H. Krüll was a Dutch first lieutenant of infantry, serving in Atjeh in 1876 in the garrisons of the western line, who commanded the 120-man force in the night ambush of 8-9 August 1876 in the pass of Gli Taroem — an operation to surprise the enemy’s night rice transports between the IV and IX Moekims, which ended when nervous native recruits fired in the dark on their own detached European companions.
The night ambush
Captain Marckert, the post commander of Boekit Daroe — who under the orders of the western line would have led the undertaking if compatible with the safety of his post — did not answerable himself for leaving the fortification by night, and entrusted the force to Krüll as the eldest of the designated officers. Krüll marched at dark with 80 men and Lieutenant Tulleken, with his own seat in the formation behind the advance guard of 40 European and African men under First Lieutenant-adjutant J. B. Van Heutsz. Finding no position on the steep eastern slope, Krüll decided for the saddle, and laid a cross-fire ambush: Van Heutsz north of the path facing southeast, Krüll 120 metres east of him facing southwest, with 1 corporal and 6 European fusiliers detached on the path facing east.
When four or five Atjehers with tobacco and sirih walked into the detached post and were fired on, the native fusiliers — in greatest part fresh recruits of the new garrison battalion, who had never faced the enemy — turned about and began firing in the direction of the 7 Europeans of the detached post, deaf to the bugle. Krüll and Tulleken had to place themselves bodily before the new front of the firing men to stop the fire: at the detached post one fusilier lay dead and the corporal and another fusilier were wounded — by the fire of their own comrades, as later proved. Krüll had the dead man buried and withdrew to Boekit Daroe, reached at half past four in the morning. He himself found, hidden in the undergrowth, the recruit who had thrown away his rifle, and received from him the stock answer that Meijer quoted: “pigi mana toewan, djangan marah, saja lagi orang baroe” — “What shall I say to you sir, don’t be angry, I am still but a recruit.”
See Also
- Gli Taroem night ambush (8-9 August 1876)
- Tulleken
- Joannes Benedictus van Heutsz
- Marckert
- Boekit Daroe
- 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), chapter VII, pp. 255–259.