Cornelis Jacobus Snijders

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tagsperson, officer, colonial, military, aceh-war, dutch, engineers, world-war-i, luchtvaart
aliasesC. J. Snijders, Generaal Snijders, Cornelis Jacobus Snijder, Snijders, General Snijders, C.J. Snijders, Out-Opperbevelhebber Snijders

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Cornelis Jacobus Snijders (29 September 1852 – 26 May 1939) was a Dutch military officer of the Korps Ingenieurs, Mineurs en Sappeurs whose career spanned the Atjeh-oorlog, the construction of the Nieuwe Hollandsche Waterlinie and the Stelling van Amsterdam, and the First World War, in which he served as Opperbevelhebber van Land- en Zeemacht (August 1914–November 1918). He was the Commander-in-Chief of the Netherlands’ land and sea forces during the mobilisation of 1914–1918, Chef van den Generalen Staf from 1910 to 1914, and after his retirement became the principal promoter of Dutch civil aviation, with a particular concern for the air link between the Netherlands and Nederlandsch-Indië. His formative military experience was forged in the swamps and kampongs around Koeta Radja in 1874–1875 as a Tweede Luitenant in the Bataillon Mineurs en Sappeurs, for which he was decorated with the Ridderkruis der Militaire Willemsorde 4th class. He returned to Atjeh three times in the 1920s as a retired general, and in 1920 laid a wreath on the grave of Generaal-Majoor Pel at the European cemetery of Kota Radja.

Early Life and Family

Snijders was born at Nieuwe Tonge on the island of Goeree-Overflakkee on 29 September 1852, the fifth son of Cornelis Jacobus Snijders Sr., the local physician (formerly a naval surgeon), and Sara Maria Muller. He came from a “ras-Zeeuwsche burgerfamilie” rather than from a military lineage, and was named after his father. Eight sons and one daughter were born of the marriage, of whom one boy and the girl died in childhood; the seven surviving brothers — Snijders himself later jestingly called them his parents’ “eerewacht” — all reached prominent social positions. The eldest, Professor Ir. J. A. Snijders, ended his career as a professor at the Technische Hoogeschool at Delft; the second, W. G. F. Snijders, chose the military career and retired in 1905 as Luitenant-Generaal and Inspector of Infantry; the third, Dr. A. J. C. Snijders, became a teacher of chemistry and natural history at the H.B.S. and gymnasium at Zutphen; Herman Snijders taught history and political science at Middelburg; Dr. Th. J. H. Snijders became a medical officer in the army. The biographer D. van den Berg, himself a Luitenant-Kolonel der Genie, records that the great energy and work-power of the brothers was “kennelijk het erfdeel van hun vader.”

Education and KMA (1865–1872)

After the family moved to Middelburg Snijders entered the Rijks H.B.S. there in September 1865, where he stayed four years. The arduous journey from Middelburg to Nieuwe Tonge ruled out interim visits home; the time at Middelburg, where the village boy first encountered city life and the company of boys of his own class, was decisive for his development. He was consistently among the highest in his class.

The example of his older brother Wilhelm, who became an infantry officer in 1867 and cut a dashing figure on leave in Nieuwe Tonge, drew Cornelis toward a military career. His choice was, by his own later admission, founded entirely on the externals of the military profession; he had no sense of vocation or of the officer’s material position. His parents, no better placed to judge, contented themselves with recommending serious reflection. They deemed it fair that, since the higher tuition for artillery and engineers at the KMA exceeded that for infantry, Cornelis — like Wilhelm — should apply only for the infantry.

A regulatory change intervened. The 1869 law on the KMA restored, from 1872, a two-year course for officers of all arms (with a one-year applicatiecursus for artillery and engineer officers). As a transitional measure, in 1869 and 1870 cadets were admitted to a three-year course for all arms. Rather than wait for the 1872 course to begin, Cornelis was entered for the 1869 admission examination. After a few weeks of tutoring at Breda under his brother Wilhelm, he sat the examination in June; before the result was declared, however, his brother had word that the examiners regretted that Cornelis had asked only for the infantry. Father Snijders, pressed by Wilhelm, consented to a request for transfer to the engineers — the higher tuition for Cornelis being roughly equal to the four lower payments previously made for Wilhelm. The official result in the first week of July placed Cornelis third among 100 candidates for 88 places; on 13 July 13 July 1869 he was appointed cadet in the engineers.

At the KMA Snijders entered on 3 September 3 September 1869 as a “jonker.” Cadet life was then a strict internal regime — no Easter or Christmas leave, no weekend home visits. Snijders soon settled, making a life-long friend in Jhr. C. J. Strick van Linschoten, who transferred from engineers to cavalry during the first year. Snijders kept somewhat in the background — his meagre cadet pay, not supplemented from home, kept him from many festivities — and was a member of the fencing society “Arena” in his first year and of the shooting society “Attila” in his second. In his oldest year he served on the redaction committee of the Kadetten-Almanak, contributing the year-verslag of 1871 — his first published work. Academically he was No. 1 of his class from first to last; when the four-man rotatie passed the officers’ examination on 14 July 14 July 1872 he was awarded two honorary prizes: a portrait of King Willem III in a gilded frame for excellence in linear drawing, and a revolver with inscription in a case for excellence in practical aptitude.

Mobilisation of 1870

The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War prompted a partial mobilisation in the Netherlands on 16 July 16 July 1870. By ministerial order of 8 August 8 August the cadets on leave were called up. On 10 August 10 August Snijders reported back to the KMA; thence, with 14 cadets of the Netherlands and Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, he was posted to the Staf of the Bataillon Mineurs en Sappeurs at Utrecht. Housed in the Willemskazerne near the Wittevrouwenpoort, on 12 August 12 August he was assigned to the 2e Compagnie Mineurs en Sappeurs of the Utrechtsche Linie. The detachment, however, kept him only at fatigue and corvée duties — a profound disappointment. After the Battle of Sedan the demobilisation came; on 11 September 11 September the cadets were sent home and on 17 September 17 September returned to the KMA.

Commissioning and First Posting (1872–1873)

By Koninklijk Besluit of 26 July 26 July 1872 No. 63, the cadet-sergeant Snijders — still two months short of his twentieth birthday — was appointed Tweede Luitenant in the Korps Ingenieurs, Mineurs en Sappeurs and posted to the Eerste Stelling der Genie at Utrecht. On 10 August 10 August 1872 he reported to Kolonel-Ingenieur Jhr. J. F. van Thije Hannes, who administered the oath of office in his lodgings — a Stellingbureau that was “hokkig en rommelig” — before a clerk on crutches as sole witness.

The young lieutenant worked under Kapitein-Ingenieur F. M. Baron van Eck on the improvement of the Positie van Honswijk and on the construction of an inundation canal from the Lek to the Schalkwijksche Wetering with its sluices and bridges; with him served Eerste-Luitenant-Ingenieur W. Badon Ghijben, who would later become his immediate chief at the KMA. Before the end of 1872 Snijders was moved to Utrecht proper and charged with maintenance of part of the works of the Utrechtsche Linie and with preparatory work for new defensive works and inundation measures under the Vestingwet van 1874. The Genie officers in Utrecht at that time worked each from his own lodgings, without common office or senior supervision — a lack that, the biographer notes, made itself unpleasantly felt given the insufficient practical orientation of KMA instruction.

Volunteering for the Aceh Expedition (1873)

After the failure of the Eerste Atjeh-expeditie under Generaal-Majoor Köhler in April 1873, the Dutch government resolved on a second expedition and called for volunteer officers from the metropolitan army for a two-year detachment to the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger. Snijders, then at Utrecht, heard of the call at the society Sic Semper from a senior comrade and immediately applied. His father, initially displeased that his minor son had not consulted him, consented only on condition that Snijders not request assignment to a combat column in Atjeh. Snijders honoured that promise, although Governor-General Loudon later tried to put such a request into his mouth.

In Snijders’ own later account, given in one of his many interviews: “Eigenlijk heel toevallig. De eerste Atjeh-expeditie van 1873 was niet naar wensch verloopen. Bij de voorbereiding van de nieuwe krijgsverrichtingen stelde onze Regeering in Mei ‘73 voor 40 officieren, waaronder 4 van de genie, de gelegenheid open voor eene detacheering van twee jaar bij het Indische Leger. Ik hoorde het eerst van die oproeping des avonds op de deftige societeit Sic Semper te Utrecht door een van mijne oudere kameraden, die besloten had zich op te geven. ‘Dan doe ik het ook,’ zei ik, en den volgenden dag diende ik een verzoek in.”

