Kwala Gigieng is the mouth of the lagune of Gigieng on the north coast of Groot-Atjeh, closed by the Dutch in 1876 and reached by lt.-kol. Engel’s colonne on 26 February 1876 in the closing operation of generaal Pel’s great winter offensive. A post was established at Kwala Gigieng and another on the island of Kota Pohama in the lagune, completely sealing the gemeenschap (communication) between sea and mouth of the Kroeng Tjoet.
The strategic objective
The lagune of Gigieng had been a constant preoccupation of the Dutch from the moment of the landing at Pedro-punt east of the kampong Gigieng in December 1873. Its mouth at Kwala Gigieng was sheltered from the seaward blockade by the configuration of the coast, and its waters gave access to the Kroeng Tjoet, the major contraband supply channel that the Atjehneezen of the XXVI Moekims used to bring in arms, buskruit and levensmiddelen from Penang and Singapore. The Dutch post at Moesapi, armed with two 12 c.M. voorlaadkanonnen, was supposed to cover the lagune and the Kroeng Tjoet, but its disadvantageous position meant it could not stop boats entering the river. The closure of Kwala Gigieng was therefore a principal strategic object of the entire stelling-Pel.
Engel’s closure of February 1876
After Pel’s sudden death at the bivouac at Lamjoeng between Tongah and Silang on the far side of the Kroeng Tjoet in the night of 24 February 1876, lt.-kol. Engel, who had arrived at Lamjoeng with the 9de bataljon to reinforce the ageerende troepen, assumed tijdelijk oppergezag as oudste hoofdofficier. He immediately took the required measures and continued the march via Tjade to Kwala Gigieng, which was bereikt on 26 February 1876, where the bivouac was opgeslagen. Posts were established at Kwala Gigieng and on the island of Kota Pohama in the lagune, completely sealing the gemeenschap between sea and mouth of the Kroeng Tjoet. The closure was, Borel notes, the seaward complement of Pel’s afsluitingslinie from the Kroeng Raba mouth on the west coast to the Kroeng Raya mouth on the north coast — a line whose completion Pel’s death had interrupted but whose eastern anchor at Kwala Gigieng now held.
Sources
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — the lagune mouth and the Dutch post of 1876
Meijer’s Chapter I gives the fullest description of this mouth (koewala, mouth, in Acehnese usage) of the great lagune that stretches from the mouth of the Titi Pandjang to the foot of the mountains bounding the alluvial plain of Groot-Atjeh on the east. The whole form of the lagune shows that it must formerly have had more mouths: the Koewala Loë, open during both Atjeh expeditions, had since been wholly closed by the sand of the northern beach of the sea. The branches of the lagune pierce far inland and form by their capricious bends a maze of overgrown mud flats, land now dry, now under water — without good guides the road cannot be found.
On the great dune plain south of the place where the lagune relieves her water into the sea the Dutch work was raised in February 1876 — one of the most isolated posts of Groot-Atjeh, with the worst possible retreat road in case of being overpowered, one of the rear connections of Pel’s XXVI Moekims campaign. An old Atjehnese fortification of two connected earth redoubts of 50 and 20 metres stood on just the point commanding both the lagune over her whole length and her outflow; it was repaired with sandbags and coconut timber and armed with one 12 cm gun, which chased without success for a year the enemy battery dug in at the northeastern bend of the lagune, whence a continuous fire was kept up on the post: the hostile gunners dropped lilla and carriage after every shot into a covered pit — a device by which the enemy held out successfully against the Dutch 12-centimetre artillery until Lambadak was occupied a year later. The post stood within reach of the strong positions the enemy under Toekoe Lamnga held not far from it, and by the continuous spying and creeping of those bands all its work was disputed; the loads destined for it were carried into it over the lagune from Olehleh, landed on the beach when weather allowed.
See Also
- Kroeng Tjoet
- Kroeng Raya
- Kroeng Raba
- Moesapi
- Kota Pohama
- Tongah
- Lamjoeng
- Luitenant-kolonel Engel
- Generaal Pel
- Death of Generaal Pel (24 February 1876)
- Pel’s offensive against the VI, IV and IX Moekims (1875–1876)
- Kwala
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 176, 263, 322–325, 336, 342–344.