Blankala Pass was a rugged, heavily forested mountain pass and tactical defile crossing the coastal mountain range between Kotta Radja and the inland valley of the IV Moekims in modern Aceh Province, Indonesia.
Strategic Crossing in December 1875
The pass served as a natural defensive wall protecting interior Acehnese agricultural settlements from coastal European invasion. On 26 December 1875, following the Attack on Mibouw, General J. L. J. H. Pel ordered column commander Lieutenant Colonel Meijer to force the pass during General Pel’s Campaign in Aceh.
In the Crossing of Blankala Pass, troops of the 3rd Infantry Battalion, 8th Infantry Battalion, and Marine Corps in Aceh hauled artillery across the defile under sniper fire, successfully seizing the crest and descending to occupy the IV Moekims.
See Also
- Crossing of Blankala Pass
- IV Moekims
- Lieutenant Colonel Meijer
- J. L. J. H. Pel
- General Pel’s Campaign in Aceh
Source
Atjeh gedurende de tweede expeditie en later, Een Oud Officier, Batavia: Ogilvie & Co., 1876, pp. 12-16.