By Koninklijk Besluit of 10 June 10 June 1873 No. 33 — see Koninklijk Besluit of 10 June 1873 No. 33 — Snijders was among the four engineer officers selected for the detachment, although he was the youngest of those proposed. Before departure he and his fellow selectee J. W. N. Cramer were sent to the Mineurskamp at Zeist for several days’ instruction in a new optical-telegraph system devised by Majoor-Ingenieur J. H. Kromhout, although in the event the navy’s system was used in the field.

Voyage to the East Indies (July–August 1873)

Snijders embarked on the steamship Conrad (2500 tons, of the Maatschappij “Nederland”) from Nieuwediep on 10 July 10 July 1873. The ship carried a reinforcement detachment of 400 men with their officers, a number of officers returning from European leave, and most of the metropolitan officers being detached to the Indies army. Prince Hendrik, brother of the King, saw the troops off, dining on board and addressing the departing officers before returning to shore. In the Bay of Biscay the Conrad suffered storm damage and put in at Gibraltar for ten days of repair. The Dutch officers profited by visiting the British garrison and, under the guidance of Kolonel G. P. de Neve of the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, made an excursion to Tangier. After Gibraltar the Conrad called only at Port Said and Aden, and on 31 August 31 August 1873 — seven and a half weeks out — anchored off Batavia.

Service in Surabaya (September 1873 – October 1874)

On arrival Snijders was received hospitably by the family of Majoor Hessig of the Medical Service (whose wife was a cousin of his). For some days he was attached to the Hoofdbureau der Genie at Weltevreden to draft a memorandum on the Kromhout optical-telegraph system. When it became clear that the navy’s system would be used in Atjeh, he was posted to the Staf der Genie at Surabaya. He departed Batavia on 20 September 20 September by steamer of the Nederlandsch-Indische Stoomvaartmaatschappij and arrived on 24 September 24 September 1873. Under the senior engineer officer there he performed bureau duties and supervised extensions to the Artillerie-Conditionement, the Pyrotechnische Werkplaatsen, and the Militair Hospitaal. Despite the hygienic conditions at Surabaya, which were far from ideal, he acclimatised without notable difficulty, writing home that he seemed “expresselijk voor dit klimaat vervaardigd.”

Transfer to Aceh (October–November 1874)

After a year at Surabaya Snijders feared that, with half his two-year detachment elapsed, his chance of serving in Atjeh had passed. He could not apply directly, given his promise to his father. Through informal channels he learned he was now first in line for posting to the troops in northern Sumatra, and on 18 October 18 October 1874 he was indeed designated for transfer to the Korps Mineurs en Sappeurs in Atjeh. He embarked from Surabaya on 25 October 25 October on a ship carrying reinforcement troops for North Sumatra, touching at Semarang, Batavia, and Padang, and landing at Olehleh on 8 November 8 November 1874. He marched the short distance to Kota Radja and reported to Majoor der Genie W. J. C. Leers, who assigned him to the Compagnie Mineurs en Sappeurs garrisoned there. The company was commanded by Eerste-Luitenant der Infanterie Van den Blijck, with Eerste-Luitenant der Infanterie Bartelds as second-in-command — both infantry officers temporarily detached for want of engineer officers. Snijders formed a lasting rapport with both.

The Kota Alam Operation (13 November 1874)

Less than a week after his arrival Snijders received his baptism of fire. On 7 November 7 November 1874 Dutch troops had captured the fortified kampongs of Lemboecq, Lemboe, Berauw, and the Rivierbenting northeast of Kota Radja. Intelligence then indicated that the Atjehers were preparing to occupy Kota Alam further east, threatening Longbatta and the line of communication. Kolonel PEL — civil and military governor since Van Swieten’s departure — decided to forestall them by building a defensible post at Kota Alam on 13 November 13 November 1874. The full operation is described on the dedicated event page: Benting Kota Alam operation (13 November 1874).

In the pre-dawn darkness of 13 November 13 November 1874, a column departed Kota Radja under Luitenant-Kolonel M. C. E. Ruempol: the 9th Battalion L.H., a mountain-artillery section, a section of Mineurs en Sappeurs, and an ambulance detachment. Snijders commanded the sapper section in the vanguard, supported by an infantry platoon, the mountain guns, and 180 free coolies (vrije koelies) with tools and materials following under a light infantry screen.

The column followed the Pedir dike to the Atjeh River near the Rivierbenting, then proceeded upstream to a pre-selected site near a river bend. Majoor T. J. A. van Zijll de Jong (artillery) and Majoor Leers (engineers) sited the fortification to command both the fortified edge of Pinang to the northeast and Longbatta to the south, while dominating a long stretch of the river — one of the best crossing points.

Snijders immediately set his coolies to filling sandbags and stacking them along the traced perimeter, while a large Achehnese house was converted into temporary shelter. A double line of outposts 150 metres forward, anchored on the river and reinforced with an infantry section and artillery, covered the work. Scarcely had the first sandbags been laid when heavy rifle fire erupted from the scrub on three sides and from the opposite bank. The Atjehners twice attempted to rush the covering line but were repulsed. Snijders, though under fire for the first time, directed the construction calmly; his chief concern, he later recalled, was not to appear fearful. The free coolies — hired to work, not to fight — showed a tendency to flee; one was killed and another wounded, and Snijders had to hold them to the work “met de sabel in de vuist.” By about 3 p.m. a provisional sandbag breastwork had been raised on the west, south, and east fronts, augmented by a bamboe-doerie (doornbamboe) hedge on the outside; the landward side was closed with a breastwork of stacked tree-trunks. The column returned to Kota Radja at dusk with one officer and sixteen men wounded. The completed fortification — Benting Kota Alam — secured the eastern flank of the Dutch positions.

Missigit Longbatta Operation (31 December 1874 – January 1875)

To drive the Atjehers further from the Dutch main positions and to make the Atjeh River the eastern defensive line, Kolonel PEL launched an action against Longbatta on the morning of 31 December 31 December 1874; the head of the kampong, Iman Longbatta, was one of the principal resistance leaders. Snijders was held ready at Kota Radja with 200 vrije koelies and a large quantity of materials and tools to follow one of the columns and, on success, to put the captured ground in a state of defence.

Toward midday Snijders received orders and marched his workers under infantry cover up the left bank of the Atjeh River. At about 2 p.m. he joined Kolonel PEL and the reserve at some distance from the Missigit (bedehuis) Longbatta, which the troops had by then taken. While PEL was beginning to give Snijders his instructions, the action took an unfavourable turn and the proposed engineering work had to be abandoned for the day. Snijders was ordered back.

On New Year’s Day 1875 Snijders marched again, with a detachment of mineurs and sappeurs and about 100 vrije koelies, accompanying an infantry column that was to escort and cover the guns being sent to arm Missigit Longbatta and a convoy of food, ammunition, and building materials. The column was repeatedly fired on, especially crossing the open sawah north of the kampong. Around noon the Missigit was reached and work began on a redoubt about 50 × 60 metres enclosing the mosque, with a wet ditch on the east front supplied by an existing water conduit. Sandbag breastworks were thrown up along the perimeter; the Missigit itself was fitted up as officers’ quarters; the rest of the garrison and the coolies bivouacked in the open. Within days the parapet was closed and raised, and the construction of bamboo barracks (covered with asphalt-felt) for the garrison, kitchens, latrines, and so forth was begun outside the work.

The Atjehers refused to accept the loss of their sanctuary. From three sides, day after day, they kept the Missigit and the working parties under small-arms fire of varying intensity, with occasional artillery fire that daily produced wounded. The occupation of the post Longbatta Zuid by Dutch troops brought little relief. The opening of the foreground and the felling of the many palms Snijders needed for his work drew heavy fire, the Atjehers building new works on the right bank of the Atjeh River at distances as short as 600 metres. On 9 January 9 January 1875 the post was so heavily bombarded that one officer and three men were severely wounded. In the night of 10/11 January 11 January the enemy pressed to within 50 metres of the parapet before being driven off by a case-shot and infantry volleys; at dawn the infantry cover of the corvée in the foreground had to drive the Atjehers back at bayonet-point after several volleys.

Despite losses of three dead and twelve wounded among his workers, Snijders in two weeks largely completed the redoubt. When Majoor Leers visited on 13 January 13 January 1875 — the same day on which a point in the kampong Blang Tjoet was occupied and fortified — he judged the work could be finished under an NCO of the mineurs and Snijders was sent back to Kota Radja. He remained in general charge, visiting the Missigit every two or three days with the daily convoy.

