J. van Greuningen was a Dutch 1st lieutenant of the Netherlands Indies Army who was killed in action on 25 September 1897 at the mouth of the Goeah Teroes cave on the Glé Betoes, while commanding the advance-guard of the patrol from Lho-Nga under Captain J. N. C. Baron van Heerdt.
Death at the cave mouth
Van Greuningen commanded the advance-guard on the ascent, and had een zware taak te meer — the heavier task — because the Acehnese guide could no longer find the mountain path leading to the cave, so that the column clambered upward at hazard.
When the patrol came under fire from the rocks, Captain Van Heerdt ordered him to climb to the cave with his section, spread out in a wide circle. Scarcely had some paces been taken when the enemy opened a frightful fire. Van Greuningen had already approached close to the cave with a dozen fusiliers when about fifteen Acehnese suddenly appeared from behind a rock face and opened a murderous fire à bout portant. He fell dead, struck by two bullets. The European fusiliers Winkelman, Tuk and Dissel were killed with him, and the native fusiliers Bongsowikromo and Tanja severely wounded.
P. H. R. Beuming records that the whole took place in een ondeelbaar oogenblik — in an indivisible moment — and that because of the almost impassable terrain it could not be prevented. Van Heerdt took over the command of the advance-guard from den zoo jammerlijk gesneuvelden luitenant — the lieutenant so lamentably killed. His body was carried down in a tandoe and taken the same day to Koeta Radja for burial in the Petjoet cemetery.
See Also
- Patrol to the Goeah Teroes on the Glé Betoes (25 September 1897)
- J. N. C. Baron van Heerdt
- Goeah Teroes
- Glé Betoes
- Kerkhof Petjoet
- 25 September
- 1897
Source
Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, met speciaal vervaardigde kaart en toepasselijke photo’s, bewerkt door P. H. R. Beuming, oud-onderofficier van het Ned.-Indische Leger (Amsterdam, December 1911; uitgegeven ten bate van het te stichten Herstellingsoord voor Rijks-Ambtenaren). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br N 82-144
Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, met speciaal vervaardigde kaart en toepasselijke photo’s, bewerkt door P. H. R. Beuming, oud-onderofficier van het Ned.-Indische Leger (Amsterdam, December 1911). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.