Kota Toeankoe was an Achehnese benteng in Groot-Atjeh from which Teungkoe di Tiro harassed the Dutch geconcentreerde linie, taken by storm at heavy cost some five years before 1893 and afterwards slighted.
The assault
Hooijer recalled the operation as one of only two occasions in the ten-year concentratie period on which the Dutch, driven by necessity, moved outside the line with a relatively strong force. Nearly three battalions with the necessary cavalry and artillery entered the terrain north of the kampong (village) strip in which Overste Sievers later operated, in order to take Kota Toeankoe, which threatened the Dutch line of posts. The lieutenants Veerman and Hageman, with several of their men, had fallen some hours earlier in their attempt to seize the benteng, which they hoped to find evacuated because an enveloping battalion was to approach it from the other side.
After a long and furious fight, all that fell into Dutch hands — at a cost of three times as many dead and wounded — was an outwork of ten by fifteen metres of interior space, within which lay a heap of thirty fallen Achehnese. Hooijer drew from the episode the conclusion that the Achehnese had niet verleerd zich achter zijn wallen met mannenmoed en doodsverachting te verdedigen — had not forgotten how to defend himself behind his walls with manly courage and contempt of death.
Consequences for Teungkoe di Tiro
Hooijer listed the loss of Kota Toeankoe among the checks that broke the influence of Teungkoe di Tiro: he had harassed the concentrated line strongly from Kota Toeankoe, but that stronghold too had fallen into Dutch hands by storm and been slighted, a few months after the Dutch had suffered so great a loss before it.
See Also
- Luitenant Veerman
- Luitenant Hageman
- Tengkoe Sjech Saman di Tiro
- Geconcentreerde linie
- Kaloet
- Overste Sievers
Source
De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh, door G. B. Hooijer, Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger, met 24 platen (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn; Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Centrale Boekerij, Amsterdam. OCR-filename: 20260719_140140_DLP-134-De_verlaten_posten_in_Groot_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 26, 48.