An eyewitness — the Eerste-Luitenant der Infanterie T. W. G. Merz of the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, in a lecture printed in the Orgaan der Officiersvereeniging of October 1935 — described the work:

“De Luitenant der Mineurs SNIJDERS, van het Leger in Nederland in Indië gedetacheerd, maakte middelerwijl een begin met het tracé der borstwering. Longbatta-Mesigii had bij de inname een lage, aarden omwalling, die nagenoeg de gedaante had van een regthoek, waarvan de langste zijde ongeveer 30, de kortste 25 strekkende meter vuurlijn telde: daarom werd besloten nagenoeg in de richting van de bestaande wal een langwerpige redoute te traceeren, terwijl de Zuid-Oostelijke en Noord-Westelijke saillant tot een cirkel-bastion zouden worden uitgebouwd. […] De Luitenant SNIJDERS der Genie, een braaf officier, kweet zich uitmuntend van zijn plicht; het vijandelijk vuur in het minst niet schuwende, altijd opgewekt en vroolijk, ging hij de zijnen voorbeeldig voor, zoodat binnen drie weken de wallen uit zandzakken bestaande, voltooid en de gebouwen gereed waren, waardoor ten minste iedereen behoorlijk onderkomen had. Waarna hij met zijne Mineurs en werklieden naar Kota Radja terugkeerde; ieder onzer speet het, dat deze brave, trouwe makker van ons ging; iedereen waardeerde hem in hooge mate om zijn moed en warmen kameraadschappelijken geest.”

The Merz lecture is cited by C. A. Bannink in his Grepen uit den Atjeh-oorlog in the Orgaan der Officiersvereeniging of 1936.

Lamara Olejlo and the Staf der Genie at Kota Radja (January–August 1875)

After the Missigit work, PEL extended his clearing operations southward. On 23 January 23 January 1875 the post Pungej Blang Tjoet was occupied and in the following days fortified by Snijders with a detachment of mineurs and a number of coolies. On 28 January 28 January the troops took the Mandarsah Poetih (the “white bedehuis”), a small stone building already partially ruined by artillery fire, which Snijders likewise put in a state of defence.

In the night of 14/15 February 15 February 1875 a reconnaissance against the fortified and partly gun-armed edges of the kampongs Gitjiel Olejlo, Lamara Olejlo, and Lohong — from which the Atjehers continued to harass Mandarsah Poetih — led to the surprise occupation of some fortifications on the northern edge of Lamara Olejlo. Snijders received orders at midday on 15 February 15 February at Kota Radja to march with part of the company and a detachment of 100 dwangarbeiders (forced labourers), with tools and sandbags, to put the captured benting in a state of defence. Under heavy fire — to suppress which the Dutch artillery had to intervene repeatedly — and at the cost of one killed and two officers and eighteen men wounded, the south face was completed and the west and east faces partially completed by about 4 p.m., and the foreground was opened up as much as possible, so that the garrison had a usable fighting position for the night. Snijders and his workers then returned to the Kraton with the reinforcement troops sent from Kota Radja. In the following days the work was continued and brought to completion by daily working parties sent from Kota Radja under Snijders’ direction, despite constant harassment from Atjeh rifle and gun fire.

The Bandjir of 4 December 1874

In the first days of December 1874 a bandjir threatened the two light trestle bridges that had been thrown across the Atjeh River at Pakan Atjeh and, further downstream, at Penajoeng. By preventing driftwood, tree-trunks, and creepers from collecting against the trestles, the Pakan Atjeh bridge was saved. The Penajoeng bridge was in greater danger, and on 4 December 4 December Snijders was sent there. The whole country was under water; unable to swim, he took three native mineurs who could. Wading to chest-height over the unpathed ground they reached Penajoeng in half an hour — only to see the surviving section of the bridge torn away by the flood. On the return march, at a point where Snijders stood armpit-deep, a cross-current seized him and he would have drowned had not his companions held out a stick by which he regained his footing. The biographer remarks, with dry humour, that “deze eenvoudige inlanders kunnen bezwaarlijk hebben beseft den omvang van den dienst, welken zij later bleken daarmede aan het Vaderland te hebben bewezen!”

Staf der Genie te Kota Radja

With the Lamara Olejlo action Snijders’ task with the field column ended. He was attached to the Staf der Genie at Kota Radja for what were essentially peacetime duties, in which he remained for the rest of his time in Atjeh. He commanded several hundred workers of various kinds and was responsible for: maintenance and improvement of buildings, roads, and bridges; the construction of a temporary troop camp in the grass plain of Pante Perak north of Kota Radja — into which the Mineurs company itself moved in May 1875, much improving on previous quarters in the Kraton; an ice factory for the Medical Service; a house for the Commander in the Kraton and a block of officers’ quarters; a cattle-pen for 400 head outside Kota Radja; drainage works to make the Kraton free of bandjir (including the embankment of the Kroeng Daroe); and the construction of a narrow-gauge railway from Kota Radja to Olehleh with a timber-framed landing-stage at the latter. The malignant malaria and cholera epidemics of February and March, which took many victims in Atjeh, passed him by — except for the daily swallowing of large quantities of quinine.

Refusal of Extended Detachment and Return

In June 1875 the Indies government offered the metropolitan officers detached for the Atjeh expedition the option of extending their two-year detachment to three. Snijders, promoted Eerste-Luitenant on 18 April 18 April 1875, declined — partly from loyalty to a fixed arrangement, partly from fear that a long absence from the Netherlands would harm his career in an engineers branch with many divergent demands. He later regretted the decision, partly because the commander’s further plans — the conquest of the whole coastal area — would have given him more welcome war experience, and partly from a feeling that loyalty to the Indies army, then short of officers, should have made him answer yes. But the answer had been given. On 4 August 4 August 1875 Snijders left Olehleh on the steamship Atjeh of the Nederlandsch-Indische Stoomvaartmaatschappij. After a few days at Penang and Singapore he reached Batavia on 14 August 14 August and again lodged with the Hessig family; spent some days’ leave at Buitenzorg; and on 26 August 26 August sailed for Europe on the Koning der Nederlanden of the Maatschappij “Nederland.” He arrived at Naples on 30 September 30 September, continued overland, and on 22 October 22 October 1875 re-entered his parents’ house at ‘s-Gravenzande.

Decorations for the Atjeh Service

Directly after the Longbatta operations Snijders was proposed for the Militaire Willemsorde for:

“a. 13 November 13 November 1874. Verkenning zuidwestelijk gedeelte van Lemboecq en oprichting eener versterking bij Kota Alam: onder het vuur des vijands het tot stand brengen der sterkte Kota Alam hoofdzakelijk met vrije koelies te helpen op touw zetten en de daaraan verbonden werkzaamheden met beleid en kalmte te hebben geleid.

b. t/m 16 January 16 January 1875. Het daarstellen eener versterking te Missigit Longbattah: onder een onafgebroken werkzaam vuur des vijands het toezicht te hebben gehad over het opzetten en daarstelling der gebouwen, terwijl de werkkrachten bestonden uit weinige mineurs en 100 vrije koelies. Met veel moed en beleid heeft hij dit werk volbracht, niettegenstaande drie zijner werkers sneuvelden en twaalf gewond werden.”

By Koninklijk Besluit of 12 November 12 November 1875 No. 18 — see Koninklijk Besluit of 12 November 1875 No. 18 — covering actions in the period mid-August 1874 to end-February 1875, the barely-of-age officer was appointed Ridder 4e klasse der Militaire Willemsorde. When the cross was simply sent to him without the prescribed ceremony “met den meest mogelijken militairen luister” and riddereed, he requested that it be so conferred; the request was granted. At the garrison parade held in the Maliebaan at Utrecht on 19 February 19 February 1876 for the King’s birthday, Snijders and his fellow detaché J. W. N. Cramer received their crosses with full ceremony.

On 17 March 17 March 1877 Snijders was further granted the right to wear the Eerekruis voor belangrijke krijgsverrichtingen (the so-called Expeditiekruis) with the clasp “Atjeh 1873–1876” and the Atjeh-medaille — the separately instituted bronze medal struck from captured Atjehese cannon, awarded to all military and civilian personnel who had served with the troops or as civilian officials in Atjeh in 1873 and 1874. Popular usage wrongly called the Atjeh-medaille the “Kraton-medaille.” The biographer notes that Snijders, with Kapitein-Luitenant ter Zee J. Boom (who died in 1942 at the age of 95), was probably among the very last surviving holders of these honours.

