Colonel Diepenbrock was a Dutch overste (colonel) of the Indische leger who commanded the column that conquered Lemboe and Berauw on 7 November 1874 in the conquest of Lemboe, the operation that finally restored to Dutch hands the kampong briefly held and “onbegrijpelijk genoeg” abandoned on Christmas 1873. He was wounded in the action, in which, contrary to expectation, the enemy’s resistance was light.
The Conquest of Lemboe
Six weeks after the conquest of Langkroek of 28 September 1874, Pel again marched out against the kampongs Lemboe, Berauw and Kota Alam. Lemboe — “the key to the dike” along the Pedir-dijk — had been in Dutch hands on 25–26 December 1873 during the bloody reconnaissances and was then immediately abandoned by van Swieten’s order, a major error compounded when the same ground had to be re-fought eleven months later. The enemy had since heavily fortified the kampong. At four o’clock on the morning of 7 November 1874 two half-battalions and a field-artillery battery under Diepenbrock marched. The attack came from Penajoeng and Langkroek across the open sawah. Contrary to expectation, the resistance was light. The western part of Lemboe (Berauw) with the main dike fortifications fell, and the operation cost only Diepenbrock and twenty men or coolies wounded, and one officer’s servant killed.
Borel’s Judgement
The conquest of Lemboe is, in Borel’s narrative, an exemplary Pel operation: bold, well-planned, and cheaply bought. Three posts were immediately opgericht on the conquered ground. But the action also underlines Borel’s indictment of van Swieten: had Lemboe been held in December 1873 instead of abandoned, the entire Pedir-dijk could have been made secure, the enemy’s first line of investment around Kota Radja would have been broken nine months earlier, and the second conquest of the kampong would not have been necessary. Diepenbrock’s wound is, in this reading, one of the “wrange vruchten” of the afwachtende houding.
See Also
- Conquest of Lemboe (7 November 1874)
- Battle of Lemboe (25–26 December 1873)
- Lemboe
- Berauw
- Pedir-dijk
- Generaal Pel
- Jan van Swieten
- Kolonel Ruempol
- Afwachtende houding
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. p. 209.