Captain van Aerssen was a Dutch kapitein of the Indische leger who, on 15 April 1874, conquered a benteng on which the Atjehneezen had mounted an iron cannon — the small success that opened the brief series of reconnaissances culminating in the échec at Lampoe Oek on the following day.
The Capture of the Benteng
By mid-April 1874 the Dutch, under kolonel Pel’s pressure for daily patrols in execution of van Swieten’s 7 April instruction, were pushing their reconnaissances further from the hoofdwal. On 15 April 1874 van Aerssen conquered a benteng — an Atjehneesche fortified strongpoint — on which an iron cannon had been mounted in batterij. The capture is recorded by Borel as a small but significant success: the presence of the iron cannon shows that the Atjehneezen had begun to mount artillery on their forward works, a development the Dutch had not anticipated. The next day, 16 April 1874, Romswinckel was given lithofracteur — the new blasting explosive — “om te vernielen,” proof that the Dutch expected to find more versterkingen in the same area.
The Lampoe Oek Échec
The very next day Romswinckel, sent to support two patrols that had been heavily engaged, discovered the strongly fortified enemy stelling near Longbatta — later known as Lampoe Oek — of which the Dutch had known nothing. The échec at Lampoe Oek cost nearly a hundred Dutch dead and wounded, of whom five were vermist. The date was “noodlottig” — exactly one year after the first expedition’s failure. Van Aerssen’s success of the 15th thus stands in Borel’s narrative as the last Dutch success before the worst Dutch reverse of 1874 — a reminder that the enemy’s positions around Kota Radja were more formidable than van Swieten’s afwachtende houding had allowed the Dutch to believe.
See Also
- Battle of Lampoe Oek (16 April 1874)
- Majoor Romswinckel
- Generaal Pel
- Jan van Swieten
- Lampoe Oek
- Longbatta
- Benteng
- Lithofracteur
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 57, 67, 77.