Korporaal De Jong (European corporal, pay-list no. 73000) was a Dutch corporal of infantry in Atjeh in 1876, the commander of the 20-man escort destroyed in the Lo-oe ambush of 28 August 1876 — the officer through whose disobeyed route-order the disaster befell.
The short road to Djempit
At half past five on the morning of 28 August, De Jong marched from Boekit Daroe with his escort of 3 European, 2 African and 15 native fusiliers to bring the post journal to the western-line commander at Pakan Badak and to fetch bread. The post commander had expressly prescribed the long, safe road by Ketapan Doewa and given him detailed orders on march formation and conduct under attack. At the fork in kampong Lo-oe, asked by the point which road to take, he answered: “the shortest, to Djempit” — and marched into the covered ground against orders.
When the enemy volley came from the kampong edge, De Jong, with his soldiers, sprang from the dike into the mud of the sawah; when he was up again, he ran to the kampong and hid with the two foremost of the point. The young Javanese fusiliers left to themselves stood fast round fusilier Wirokromo, but the fallen included 2 Europeans; a third (the badly wounded fusilier Van Wijk) was believed drowned in the swollen Kroeëng Daroe. De Jong did not reappear until the relief patrol of Second Lieutenant Van Haften arrived; his escort, completed by part of that patrol, was then placed under the African corporal Bamberg and went on to Pakan Badak.
H. F. Meijer, printing the report in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883), added his comment that the investigation had established the ever-recurring truth: the route order had been disobeyed and the march made through covered country — with the enemy’s usual promptness in punishing what no rule could excuse.
See Also
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VII, pp. 260–264.