Colonel Meijer

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tagsperson, dutch, colonial, military, colonel, aceh-war, 1876, commander
aliasesMeijer, overste Meijer, kolonel Meijer, Lieutenant Colonel Meijer, Luitenant-Kolonel Meijer, H. Meijer, 1ste Luit. Mar. H. Meijer

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Colonel Meijer was a Dutch overste (colonel) of the Indische leger who, in early March 1876, marched with a colonne from Kota Radja to relieve the besieged posts of Pager Ajer and Kajoe Leh — whose communication with the Longbatta-Mesigit had been verbroken by the enemy — and stormed the strong benteng at Lambaroe, which the Atjehneezen defended at a cost of more than seventy dead.

The Relief of Kajoe Leh and the Storming of Lambaroe

After Pel’s sudden death at Lamjoeng on 24 February 1876 and the assumption of tijdelijk oppergezag by lt.-kol. Engel, the enemy seized the moment. In early March 1876 the communicatie between Pager Ajer and the Longbatta-Mesigit was verbroken and Kajoe Leh was ingesloten by the enemy. Meijer marched with a colonne from Kota Radja to ontzet the bedreigde posten. After the enemy was verdreven on the Pager Ajer side, the colonne stuitten at Lambaroe on a sterke benteng, which was stormenderhand taken. The Atjehneezen left more than seventy lijken on the field; Dutch losses were five gesneuvelden and forty-one gekwetsten, including five officers. Kajoe Leh was ontzet and a post was opgericht at Lambaroe.

Significance

Meijer’s colonne restored the eastern face of Pel’s projected linie at the moment when the death of the bevelhebber and the imminent arrival of generaal Wiggers van Kerchem (who would take command on 10 March 1876) threatened to undo the conquests of the XXV Moekims. The storming of Lambaroe — at a cost of more than seventy enemy dead for five Dutch dead — is, in Borel’s narrative, a last flourish of the aanvallende system before Wiggers reverted to the afwachtende houding. The forty-one Dutch wounded, including five officers, testify to the hevigen tegenstand the benteng offered; the cost was betrekkelijk light for the strategic gain, since the post of Lambaroe secured the south-eastern link between Pager Ajer and the Longbatta-Mesigit. Meijer’s name closes the roster of colonne-commandanten who, under Pel’s leiding, had conquered the IV Moekims, VI Moekims, IX Moekims, XXV Moekims and the western end of the linie at Loenga on the Kroeng Raba.

Sources

Atjeh gedurende de tweede expeditie en later, Een Oud Officier, Batavia: Ogilvie & Co., 1876, pp. 11-15.

Entry in the Maréchaussée register of honours (1930)

The Overzicht van Onderscheidingen printed in the 1930 jubilee number of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië records under 1928 the appointment of 1ste Luit. Mar. H. Meijer as knight in the Orde van Oranje-Nassau, in the same year as J. C. J. Bongers.

Account from H. F. Meijer’s own book (1883) — chief of staff in Atjeh

H. F. Meijer was, as lieutenant-colonel of the General Staff, chef van den staf (chief of the staff) of the troops in Atjeh during the period described in his own book Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883). In that capacity he repeatedly combined staff duty with field command — a practice which he himself, in a footnote, criticised: the chief of staff, he wrote, ought to be burdened with no tasks other than those of his own office, a principle consistently observed by General Jan van Swieten during the Second Expedition. Yet Meijer had acted as column commander at the attack on Djempit on 29 December 1875, in the march through the pass of Blang Kala on 16–17 January 1876, at the operations against Poenei, Lamarei and Lampēnéhēn on 30–31 January, and again at Lambaroe in March.

It was Meijer who, in the early morning of 7 March 1876, received at Kota Radja the report of Major B. E. Mekern carried by the two Bugis couriers from besieged Kajoe-Lē, and who proposed at once to the acting commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Engel, that the troops of Koewala Gigiëng should advance that very day to the support of the column. That evening he personally led the right half of the 5e Bataljon, the right half of the 8e Bataljon, a company of the barisan of Soemenēp and two sections of artillery to Longbatah, and on 7 March directed the storming of the enemy fortification at Lambaroe: Major Diepenheim attacking from the east, Major Van Teijn from the north, with the artillery of Captain J. A. Nuij across the channel and Captain F. C. E. Meijer of the General Staff guiding Diepenheim’s column. When the victory was won he arranged, knowing that the government telegram to Batavia went by steamer that same day, that the news of the restored communication reached Batavia by the same boat. He then stayed at Lambaroe until 9 March to regulate the building of the new post and the provisioning of the whole south-east line.

In 1883 he published the source that this wiki draws on throughout: a sober composition from official documents, expressly refusing the pamphlet criticism that had followed General Van Swieten’s campaign, and dedicated to showing, from the enemy’s own deeds, with what skill and energy the Atjehnese carried on guerilla war — and with what frequency Dutch carelessness made it possible. His book closes by looking back in pride at the soldiery but notes that, in the period described, many of the disasters were due to gross negligence and poor watchfulness.

See Also

Source

Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. p. 321.

Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh: De Atjehsche Garde, 1890 - 2 April 1930 (“The Corps of Maréchaussée in Atjeh: The Atjehnese Guard”), Extra Jubileum-nummer of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië issued for the fortieth anniversary of the corps (1930), pp. 1-16. Offprint DLP-143, Bibliotheek KITLV, accession 621 116 794.

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