom’s hair; he was wounded in the leg in this encounter.” That wound ended the Teungkoe’s reputation for invulnerability and, four years later, made possible the identification of his corpse at Samarkilang on 10 July 1917.

Zentgraaff named Behrens with Van der Vlerk among the patrol leaders who had sometimes been close on Tgk. di Mata Ië’s heels but from whom he always escaped, “and this made the fame of his mystical powers greater still.”

In the Maréchaussée Jubileum-nummer (1930)

The Overzicht van Onderscheidingen printed in the 1930 jubilee number of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië records two awards to Behrens:

1912 — the Eeresabel, as Kapt. Mar., the register noting him as “sedert tot Majoor bevorderden” — since promoted major
1914 — the Militaire Willems-Orde 4th class, as 1ste Luit. Mar.

Source

Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia. OCR-filename: 20260709_002148_DLP-81-Atjeh_OCR.txt.

Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter X, pp. 96–97; Chapter XI, pp. 105–106; Chapter XII, pp. 118–119 and illustration p. 151.

Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh: De Atjehsche Garde, 1890 - 2 April 1930 (“The Corps of Maréchaussée in Atjeh: The Atjehnese Guard”), Extra Jubileum-nummer of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië issued for the fortieth anniversary of the corps (1930), pp. 1-16. Offprint DLP-143, Bibliotheek KITLV, accession 621 116 794.

description	Dutch captain (later kolonel) who commanded the 5e divisie at Leuhong; wounded Tengkoe di Paja Bakong (Mata Ië) at Aloeë Garöt in 1913; questioned the false T. Radja Sabi in December 1913; with his brigade sergeant Dambohpulu hunted Tengkoe di Barat to his death in 1912; commander under whom luit. Molenaar was killed.
tags	person, captain, kolonel, dutch, aceh, aceh-war, 20th-century, leuhong, military, knil, marechaussee, honours, jubilee
aliases	Kapitein Behrens, Kolonel Behrens, Behrens of Leuhong, H. Behrens, H. Behrens Ridder M.W.O. met E.S., Generaal-Majoor Behrens, Kapt. Mar. H. Behrens

Explorer