H. O. W. L. Kramer was a Dutch captain of the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger who was killed in action on 23 May 1896 at the storming of Toekoe Oemar’s *benting* at Lampisang — one of the engagements of the spring 1896 crisis. 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 storming of Lampisang
The Atjeh-Album records that the storming of Lampisang — Toekoe Oemar’s fortified kampong at Lampisang — was one of the principal Dutch offensives against the defected warlord’s strongholds in the late spring of 1896. The telegraphic despatches of the period — quoted in the album — melden ook van de groote verliezen, die onze troepen geleden hebben — report also the great losses that our troops have suffered — at the storming. Kramer’s death on 23 May 1896 is the last of the seven officer fatalities of the spring 1896 crisis, and it is the only one at the storming of one of Toekoe Oemar’s bentings.
The cost of the storming
The Atjeh-Album’s narrative notes that the storming of Lampisang — like that of the other bentings of Toekoe Oemar — was a costly operation, and that the defected warlord had, in his three years of alliance with the Dutch, learned much from Dutch fortification practice. The album notes: Dat de schrandere Toekoe Oemar in drie jaren van zijn bondgenootschap nog veel van onze versterkingskunst heeft geleerd, en deze kennis terdege in praktijk zal gebracht hebben, zullen onze troepen wel hebben kunnen bemerken — That the clever Toekoe Oemar in three years of his alliance has learned much from our art of fortification, and will have put this knowledge thoroughly into practice, our troops will have been able to notice. Kramer’s death at Lampisang is the principal documented evidence of the cost of the storming.
The end of the spring 1896 crisis
The Atjeh-Album’s roll of the fallen gives Kramer’s date of death as 23 May 1896, and notes that his death — together with those of the six other officers — blijft voortleven, zoo lang Nederland roem mag dragen op het kranige Indische leger — will live on as long as the Netherlands may boast of the valiant Indies army. The album’s framing of Kramer’s death as the closing event of the spring crisis places the storming of Lampisang as the moment at which the Dutch began to recover the initiative from Toekoe Oemar’s defected forces — though the album also notes, prophetically, that Spoedig zal de rol van den Atjehschen veldoverste waarschijnlijk dan afgespeeld zijn — Soon the role of the Atjehnese field-commander will probably then be played out.
Burial at Kota Potjoet
The album records that Kramer was buried at the cemetery of Kota Potjoet, whose entrance bears the inscription Aan onze Kameraden, gevallen op het Veld van Eer.
Significance
Kramer’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as the last-named fatality of the spring 1896 crisis — and the only one killed at the storming of one of Toekoe Oemar’s bentings rather than at the relief of a Dutch post. His death at Lampisang — the benting that Toekoe Oemar had constructed in part with techniques learned from the Dutch — is the album’s principal evidence for the cost of the Dutch offensive against the defected warlord’s strongholds, and for the way in which the three-year Dutch-Toekoe Oemar alliance had, by arming and training the future enemy, multiplied the eventual cost of the war.
See Also
- Storming of Lampisang (May 1896)
- Lam Pisang
- Toekoe Oemar
- Toekoe Oemar’s defection (1896)
- K. H. Westendorp
- J. W. Vuijk
- E. P. A. Geluk
- H. L. Maarschalk
- J. B. Zon
- C. G. A. C. Krohne
- Kota Potjoet
- Aceh War
- 23 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. 27–28, 30 (Gevallenen, hun Roeping Vervuld!).