Korporaal Wensting (European corporal, pay-list no. 72470) was a Dutch corporal of infantry in Atjeh in 1876, commander of the front party of the mixed escort destroyed in the ambush of 17 July 1876, and himself killed in it.
17 July 1876
With 8 armed fusiliers, Wensting led the combined escort — his own 8 men in front, the sapper Van Dijk with 10 forced-labourers and a sick man behind, and corporal Wijnen with 6 men as rearguard — from Boekit Daroe along the drowned sawahs towards Ketapan Doewa, carrying the post journal to the western-line commander at Pakan Badak. About halfway, as his party debouched along the little grass field north of the ditch bridge, 40 to 50 Atjehers fired into the column over its whole length and charged with the naked weapon. The corporal was among the first of the four soldiers killed; Wijnen, rallying six men on the unoccupied knoll close by, drove the enemy off with plunging fire.
H. F. Meijer, printing the official record in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883), expressly refused to lay blame on the dead corporal: he had been only a corporal, who had probably never before commanded twenty-five men, and his first independent command cost him his life.
See Also
- Ambush between Boekit Daroe and Ketapan Doewa (17 July 1876)
- Mineur Van Dijk (1876)
- Boekit Daroe
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VII, pp. 229–232.