Subsequent Career (1875–1918)

After his return Snijders resumed his career in the Genie at Utrecht (1875–76), became a teacher at the KMA (1876–80), served at the Staf der Genie at Dordrecht (1880–81) and at Hoek van Holland (1881–82), and was detached to Magdeburg (1882–86) to supervise the manufacture of armour for the Dutch coast forts at the firm Gruson. The Magdeburg years produced a series of ground-breaking reports on armour and projectiles that, by demonstrating the obsolescence of bomb-proof cover under the new high-explosive shells, halted the further build-out of the Stelling van Amsterdam in 1886 until a new approach could be devised. He was Hoofd van Onderwijs at the KMA (1887–94), Eerst-aanwezend Ingenieur at Gorinchem (1895–1901) and Haarlem (1901–04), Commandant in the 1e Genie-Commandement at Utrecht (1904–08), Sous-Chef van den Generalen Staf (1908–10) and Chef van den Generalen Staf (1910–14). On the German Kaisermanöver of September 1911 he was presented to Kaiser Wilhelm II.

On 2 August 2 August 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, Snijders was appointed Opperbevelhebber van Land- en Zeemacht and promoted to General. He oversaw the mobilisation and the defence of Dutch neutrality until his resignation in November 1918. His relation with the Minister of War, N. Bosboom, and with the government was often tense; his strict discipline during the leave-suspension crisis of October 1918 made him a hate-figure of the social democrats.

Post-War Aviation Work and the Indies Air Link

Retired at 66, Snijders devoted the next two decades principally to the promotion of Dutch aviation, in particular the air link between the Netherlands and Nederlandsch-Indië. In 1907 he had been chosen first chairman of the Vereeniging voor Luchtvaart; in 1913 his influence had led to the establishment of the Luchtvaart-Afdeling of the army. From 1919 onwards he was the principal agitator for a regular Amsterdam–Batavia service, presiding over the Comité “Vliegtocht Nederland–Indië,” whose work culminated in the 1924 flight of Van der Hop, Van Weerden Poelman, and Van den Broecke — the first Amsterdam–Batavia flight. He was a member of the Raad van Bestuur of the K.N.I.L.M. from 1928 and a tireless propagandist in the press.

First Indies Journey (1920) — Including a Visit to Atjeh

In 1920, as chairman of the Vereeniging “Ons Leger,” Snijders undertook his first post-war journey to the Indies, accompanied by Kapitein van den Generalen Staf E. H. A. van den Akker as secretary, to represent “Ons Leger” at the Algemene Vergadering of “Indië Weerbaar” at Bandoeng on 24 May 24 May 1920. A transport workers’ strike forced him to give up his intended passage on the Wilis; with some effort he secured a berth on the English mailboat Delta of the P&O Line, leaving Europe on 7 April 7 April and arriving at Tanjung Priok on 16 May 16 May. After the Bandoeng meeting he gave lectures on the defensie-vraagstuk at Surabaya on 14 July 14 July, at Semarang on 21 July 21 July, and at Medan on 12 August 12 August.

On Sumatra he paid a visit to Atjeh, where — the biographer notes — he laid a wreath on the grave of Generaal-Majoor Pel in the European cemetery at Kota Radja. The wreath-laying closed a personal circle: Snijders had served under Pel in 1874–1875 and had been decorated for actions during Pel’s command; Pel himself had died suddenly at kampong Tonga on 24 February 24 February 1876 in the middle of the campaign against the XXII Moekims, and had been buried at Kota Radja. From Medan Snijders also made a tour through the interior to Padang. He left the Indies on 2 September 2 September on the Insulinde.

Subsequent Indies Journeys (1928, 1929)

In 1928 the Bestuur of the Indische Vereeniging Luchtvaart invited him to attend the festive opening of the K.N.I.L.M. lines. He sailed on 19 September 19 September 1928 on the Christian Huygens and arrived at Tanjung Priok on 12 October 12 October. His arrival had the character of a triumphant return — a thousand-headed crowd, a military band, and circling aircraft welcomed him at the quay. On 1 November 1 November the inauguration of the K.N.I.L.M. lines took place at the airfield Tjikolitan near Meester Cornelis, where Snijders as adviser to the company delivered one of his characteristically forceful speeches. He made several flights Weltevreden–Bandoeng and Weltevreden–Simongan (Semarang), and on 18 October 18 October attended the centenary of the KMA at Weltevreden; on 10 November 10 November he attended a mobilisation commemoration at Surabaya. He then spent a week as the guest of the Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij on Bali; on Sumatra the Vereeniging van Nederlandsch-Indische Officieren on Sumatra’s Oostkust gave him a splendid reception at Medan, and as guest of the Delegeerd-Commissaris of the Deli-Maatschappij, Mr. Enthoven, he made an excursion to Lake Toba. He returned by the Semboro at the end of the year.

In 1929 the K.N.I.L.M. Raad van Bestuur (of which he had become a member in 1928) asked him to return to Batavia to negotiate with the Indies government over modifications to the K.N.I.L.M. statutes and route. After initial hesitation on grounds of health, and a doctor’s assurance that the journey was permissible with moderation in festivities, he sailed again on 19 September 19 September 1929, arriving 12 October 12 October. Discussions at Bandoeng with the Director of the Department of Gouvernementsbedrijven reached their goal; on 1 November 1 November Snijders attended the opening of the Weltevreden–Surabaya line and the first west-to-east Java flight. At Semarang in November he again attended the jaarfeest of the Nationalen Bond “Het Mobilisatiekruis”; at Medan a slight attack of dysentery reminded him of his doctor’s warning, and he declined a reception by the Vereeniging van Nederlandsch-Indische Officieren on Sumatra’s Oostkust. He returned to the Netherlands in late December.

Last Years

In 1932, against his own and his wife’s inclination, Snijders was persuaded by Mr. Dr. Van Gijbland Oosterhoff to accept the honorary chairmanship of the newly founded Verbond voor Nationaal Herstel — a national-revival movement that he led, with marked reluctance, until its dissolution. He died at Hilversum on 26 May 26 May 1939, aged 86. A national committee under Out-Gouverneur-Generaal D. Fock was formed to erect a monument; the outbreak of the Second World War and the German occupation of May 1940 shattered the plans. The funds, having escaped confiscation, were finally used to place a bronze bust by Mejuffrouw I. A. L. van Beeck Calkoen in the Nederlandsch Legermuseum at Leiden, unveiled on 15 June 15 June 1946 by Mevrouw W. M. A. Snijders-Meyer in the presence of, among others, a representative of Prince Bernhard. A larger-than-life bronze by the same sculptress was bronzed and presented to the Koloniaal Militair Invalidenhuis “Bronbeek” at Arnhem.

Significance for Atjeh

Snijders’ Atjeh service, though only eight months in the field and a further six in garrison duty, is documented in unusual detail in D. van den Berg’s biography, which draws on Snijders’ own unfinished memoirs (Herinneringen uit mijn leven) and on the contemporary witness account of T. W. G. Merz. The biography is one of the few surviving ground-level engineer’s accounts of the Atjeh-oorlog in its middle phase — between the fall of the Kraton and the Campaign against the XXII Moekims — and records in detail the construction of the sandbag bentings at Kota Alam, Missigit Longbatta, Lamara Olejlo, Mandarsah Poetih, and Pungej Blang Tjoet, which together gave Kolonel PEL the defensive ring he needed to begin systematic offensive operations in 1875. The biography is also an indirect source for the Imam of Longbatta, identifying him as “een van de voornaamste verzetslieden.” Snijders’ 1920 visit to Atjeh, when he laid a wreath on Pel’s grave, is a small but symbolically important moment — the most senior Dutch soldier of his generation paying tribute to the officer under whom he had served his baptism of fire forty-six years before.

See Also

Source

Cornelis Jacobus Snijders (1852–1939): Een leven in dienst van zijn Land en zijn Volk, by D. van den Berg, in life Luitenant-Kolonel der Genie (Voorburg: September 1944). Koninklijke Bibliotheek shelfmark 0301 4872. The published biography draws on Snijders’ own unfinished memoirs (Herinneringen uit mijn leven, completed to August 1914), on family papers provided by Mrs. W. M. A. Snijders-Meyer and Ir. C. J. Snijders, and on the cooperation of Luitenant-Generaal b.d. C. van Tuinen. The Atjeh chapters occupy pp. 21–36 of the biography; the aviation and Indies-journey chapters occupy pp. 127–138; the chronological levensloop is at pp. 172–173. C. A. Bannink’s Grepen uit den Atjeh-oorlog in the Orgaan der Officiersvereeniging of 1936 and T. W. G. Merz’s lecture in the same Orgaan of October 1935 are the principal contemporary sources cited by Van den Berg for the Longbatta operations.

