F. C. E. Meijer was a Dutch captain of the General Staff (Generale Staf) and chief of the survey brigade (opnemingsbrigade) of the troops in Atjeh during the period December 1875 – September 1876. He was the officer most frequently chosen to guide columns through kampongs he had reconnoitred, and appears on every large operation of the year, from Lambaroe to the founding of Kroeëng Raba. He is to be distinguished from the chief of staff, Lieutenant-Colonel H. F. Meijer, with whom he shared the author-page of the war’s official history Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883).
The survey brigade
The survey brigade under Captain F. C. E. Meijer made the rough sketches of the theatre of war on which Dutch planning depended — the Kaart van het terrein des oorlogs in Groot-Atjeh (map of the war terrain in Groot-Atjeh) that accompanied plans and was printed with H. F. Meijer’s book. The maps of the interior were so deficient that, as the author recorded, no reliable map existed at all beyond a few hundred paces around the posts: the survey officer’s personal knowledge was therefore often a column commander’s only guide.
Operations
- In the early days of February 1876 he made, with his brigade, a hasty terrain survey of the southwest corner of kampong Lambaroe under enemy fire, finding the still half-finished enemy work there that would be stormed a month later. In the evening of 6 March he was invited to join the operation as the nearly only officer who could properly show captains and detachment commanders the way inside the kampong, and he guided Major Diepenheim’s column at the storming on 7 March 1876.
- In March he indicated to Major J. Visser the site on which the intermediate post of Atoë Noord was to be built.
- In May his brigade accompanied the three columns to Biloel Zuid.
- In the first days of July he was mapping the IV Moekims with an infantry company as cover; his personnel was divided over the two columns of the July sweep, he joined the staff of the civil and military commander himself, and on 11 July he made with Captain of Engineers Staat the careful reconnaissance of the Kroeëng Raba that decided the crossing place of the encircling march of 13 July — a reconnaissance in which, near Loeknga, an Ambonese fusilier and an Atjehnese guide were wounded and the troops’ presence was betrayed to the enemy.
- In the Gli Taroem night operation of August his earlier surveys were the basis for the orders to the three columns.
See Also
- Kolonel Meijer
- Opnemingsbrigade
- Storming of Lambaroe (7 March 1876)
- Sweep of the IV and VI Moekims (8-15 July 1876)
- Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapters I, VI and VII.