Lieutenant-Colonel Engel was a Dutch luitenant-kolonel of the Indische leger who commanded the column that advanced along the right bank of the Kroeng Daroe on 26 December 1875 and occupied Pakan Badak on 28 December 1875 in generaal Pel’s great offensive against the VI, IV and IX Moekims, who arrived at Lamjoeng with the 9de bataljon to reinforce the ageerende troepen before Pel’s death, and who as the oldest hoofdofficier in Atjeh assumed tijdelijk oppergezag after Pel’s death at Lamjoeng on 24 February 1876 and continued the march to Kwala Gigieng, reached on 26 February 1876.
The December 1875 Offensive
On 26 December 1875 Pel launched the great drie-colonne offensive against the VI, IV and IX Moekims. Engel advanced along the right bank of the Kroeng Daroe while Vetter bezette Mibouw and F. J. E. Mekern took the stelling between Mibouw and the Kroeng Daroe — and was doodelijk gewond the same day. On 28 December 1875 Engel bezette Pakan Badak; the kampongs Lamtermin and Bital were ontruimd by the enemy, as were Toekoe Nanta’s geduchte versterkingen west of Sinangri. “Nergends hadden de Atjehneezen ernstigen tegenstand geboden,” Borel records. Communication with Sinangri was opened in early January 1876. The column then proceeded with the conquest of Lamtengah (8 January 1876) and with the submission of Lampagger (10 January 1876).
The Lambaroe orders, March 1876 (Meijer 1883)
The official reports cited by H. F. Meijer in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883) preserve Engel’s exact dispositions as acting commander after Pel’s death. When the besieged column of Major B. E. Mekern at Kajoe-Lē smuggled its report to his headquarters through the two Bugis couriers on 6 March 1876, Engel, then with the operating main force at Koewala Gigiëng, answered at once: “1 company of the 2nd battalion barisan to be joined to the 8th. The 5th battalion with a section of Artillery… shall advance immediately to Longbatah-Mesigit… Lieutenant-Colonel Meijer commander of the whole… Communication to be restored, post at Lambaroe to be established.” He added that he would come himself “probably at once with 2 companies barisan; tomorrow the rest of the 12th battalion and the barisan come.” The storming of Lambaroe the next day restored the line.
Engel arrived at Lamjoeng with the 9de bataljon to reinforce the ageerende troepen at the moment of Pel’s sudden death from a slagaderbreuk in the night of 24 February 1876. As the oldest hoofdofficier in Atjeh he assumed tijdelijk oppergezag — temporary supreme command. He immediately took the required measures and continued the march via Tjade to Kwala Gigieng, which was reached on 26 February 1876 and where a bivouak was opgeslagen. Posts were opgericht at Kwala Gigieng and on the island of Kota Pohama in the Gigieng lagune, to completely seal the gemeenschap between the sea and the mouth of the Kroeng Tjoet — the contraband supply channel that had given the Atjehneezen access to the XXVI Moekims.
Significance
Engel’s assumption of command after Pel’s death preserved the continuity of the offensive in its final, most critical days. His arrival at Kwala Gigieng closed the north-eastern end of Pel’s projected afsluitingslinie, and the post on Kota Pohama sealed the Kroeng Tjoet mouth. He handed over to generaal Wiggers van Kerchem on 10 March 1876, when the linie Kroeng Raba–Kwala Gigieng — the line whose closure had been Pel’s secret plan — was at its furthest extent, and was then allowed by Wiggers to remain “nagenoeg onveranderd.”
Sources
Atjeh gedurende de tweede expeditie en later, Een Oud Officier, Batavia: Ogilvie & Co., 1876, pp. 11-15. 20260707_232246_DLP-55-De_geschiedenis_van_het_Nederlandsche_Korps_Mariniers_van_1665_1945_OCR.txt, p. 136.
See Also
- Pel’s offensive against the VI, IV and IX Moekims (1875–1876)
- Death of Generaal Pel (24 February 1876)
- Pakan Badak
- Kroeng Daroe
- Kwala Gigieng
- Kota Pohama
- Kroeng Tjoet
- Majoor Vetter
- Majoor F. J. E. Mekern
- Generaal Pel
- Generaal Wiggers van Kerchem
- 1875
- 1876
- 8th Infantry Battalion
- J. L. J. H. Pel
- General Pel’s Campaign in Aceh
- Pekan Badak
- General Pel
- Beradin
- IV Moekims
- Dutch Army
- Reconnaissance in Aceh
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 313, 320.