Cornelis Jacobus Snijders (29 September 1852 – 26 May 1939) was a Dutch military officer of the Korps Ingenieurs, Mineurs en Sappeurs whose career spanned the Atjeh-oorlog, the construction of the Nieuwe Hollandsche Waterlinie and the Stelling van Amsterdam, and the First World War, in which he served as Opperbevelhebber van Land- en Zeemacht (August 1914–November 1918). He was the Commander-in-Chief of the Netherlands’ land and sea forces during the mobilisation of 1914–1918, Chef van den Generalen Staf from 1910 to 1914, and after his retirement became the principal promoter of Dutch civil aviation, with a particular concern for the air link between the Netherlands and Nederlandsch-Indië. His formative military experience was forged in the swamps and kampongs around Koeta Radja in 1874–1875 as a Tweede Luitenant in the Bataillon Mineurs en Sappeurs, for which he was decorated with the Ridderkruis der Militaire Willemsorde 4th class. He returned to Atjeh three times in the 1920s as a retired general, and in 1920 laid a wreath on the grave of Generaal-Majoor Pel at the European cemetery of Kota Radja.

Early Life and Family

Snijders was born at Nieuwe Tonge on the island of Goeree-Overflakkee on 29 September 1852, the fifth son of Cornelis Jacobus Snijders Sr., the local physician (formerly a naval surgeon), and Sara Maria Muller. He came from a “ras-Zeeuwsche burgerfamilie” rather than from a military lineage, and was named after his father. Eight sons and one daughter were born of the marriage, of whom one boy and the girl died in childhood; the seven surviving brothers — Snijders himself later jestingly called them his parents’ “eerewacht” — all reached prominent social positions. The eldest, Professor Ir. J. A. Snijders, ended his career as a professor at the Technische Hoogeschool at Delft; the second, W. G. F. Snijders, chose the military career and retired in 1905 as Luitenant-Generaal and Inspector of Infantry; the third, Dr. A. J. C. Snijders, became a teacher of chemistry and natural history at the H.B.S. and gymnasium at Zutphen; Herman Snijders taught history and political science at Middelburg; Dr. Th. J. H. Snijders became a medical officer in the army. The biographer D. van den Berg, himself a Luitenant-Kolonel der Genie, records that the great energy and work-power of the brothers was “kennelijk het erfdeel van hun vader.”

Education and KMA (1865–1872)

After the family moved to Middelburg Snijders entered the Rijks H.B.S. there in September 1865, where he stayed four years. The arduous journey from Middelburg to Nieuwe Tonge ruled out interim visits home; the time at Middelburg, where the village boy first encountered city life and the company of boys of his own class, was decisive for his development. He was consistently among the highest in his class.

The example of his older brother Wilhelm, who became an infantry officer in 1867 and cut a dashing figure on leave in Nieuwe Tonge, drew Cornelis toward a military career. His choice was, by his own later admission, founded entirely on the externals of the military profession; he had no sense of vocation or of the officer’s material position. His parents, no better placed to judge, contented themselves with recommending serious reflection. They deemed it fair that, since the higher tuition for artillery and engineers at the KMA exceeded that for infantry, Cornelis — like Wilhelm — should apply only for the infantry.

A regulatory change intervened. The 1869 law on the KMA restored, from 1872, a two-year course for officers of all arms (with a one-year applicatiecursus for artillery and engineer officers). As a transitional measure, in 1869 and 1870 cadets were admitted to a three-year course for all arms. Rather than wait for the 1872 course to begin, Cornelis was entered for the 1869 admission examination. After a few weeks of tutoring at Breda under his brother Wilhelm, he sat the examination in June; before the result was declared, however, his brother had word that the examiners regretted that Cornelis had asked only for the infantry. Father Snijders, pressed by Wilhelm, consented to a request for transfer to the engineers — the higher tuition for Cornelis being roughly equal to the four lower payments previously made for Wilhelm. The official result in the first week of July placed Cornelis third among 100 candidates for 88 places; on 13 July 13 July 1869 he was appointed cadet in the engineers.

At the KMA Snijders entered on 3 September 3 September 1869 as a “jonker.” Cadet life was then a strict internal regime — no Easter or Christmas leave, no weekend home visits. Snijders soon settled, making a life-long friend in Jhr. C. J. Strick van Linschoten, who transferred from engineers to cavalry during the first year. Snijders kept somewhat in the background — his meagre cadet pay, not supplemented from home, kept him from many festivities — and was a member of the fencing society “Arena” in his first year and of the shooting society “Attila” in his second. In his oldest year he served on the redaction committee of the Kadetten-Almanak, contributing the year-verslag of 1871 — his first published work. Academically he was No. 1 of his class from first to last; when the four-man rotatie passed the officers’ examination on 14 July 14 July 1872 he was awarded two honorary prizes: a portrait of King Willem III in a gilded frame for excellence in linear drawing, and a revolver with inscription in a case for excellence in practical aptitude.

Mobilisation of 1870

The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War prompted a partial mobilisation in the Netherlands on 16 July 16 July 1870. By ministerial order of 8 August 8 August the cadets on leave were called up. On 10 August 10 August Snijders reported back to the KMA; thence, with 14 cadets of the Netherlands and Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, he was posted to the Staf of the Bataillon Mineurs en Sappeurs at Utrecht. Housed in the Willemskazerne near the Wittevrouwenpoort, on 12 August 12 August he was assigned to the 2e Compagnie Mineurs en Sappeurs of the Utrechtsche Linie. The detachment, however, kept him only at fatigue and corvée duties — a profound disappointment. After the Battle of Sedan the demobilisation came; on 11 September 11 September the cadets were sent home and on 17 September 17 September returned to the KMA.

Commissioning and First Posting (1872–1873)

By Koninklijk Besluit of 26 July 26 July 1872 No. 63, the cadet-sergeant Snijders — still two months short of his twentieth birthday — was appointed Tweede Luitenant in the Korps Ingenieurs, Mineurs en Sappeurs and posted to the Eerste Stelling der Genie at Utrecht. On 10 August 10 August 1872 he reported to Kolonel-Ingenieur Jhr. J. F. van Thije Hannes, who administered the oath of office in his lodgings — a Stellingbureau that was “hokkig en rommelig” — before a clerk on crutches as sole witness.

The young lieutenant worked under Kapitein-Ingenieur F. M. Baron van Eck on the improvement of the Positie van Honswijk and on the construction of an inundation canal from the Lek to the Schalkwijksche Wetering with its sluices and bridges; with him served Eerste-Luitenant-Ingenieur W. Badon Ghijben, who would later become his immediate chief at the KMA. Before the end of 1872 Snijders was moved to Utrecht proper and charged with maintenance of part of the works of the Utrechtsche Linie and with preparatory work for new defensive works and inundation measures under the Vestingwet van 1874. The Genie officers in Utrecht at that time worked each from his own lodgings, without common office or senior supervision — a lack that, the biographer notes, made itself unpleasantly felt given the insufficient practical orientation of KMA instruction.

Volunteering for the Aceh Expedition (1873)

After the failure of the Eerste Atjeh-expeditie under Generaal-Majoor Köhler in April 1873, the Dutch government resolved on a second expedition and called for volunteer officers from the metropolitan army for a two-year detachment to the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger. Snijders, then at Utrecht, heard of the call at the society Sic Semper from a senior comrade and immediately applied. His father, initially displeased that his minor son had not consulted him, consented only on condition that Snijders not request assignment to a combat column in Atjeh. Snijders honoured that promise, although Governor-General Loudon later tried to put such a request into his mouth.

In Snijders’ own later account, given in one of his many interviews: “Eigenlijk heel toevallig. De eerste Atjeh-expeditie van 1873 was niet naar wensch verloopen. Bij de voorbereiding van de nieuwe krijgsverrichtingen stelde onze Regeering in Mei ‘73 voor 40 officieren, waaronder 4 van de genie, de gelegenheid open voor eene detacheering van twee jaar bij het Indische Leger. Ik hoorde het eerst van die oproeping des avonds op de deftige societeit Sic Semper te Utrecht door een van mijne oudere kameraden, die besloten had zich op te geven. ‘Dan doe ik het ook,’ zei ik, en den volgenden dag diende ik een verzoek in.”

