Wirokromo was a Javanese fusilier (pay-list no. 75816) of the Netherlands Indies Army in Atjeh in 1876, who — in the Lo-oe ambush of 28 August 1876 — kept the young Javanese half of corporal De Jong’s shattered detachment standing in a closed group, calling out “halt! don’t run away, just stand; if we run we shall all be cut down”, and so prevented the enemy from finishing the whole party.
The stand
The detachment of 20 men — the natives all young Javanese — had been caught on the short, forbidden road through covered ground west of kampong Lo-oe and had broken under the simultaneous attack from three sides; the corporal had fled with the two foremost into the kampong. Seeing at once that the whole detachment would be cut down if confusion became flight, Wirokromo stood fast at his place, gathered 8 or 9 of his young comrades around him and called to them, in the words the official report preserved in Malay:
“halt! djangan lari, halt sadja, kaloe lari nanti di potong samoewa” — “Halt! don’t run away, just stand; if we run we shall all be cut down.”
They listened. The enemy did not dare to attack the well-closed little group and soon withdrew into the kampongs, taking the fallen men’s rifles; the group kept its defensive stand until the relief patrol of Second Lieutenant Van Haften arrived. Meijer quotes both his call and his pay-list number in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883).
See Also
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VII, pp. 261–264.