Blang Kédjérèn

Blang Kédjérèn is the subdistrict headquarters-town and former subdistrict in the Gajó Loeós highlands of Central Atjèh. It was both a remote military post of the Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen — one of the most afgelegen (remote) posts of the colonial army, “enige dagen lopens het binnenland in” (some days’ walk into the interior) — and the seat of the last Dutch defensive position in northern Sumatra, which capitulated to the Japanese on 28 March 1942.

The Marechaussee post and the 1e Divisie

Blang Kedjeren was the seat of the 1e Divisie Marechaussee uit Blang Kedjeren — a major formation of the Marechaussee in the highlands of central Aceh. Its remoteness defined its character. “The Blang had its quickest connection by way of Medan; one then had to walk only three days and could go on by car: a few hundred kilometres across the Alas plain, the Karo lands, by way of Koeta-Tjané, Kaban-Djahé and Brastagi to Medan, from where one could reach Koeta-Radja by train in two days.” The route — three days’ walk plus two days by car plus two days by train — is G. W. T. Dames’s marker of how afgelegen the Blang was.

“Also those lying several days’ walk inland, such as Blang Kedjerèn and Lokop.” Blang Kedjeren was one of the deeply inland posts that Dominee Thenu continued to visit several times a year, even after his diabetes made expedition work too hard. The Soldaten-Dominee’s visits to the Blang were the mark of his gezag: the dominee who would not be deterred by illness from visiting the most afgelegen posts of the corps.

The Hotel de Boer anecdote (c. 1933)

“In het 1933 of daaromtrent jaar zat de kapitein, commandant van de 1e Divisie Marechaussee uit Blang Kedjeren, op de Soos in Koeta-Radja een groot verhaal af te steken over een belevenis in Hotel de Boer gedurende zijn doorreis.” The captain of the 1e Divisie, travelling through Medan on his way to Koeta-Radja, stopped at Hotel de Boer in veldtenue, ordered a large bottle of beer in the lobby, and discovered — only when another hotel guest drew his attention to them — two of his own dardanellen standing behind his chair with drawn klewang and karabijnen in de aanslag. The dardanellen “hadden uit de Blang zijn beide meegenomen” — had come with him from the Blang — and “waren jaren terug op de Blang gekomen en steeds daar gebleven. Eerst nu kwamen ze eens in de bewoonde wereld terug.” The story, told to Atjehmensen at the Soos, was “niet voor onmogelijk gehouden.”

The episode is Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L.’s clearest illustration of the plichtsbesef of the Marechaussee man: the dardanellen who had not been to the bewoonde wereld (the inhabited world) in years, and who, when they finally came, stood guard in a hotel lobby as naturally as they stood guard in the rimboe.

The road connection of 1939

The road connection from Koeta Tjané in the Alas valley to Blang Kédjérèn in the Gajó Loeós — “located over 100 km. further north” — “had only been completed at the end of 1939 on the initiative of the then Assistant Resident of the East Coast of Atjèh, Mr. Th. O. B. Gunther. In harmonious cooperation of the population and military personnel, with financial support from the Government’s resin and turpentine company, the old horse track for auto transport — albeit, that for the time being only one-way traffic was possible — was made suitable.” Blang Kédjérèn was thus brought within a one-day motor drive of Koeta Tjané, replacing the three-day foot journey. On the eve of the 1942 invasion the subdistricts of Gajó Loeós (with headquarters Blang Kédjérèn) and Alaslanden (with headquarters Koeta Tjané) were merged into the new subdistrict Gajó Loeós and Alaslanden, and Mr. Gunther was appointed district chief.

The military role in the 1942 defence

“In contrast to the low-lying Alas valley, the Gajó Loeós valley lies at 800 to 1000 m. altitude with a surrounding mountain range of 2000 to 3000 m.” The Gajó Loeós was, after Takéngón and the Alasvalley, the third great defence centre of the Atjèh highlands. “With a view to a prolonged defense considerable supplies of military equipment, foodstuffs, medicines, etc. had been gathered here.” Bivouacs for 2,000 men had been built by conscripts through paid labor and were ready for use on 26 March 1942.