By Koninklijk Besluit of 10 June 10 June 1873 No. 33 — see Koninklijk Besluit of 10 June 1873 No. 33 — Snijders was among the four engineer officers selected for the detachment, although he was the youngest of those proposed. Before departure he and his fellow selectee J. W. N. Cramer were sent to the Mineurskamp at Zeist for several days’ instruction in a new optical-telegraph system devised by Majoor-Ingenieur J. H. Kromhout, although in the event the navy’s system was used in the field.

Voyage to the East Indies (July–August 1873)

Snijders embarked on the steamship Conrad (2500 tons, of the Maatschappij “Nederland”) from Nieuwediep on 10 July 10 July 1873. The ship carried a reinforcement detachment of 400 men with their officers, a number of officers returning from European leave, and most of the metropolitan officers being detached to the Indies army. Prince Hendrik, brother of the King, saw the troops off, dining on board and addressing the departing officers before returning to shore. In the Bay of Biscay the Conrad suffered storm damage and put in at Gibraltar for ten days of repair. The Dutch officers profited by visiting the British garrison and, under the guidance of Kolonel G. P. de Neve of the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, made an excursion to Tangier. After Gibraltar the Conrad called only at Port Said and Aden, and on 31 August 31 August 1873 — seven and a half weeks out — anchored off Batavia.

Service in Surabaya (September 1873 – October 1874)

On arrival Snijders was received hospitably by the family of Majoor Hessig of the Medical Service (whose wife was a cousin of his). For some days he was attached to the Hoofdbureau der Genie at Weltevreden to draft a memorandum on the Kromhout optical-telegraph system. When it became clear that the navy’s system would be used in Atjeh, he was posted to the Staf der Genie at Surabaya. He departed Batavia on 20 September 20 September by steamer of the Nederlandsch-Indische Stoomvaartmaatschappij and arrived on 24 September 24 September 1873. Under the senior engineer officer there he performed bureau duties and supervised extensions to the Artillerie-Conditionement, the Pyrotechnische Werkplaatsen, and the Militair Hospitaal. Despite the hygienic conditions at Surabaya, which were far from ideal, he acclimatised without notable difficulty, writing home that he seemed “expresselijk voor dit klimaat vervaardigd.”

Transfer to Aceh (October–November 1874)

After a year at Surabaya Snijders feared that, with half his two-year detachment elapsed, his chance of serving in Atjeh had passed. He could not apply directly, given his promise to his father. Through informal channels he learned he was now first in line for posting to the troops in northern Sumatra, and on 18 October 18 October 1874 he was indeed designated for transfer to the Korps Mineurs en Sappeurs in Atjeh. He embarked from Surabaya on 25 October 25 October on a ship carrying reinforcement troops for North Sumatra, touching at Semarang, Batavia, and Padang, and landing at Olehleh on 8 November 8 November 1874. He marched the short distance to Kota Radja and reported to Majoor der Genie W. J. C. Leers, who assigned him to the Compagnie Mineurs en Sappeurs garrisoned there. The company was commanded by Eerste-Luitenant der Infanterie Van den Blijck, with Eerste-Luitenant der Infanterie Bartelds as second-in-command — both infantry officers temporarily detached for want of engineer officers. Snijders formed a lasting rapport with both.

The Kota Alam Operation (13 November 1874)

Less than a week after his arrival Snijders received his baptism of fire. On 7 November 7 November 1874 Dutch troops had captured the fortified kampongs of Lemboecq, Lemboe, Berauw, and the Rivierbenting northeast of Kota Radja. Intelligence then indicated that the Atjehers were preparing to occupy Kota Alam further east, threatening Longbatta and the line of communication. Kolonel PEL — civil and military governor since Van Swieten’s departure — decided to forestall them by building a defensible post at Kota Alam on 13 November 13 November 1874. The full operation is described on the dedicated event page: Benting Kota Alam operation (13 November 1874).

In the pre-dawn darkness of 13 November 13 November 1874, a column departed Kota Radja under Luitenant-Kolonel M. C. E. Ruempol: the 9th Battalion L.H., a mountain-artillery section, a section of Mineurs en Sappeurs, and an ambulance detachment. Snijders commanded the sapper section in the vanguard, supported by an infantry platoon, the mountain guns, and 180 free coolies (vrije koelies) with tools and materials following under a light infantry screen.

The column followed the Pedir dike to the Atjeh River near the Rivierbenting, then proceeded upstream to a pre-selected site near a river bend. Majoor T. J. A. van Zijll de Jong (artillery) and Majoor Leers (engineers) sited the fortification to command both the fortified edge of Pinang to the northeast and Longbatta to the south, while dominating a long stretch of the river — one of the best crossing points.

Snijders immediately set his coolies to filling sandbags and stacking them along the traced perimeter, while a large Achehnese house was converted into temporary shelter. A double line of outposts 150 metres forward, anchored on the river and reinforced with an infantry section and artillery, covered the work. Scarcely had the first sandbags been laid when heavy rifle fire erupted from the scrub on three sides and from the opposite bank. The Atjehners twice attempted to rush the covering line but were repulsed. Snijders, though under fire for the first time, directed the construction calmly; his chief concern, he later recalled, was not to appear fearful. The free coolies — hired to work, not to fight — showed a tendency to flee; one was killed and another wounded, and Snijders had to hold them to the work “met de sabel in de vuist.” By about 3 p.m. a provisional sandbag breastwork had been raised on the west, south, and east fronts, augmented by a bamboe-doerie (doornbamboe) hedge on the outside; the landward side was closed with a breastwork of stacked tree-trunks. The column returned to Kota Radja at dusk with one officer and sixteen men wounded. The completed fortification — Benting Kota Alam — secured the eastern flank of the Dutch positions.

Missigit Longbatta Operation (31 December 1874 – January 1875)

To drive the Atjehers further from the Dutch main positions and to make the Atjeh River the eastern defensive line, Kolonel PEL launched an action against Longbatta on the morning of 31 December 31 December 1874; the head of the kampong, Iman Longbatta, was one of the principal resistance leaders. Snijders was held ready at Kota Radja with 200 vrije koelies and a large quantity of materials and tools to follow one of the columns and, on success, to put the captured ground in a state of defence.

Toward midday Snijders received orders and marched his workers under infantry cover up the left bank of the Atjeh River. At about 2 p.m. he joined Kolonel PEL and the reserve at some distance from the Missigit (bedehuis) Longbatta, which the troops had by then taken. While PEL was beginning to give Snijders his instructions, the action took an unfavourable turn and the proposed engineering work had to be abandoned for the day. Snijders was ordered back.

On New Year’s Day 1875 Snijders marched again, with a detachment of mineurs and sappeurs and about 100 vrije koelies, accompanying an infantry column that was to escort and cover the guns being sent to arm Missigit Longbatta and a convoy of food, ammunition, and building materials. The column was repeatedly fired on, especially crossing the open sawah north of the kampong. Around noon the Missigit was reached and work began on a redoubt about 50 × 60 metres enclosing the mosque, with a wet ditch on the east front supplied by an existing water conduit. Sandbag breastworks were thrown up along the perimeter; the Missigit itself was fitted up as officers’ quarters; the rest of the garrison and the coolies bivouacked in the open. Within days the parapet was closed and raised, and the construction of bamboo barracks (covered with asphalt-felt) for the garrison, kitchens, latrines, and so forth was begun outside the work.

The Atjehers refused to accept the loss of their sanctuary. From three sides, day after day, they kept the Missigit and the working parties under small-arms fire of varying intensity, with occasional artillery fire that daily produced wounded. The occupation of the post Longbatta Zuid by Dutch troops brought little relief. The opening of the foreground and the felling of the many palms Snijders needed for his work drew heavy fire, the Atjehers building new works on the right bank of the Atjeh River at distances as short as 600 metres. On 9 January 9 January 1875 the post was so heavily bombarded that one officer and three men were severely wounded. In the night of 10/11 January 11 January the enemy pressed to within 50 metres of the parapet before being driven off by a case-shot and infantry volleys; at dawn the infantry cover of the corvée in the foreground had to drive the Atjehers back at bayonet-point after several volleys.

Despite losses of three dead and twelve wounded among his workers, Snijders in two weeks largely completed the redoubt. When Majoor Leers visited on 13 January 13 January 1875 — the same day on which a point in the kampong Blang Tjoet was occupied and fortified — he judged the work could be finished under an NCO of the mineurs and Snijders was sent back to Kota Radja. He remained in general charge, visiting the Missigit every two or three days with the daily convoy.

