C. G. A. C. Krohne was a Dutch lieutenant-adjudant of the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger — born in Germany but, as the Atjeh-Album of 1896 notes, an sieraden van het Nederlandsch Indische leger — an ornament of the Netherlands Indies army — who was mortally wounded on 4 May 1896 during an excursie (reconnaissance) towards the Kroeng Kali in the XXVI Moekims and died of his wounds on the same day. He is named in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 as one of the seven officers killed in the spring 1896 operations, and his portrait is one of the six reproduced in the album’s closing plates.
The reconnaissance at Kroeng Kali
The Atjeh-Album records that Krohne was wounded on 4 May 1896 — gewond op 4 Mei bij eene excursie naar Kroeng Kali (XXVI Moekims) — wounded on 4 May during an excursion to Kroeng Kali (XXVI Moekims) — and that he died of the wound on the same day. The excursie was a reconnaissance in force towards the river Kroeng Kali in the XXVI Moekims — the northernmost of the three sagis of Groot-Atjeh — and it was undertaken in the period between the relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit of 9 April 1896 and the storming of Lampisang of 23 May 1896. The engagement at Kroeng Kali was, in the album’s chronology, one of the operations by which the Dutch extended their control over the territory between the besieged temporary posts and the geconcentreerde linie.
The German-born officer
The Atjeh-Album notes that Krohne — like Krohne and the other German-born officer killed in the spring 1896 operations — was a Duitscher van geboorte — German by birth — but, the album insists, een sieraden van het Nederlandsch Indische leger — an ornament of the Netherlands Indies army. The album’s emphasis on Krohne’s German origin, and on the simultaneous insistence that he was an ornament of the Dutch Indies army, is a document of the multi-ethnic composition of the colonial officer corps of the late nineteenth century, in which officers of German, Belgian, French and Swiss origin served alongside native Dutchmen. The same emphasis is found in the album’s treatment of Captain Kramer, whose death at Lampisang three weeks after Krohne’s is recorded in the same chapter.
Burial at Kota Potjoet
The album records that Krohne was buried at the cemetery of Kota Potjoet, whose entrance bears the inscription Aan onze Kameraden, gevallen op het Veld van Eer.
Significance
Krohne’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as the only officer of the spring 1896 operations killed in the XXVI Moekims rather than in the XXII or XXV Moekims — the northernmost of the three sagis. His death on 4 May 1896 — between the relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit and the storming of Lampisang — establishes the chronology of the Dutch recovery in the XXVI Moekims, and the album’s emphasis on his German birth is a document of the multi-ethnic composition of the colonial officer corps.
See Also
- Kroeng Kali
- XXVI Moekims
- Groot-Atjeh
- H. O. W. L. Kramer
- K. H. Westendorp
- J. W. Vuijk
- E. P. A. Geluk
- H. L. Maarschalk
- J. B. Zon
- Relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit (April 1896)
- Storming of Lampisang (May 1896)
- Toekoe Oemar’s defection (1896)
- Kota Potjoet
- Germany
- Aceh War
- 4 May
- 1896
- Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896)
Source
Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, pp. 28, 30 (Gevallenen, hun Roeping Vervuld!).