The capitulation of 28 March 1942

When the Japanese broke through from the valley of the Lawé Rénoen on 25 March 1942, “a further retreat to the last stronghold, the Gajó Loeós” became necessary, and “the headquarters was moved to Blang Kédjèrèn.” Colonel G. F. V. Gosenson, after the fall of Takéngón, “fell back on Blang Kédjèrèn with two very weary brigades, closely followed by the Japanese vanguard.” When General Overakker “decided on 27 March to surrender, there was no longer any enemy to be acknowledged in the Blang, so that the surrender could only be offered on 28 March. On that same day the Japanese troops held their entry into Blang Kédjérèn.” The few European women and children were transferred to Kaban Djahé at the end of March.

Significance

Blang Kédjérèn stands at the intersection of two chapters in Acehnese colonial history. As a Marechaussee post in the late colonial era, it exemplified the afgelegen culture of the colonial army — the plichtsbesef, the dardanellen, the visits of the Soldaten-Dominee — that G. W. T. Dames memorialised in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. As the final defensive position of the Dutch in northern Sumatra in 1942, it was the place where that colonial order reached its military end.

Account from Atjeh by H.C. Zentgraff (1938)

Zentgraff visited the Blang personally and gives the fullest evocative description. Three march-days from Lawé Aoenan (Goenoeng Setan) at the end of the motor-road, through marschbivaks Meloewak and Koenké, across the watershed at the Pintoe Rimba — the Gate of the Wilderness — and then: als een Juweel, gevat in eene zetting van forsche allure — a jewel set in a frame of mountains.

Van Daalen’s Gajoetocht of 18 March–3 June 1904 took the benteng Koeto Reh, where 561 Gajoes lay dead, and is commemorated by a stone at Blang Kedjeren: Ter herinnering aan onze gevallen helden tijdens den tocht van overste Van Daalen in de Gajoe-Loeës, van 18 Maart 1904 tot 3 Juni 1904. The Gajoes date their modern era from this event. The Duivel op de Blang crisis of 1909–1910 arose from the replacement of the infantry garrison by a full maréchaussée division: the women were left at Seulimeum while about 300 men and 400 beren marched to the Blang, producing bloody misdrijven van militairen tegen militairen: Amb. maréchaussée N. doodde met den klewang de vrouw van een ander en schoot daarop door het bivak, waardoor de Eur. sergt. Selbach sneuvelde, en pleegde hierna zelfmoord. Eventually the women were brought from Koeala Simpang by prauw to Kaloeë and on foot over the Boer ni Gadjah (Elephant Mountain). On 7 December 1926 a Gajoe murdered the sergeants Van Gent and De Gruiter before the tangsi; the sergeant Van den Broek struck off the murderer’s head with one blow.

Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia.

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

In September 1909, the situation being at its most unfavourable, the infantry garrison of Blang Kedjerèn was replaced by marechaussée — the 1st Division under captain W. Muurling — while a mobile column of three brigades under Kaniess was sent to the western part of the sub-division. At the end of November H. N. A. Swart visited the district and could already visit gampongs two hours from Blang Kedjerèn without military escort. Jhr. J. J. Boreel served as Civil Authority at Blang Kedjeren, as did captain W. Muurling.

Maréchaussée station (1910)

the 1930 jubilee number of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië records the stations assigned to the Korps Maréchaussée in 1910: 1st Division at Blang Kedjeren; 2nd Division at Meulaboh; 3rd Division at Takèngan; 4th Division at Lam Meulo; and 5th Division at Lho Soekon, “zooals zij ook thans nog gelegerd is” — where it was still quartered at the time of the 1930 jubilee. Blang Kedjeren was the station of the 1st Division.

Earlier, in 1898, the corps had been localised with its Staff at Koeta Radja and its divisions at Selimoen, Indrapoeri, Tjot Mantjang and Glé Broet, Tjot Goet, and Lam Baroe and Lho’-Nga.

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Area in Gajoland; large blang terrains noted in soil discussion.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. —.

Source

Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Chapter I § 1, Chapter II, Chapter IV, Chapter V § 3.

Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), prologue “Bij ons…” and chapter “Dominee Thenu.”

Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter XI.

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.

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. —.

tags	place, gayo, highland, military-post, aceh, administration, garrison, marechaussee
aliases	Blang Kejeren, De Blang, Blangkedjeren

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