An eyewitness — the Eerste-Luitenant der Infanterie T. W. G. Merz of the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, in a lecture printed in the Orgaan der Officiersvereeniging of October 1935 — described the work:

“De Luitenant der Mineurs SNIJDERS, van het Leger in Nederland in Indië gedetacheerd, maakte middelerwijl een begin met het tracé der borstwering. Longbatta-Mesigii had bij de inname een lage, aarden omwalling, die nagenoeg de gedaante had van een regthoek, waarvan de langste zijde ongeveer 30, de kortste 25 strekkende meter vuurlijn telde: daarom werd besloten nagenoeg in de richting van de bestaande wal een langwerpige redoute te traceeren, terwijl de Zuid-Oostelijke en Noord-Westelijke saillant tot een cirkel-bastion zouden worden uitgebouwd. […] De Luitenant SNIJDERS der Genie, een braaf officier, kweet zich uitmuntend van zijn plicht; het vijandelijk vuur in het minst niet schuwende, altijd opgewekt en vroolijk, ging hij de zijnen voorbeeldig voor, zoodat binnen drie weken de wallen uit zandzakken bestaande, voltooid en de gebouwen gereed waren, waardoor ten minste iedereen behoorlijk onderkomen had. Waarna hij met zijne Mineurs en werklieden naar Kota Radja terugkeerde; ieder onzer speet het, dat deze brave, trouwe makker van ons ging; iedereen waardeerde hem in hooge mate om zijn moed en warmen kameraadschappelijken geest.”

The Merz lecture is cited by C. A. Bannink in his Grepen uit den Atjeh-oorlog in the Orgaan der Officiersvereeniging of 1936.

Lamara Olejlo and the Staf der Genie at Kota Radja (January–August 1875)

After the Missigit work, PEL extended his clearing operations southward. On 23 January 23 January 1875 the post Pungej Blang Tjoet was occupied and in the following days fortified by Snijders with a detachment of mineurs and a number of coolies. On 28 January 28 January the troops took the Mandarsah Poetih (the “white bedehuis”), a small stone building already partially ruined by artillery fire, which Snijders likewise put in a state of defence.

In the night of 14/15 February 15 February 1875 a reconnaissance against the fortified and partly gun-armed edges of the kampongs Gitjiel Olejlo, Lamara Olejlo, and Lohong — from which the Atjehers continued to harass Mandarsah Poetih — led to the surprise occupation of some fortifications on the northern edge of Lamara Olejlo. Snijders received orders at midday on 15 February 15 February at Kota Radja to march with part of the company and a detachment of 100 dwangarbeiders (forced labourers), with tools and sandbags, to put the captured benting in a state of defence. Under heavy fire — to suppress which the Dutch artillery had to intervene repeatedly — and at the cost of one killed and two officers and eighteen men wounded, the south face was completed and the west and east faces partially completed by about 4 p.m., and the foreground was opened up as much as possible, so that the garrison had a usable fighting position for the night. Snijders and his workers then returned to the Kraton with the reinforcement troops sent from Kota Radja. In the following days the work was continued and brought to completion by daily working parties sent from Kota Radja under Snijders’ direction, despite constant harassment from Atjeh rifle and gun fire.

The Bandjir of 4 December 1874

In the first days of December 1874 a bandjir threatened the two light trestle bridges that had been thrown across the Atjeh River at Pakan Atjeh and, further downstream, at Penajoeng. By preventing driftwood, tree-trunks, and creepers from collecting against the trestles, the Pakan Atjeh bridge was saved. The Penajoeng bridge was in greater danger, and on 4 December 4 December Snijders was sent there. The whole country was under water; unable to swim, he took three native mineurs who could. Wading to chest-height over the unpathed ground they reached Penajoeng in half an hour — only to see the surviving section of the bridge torn away by the flood. On the return march, at a point where Snijders stood armpit-deep, a cross-current seized him and he would have drowned had not his companions held out a stick by which he regained his footing. The biographer remarks, with dry humour, that “deze eenvoudige inlanders kunnen bezwaarlijk hebben beseft den omvang van den dienst, welken zij later bleken daarmede aan het Vaderland te hebben bewezen!”

Staf der Genie te Kota Radja

With the Lamara Olejlo action Snijders’ task with the field column ended. He was attached to the Staf der Genie at Kota Radja for what were essentially peacetime duties, in which he remained for the rest of his time in Atjeh. He commanded several hundred workers of various kinds and was responsible for: maintenance and improvement of buildings, roads, and bridges; the construction of a temporary troop camp in the grass plain of Pante Perak north of Kota Radja — into which the Mineurs company itself moved in May 1875, much improving on previous quarters in the Kraton; an ice factory for the Medical Service; a house for the Commander in the Kraton and a block of officers’ quarters; a cattle-pen for 400 head outside Kota Radja; drainage works to make the Kraton free of bandjir (including the embankment of the Kroeng Daroe); and the construction of a narrow-gauge railway from Kota Radja to Olehleh with a timber-framed landing-stage at the latter. The malignant malaria and cholera epidemics of February and March, which took many victims in Atjeh, passed him by — except for the daily swallowing of large quantities of quinine.

Refusal of Extended Detachment and Return

In June 1875 the Indies government offered the metropolitan officers detached for the Atjeh expedition the option of extending their two-year detachment to three. Snijders, promoted Eerste-Luitenant on 18 April 18 April 1875, declined — partly from loyalty to a fixed arrangement, partly from fear that a long absence from the Netherlands would harm his career in an engineers branch with many divergent demands. He later regretted the decision, partly because the commander’s further plans — the conquest of the whole coastal area — would have given him more welcome war experience, and partly from a feeling that loyalty to the Indies army, then short of officers, should have made him answer yes. But the answer had been given. On 4 August 4 August 1875 Snijders left Olehleh on the steamship Atjeh of the Nederlandsch-Indische Stoomvaartmaatschappij. After a few days at Penang and Singapore he reached Batavia on 14 August 14 August and again lodged with the Hessig family; spent some days’ leave at Buitenzorg; and on 26 August 26 August sailed for Europe on the Koning der Nederlanden of the Maatschappij “Nederland.” He arrived at Naples on 30 September 30 September, continued overland, and on 22 October 22 October 1875 re-entered his parents’ house at ‘s-Gravenzande.

Decorations for the Atjeh Service

Directly after the Longbatta operations Snijders was proposed for the Militaire Willemsorde for:

“a. 13 November 13 November 1874. Verkenning zuidwestelijk gedeelte van Lemboecq en oprichting eener versterking bij Kota Alam: onder het vuur des vijands het tot stand brengen der sterkte Kota Alam hoofdzakelijk met vrije koelies te helpen op touw zetten en de daaraan verbonden werkzaamheden met beleid en kalmte te hebben geleid.

b. t/m 16 January 16 January 1875. Het daarstellen eener versterking te Missigit Longbattah: onder een onafgebroken werkzaam vuur des vijands het toezicht te hebben gehad over het opzetten en daarstelling der gebouwen, terwijl de werkkrachten bestonden uit weinige mineurs en 100 vrije koelies. Met veel moed en beleid heeft hij dit werk volbracht, niettegenstaande drie zijner werkers sneuvelden en twaalf gewond werden.”

By Koninklijk Besluit of 12 November 12 November 1875 No. 18 — see Koninklijk Besluit of 12 November 1875 No. 18 — covering actions in the period mid-August 1874 to end-February 1875, the barely-of-age officer was appointed Ridder 4e klasse der Militaire Willemsorde. When the cross was simply sent to him without the prescribed ceremony “met den meest mogelijken militairen luister” and riddereed, he requested that it be so conferred; the request was granted. At the garrison parade held in the Maliebaan at Utrecht on 19 February 19 February 1876 for the King’s birthday, Snijders and his fellow detaché J. W. N. Cramer received their crosses with full ceremony.

On 17 March 17 March 1877 Snijders was further granted the right to wear the Eerekruis voor belangrijke krijgsverrichtingen (the so-called Expeditiekruis) with the clasp “Atjeh 1873–1876” and the Atjeh-medaille — the separately instituted bronze medal struck from captured Atjehese cannon, awarded to all military and civilian personnel who had served with the troops or as civilian officials in Atjeh in 1873 and 1874. Popular usage wrongly called the Atjeh-medaille the “Kraton-medaille.” The biographer notes that Snijders, with Kapitein-Luitenant ter Zee J. Boom (who died in 1942 at the age of 95), was probably among the very last surviving holders of these honours.

Subsequent Career (1875–1918)

After his return Snijders resumed his career in the Genie at Utrecht (1875–76), became a teacher at the KMA (1876–80), served at the Staf der Genie at Dordrecht (1880–81) and at Hoek van Holland (1881–82), and was detached to Magdeburg (1882–86) to supervise the manufacture of armour for the Dutch coast forts at the firm Gruson. The Magdeburg years produced a series of ground-breaking reports on armour and projectiles that, by demonstrating the obsolescence of bomb-proof cover under the new high-explosive shells, halted the further build-out of the Stelling van Amsterdam in 1886 until a new approach could be devised. He was Hoofd van Onderwijs at the KMA (1887–94), Eerst-aanwezend Ingenieur at Gorinchem (1895–1901) and Haarlem (1901–04), Commandant in the 1e Genie-Commandement at Utrecht (1904–08), Sous-Chef van den Generalen Staf (1908–10) and Chef van den Generalen Staf (1910–14). On the German Kaisermanöver of September 1911 he was presented to Kaiser Wilhelm II.

On 2 August 2 August 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, Snijders was appointed Opperbevelhebber van Land- en Zeemacht and promoted to General. He oversaw the mobilisation and the defence of Dutch neutrality until his resignation in November 1918. His relation with the Minister of War, N. Bosboom, and with the government was often tense; his strict discipline during the leave-suspension crisis of October 1918 made him a hate-figure of the social democrats.

Post-War Aviation Work and the Indies Air Link

Retired at 66, Snijders devoted the next two decades principally to the promotion of Dutch aviation, in particular the air link between the Netherlands and Nederlandsch-Indië. In 1907 he had been chosen first chairman of the Vereeniging voor Luchtvaart; in 1913 his influence had led to the establishment of the Luchtvaart-Afdeling of the army. From 1919 onwards he was the principal agitator for a regular Amsterdam–Batavia service, presiding over the Comité “Vliegtocht Nederland–Indië,” whose work culminated in the 1924 flight of Van der Hop, Van Weerden Poelman, and Van den Broecke — the first Amsterdam–Batavia flight. He was a member of the Raad van Bestuur of the K.N.I.L.M. from 1928 and a tireless propagandist in the press.

First Indies Journey (1920) — Including a Visit to Atjeh

In 1920, as chairman of the Vereeniging “Ons Leger,” Snijders undertook his first post-war journey to the Indies, accompanied by Kapitein van den Generalen Staf E. H. A. van den Akker as secretary, to represent “Ons Leger” at the Algemene Vergadering of “Indië Weerbaar” at Bandoeng on 24 May 24 May 1920. A transport workers’ strike forced him to give up his intended passage on the Wilis; with some effort he secured a berth on the English mailboat Delta of the P&O Line, leaving Europe on 7 April 7 April and arriving at Tanjung Priok on 16 May 16 May. After the Bandoeng meeting he gave lectures on the defensie-vraagstuk at Surabaya on 14 July 14 July, at Semarang on 21 July 21 July, and at Medan on 12 August 12 August.

On Sumatra he paid a visit to Atjeh, where — the biographer notes — he laid a wreath on the grave of Generaal-Majoor Pel in the European cemetery at Kota Radja. The wreath-laying closed a personal circle: Snijders had served under Pel in 1874–1875 and had been decorated for actions during Pel’s command; Pel himself had died suddenly at kampong Tonga on 24 February 24 February 1876 in the middle of the campaign against the XXII Moekims, and had been buried at Kota Radja. From Medan Snijders also made a tour through the interior to Padang. He left the Indies on 2 September 2 September on the Insulinde.

Subsequent Indies Journeys (1928, 1929)

In 1928 the Bestuur of the Indische Vereeniging Luchtvaart invited him to attend the festive opening of the K.N.I.L.M. lines. He sailed on 19 September 19 September 1928 on the Christian Huygens and arrived at Tanjung Priok on 12 October 12 October. His arrival had the character of a triumphant return — a thousand-headed crowd, a military band, and circling aircraft welcomed him at the quay. On 1 November 1 November the inauguration of the K.N.I.L.M. lines took place at the airfield Tjikolitan near Meester Cornelis, where Snijders as adviser to the company delivered one of his characteristically forceful speeches. He made several flights Weltevreden–Bandoeng and Weltevreden–Simongan (Semarang), and on 18 October 18 October attended the centenary of the KMA at Weltevreden; on 10 November 10 November he attended a mobilisation commemoration at Surabaya. He then spent a week as the guest of the Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij on Bali; on Sumatra the Vereeniging van Nederlandsch-Indische Officieren on Sumatra’s Oostkust gave him a splendid reception at Medan, and as guest of the Delegeerd-Commissaris of the Deli-Maatschappij, Mr. Enthoven, he made an excursion to Lake Toba. He returned by the Semboro at the end of the year.

In 1929 the K.N.I.L.M. Raad van Bestuur (of which he had become a member in 1928) asked him to return to Batavia to negotiate with the Indies government over modifications to the K.N.I.L.M. statutes and route. After initial hesitation on grounds of health, and a doctor’s assurance that the journey was permissible with moderation in festivities, he sailed again on 19 September 19 September 1929, arriving 12 October 12 October. Discussions at Bandoeng with the Director of the Department of Gouvernementsbedrijven reached their goal; on 1 November 1 November Snijders attended the opening of the Weltevreden–Surabaya line and the first west-to-east Java flight. At Semarang in November he again attended the jaarfeest of the Nationalen Bond “Het Mobilisatiekruis”; at Medan a slight attack of dysentery reminded him of his doctor’s warning, and he declined a reception by the Vereeniging van Nederlandsch-Indische Officieren on Sumatra’s Oostkust. He returned to the Netherlands in late December.

Last Years

In 1932, against his own and his wife’s inclination, Snijders was persuaded by Mr. Dr. Van Gijbland Oosterhoff to accept the honorary chairmanship of the newly founded Verbond voor Nationaal Herstel — a national-revival movement that he led, with marked reluctance, until its dissolution. He died at Hilversum on 26 May 26 May 1939, aged 86. A national committee under Out-Gouverneur-Generaal D. Fock was formed to erect a monument; the outbreak of the Second World War and the German occupation of May 1940 shattered the plans. The funds, having escaped confiscation, were finally used to place a bronze bust by Mejuffrouw I. A. L. van Beeck Calkoen in the Nederlandsch Legermuseum at Leiden, unveiled on 15 June 15 June 1946 by Mevrouw W. M. A. Snijders-Meyer in the presence of, among others, a representative of Prince Bernhard. A larger-than-life bronze by the same sculptress was bronzed and presented to the Koloniaal Militair Invalidenhuis “Bronbeek” at Arnhem.

Significance for Atjeh

Snijders’ Atjeh service, though only eight months in the field and a further six in garrison duty, is documented in unusual detail in D. van den Berg’s biography, which draws on Snijders’ own unfinished memoirs (Herinneringen uit mijn leven) and on the contemporary witness account of T. W. G. Merz. The biography is one of the few surviving ground-level engineer’s accounts of the Atjeh-oorlog in its middle phase — between the fall of the Kraton and the Campaign against the XXII Moekims — and records in detail the construction of the sandbag bentings at Kota Alam, Missigit Longbatta, Lamara Olejlo, Mandarsah Poetih, and Pungej Blang Tjoet, which together gave Kolonel PEL the defensive ring he needed to begin systematic offensive operations in 1875. The biography is also an indirect source for the Imam of Longbatta, identifying him as “een van de voornaamste verzetslieden.” Snijders’ 1920 visit to Atjeh, when he laid a wreath on Pel’s grave, is a small but symbolically important moment — the most senior Dutch soldier of his generation paying tribute to the officer under whom he had served his baptism of fire forty-six years before.

See Also

Source

Cornelis Jacobus Snijders (1852–1939): Een leven in dienst van zijn Land en zijn Volk, by D. van den Berg, in life Luitenant-Kolonel der Genie (Voorburg: September 1944). Koninklijke Bibliotheek shelfmark 0301 4872. The published biography draws on Snijders’ own unfinished memoirs (Herinneringen uit mijn leven, completed to August 1914), on family papers provided by Mrs. W. M. A. Snijders-Meyer and Ir. C. J. Snijders, and on the cooperation of Luitenant-Generaal b.d. C. van Tuinen. The Atjeh chapters occupy pp. 21–36 of the biography; the aviation and Indies-journey chapters occupy pp. 127–138; the chronological levensloop is at pp. 172–173. C. A. Bannink’s Grepen uit den Atjeh-oorlog in the Orgaan der Officiersvereeniging of 1936 and T. W. G. Merz’s lecture in the same Orgaan of October 1935 are the principal contemporary sources cited by Van den Berg for the Longbatta operations.

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