Lamara was a kampong at the end of the Pedir-dijk marshes and the site of the Dutch post east of the marine-benteng, beyond the dike, that was continually harassed by Atjehnees lilla (light swivel-gun) fire from the kampong of Langkroek across the river. The post was one of the eastern links of the stelling-Pel, flanking the marshy ground between the dike and the river-mouth through which enemy bands tried to verschansen (entrench) themselves to threaten Dutch river communication.
The post and its harassments
Lamara’s exposure to lilla fire is repeatedly mentioned by Borel. The Atjehnees lilla — a small swivel-gun, lighter and more mobile than the Dutch 12 c.M. achterlaadkanonnen — was easily moved through the brushwood of the marshy ground east of the dike and brought to bear on the post at all hours. Its fire “caused more unrest than harm,” but the constant harassment wore down the garrison and forced the Dutch to keep up an expensive watch. The location of Lamara at the end of the Pedir-dijk marshes meant that any attempt to nest between Penajoeng and the Marine-benteng — exactly the threat that had materialised on 21 May 1874 — would have to come past Lamara. The post was therefore an indispensable link in the river-defence chain.
In the stelling-Pel
By the time the continuous line around K. Radja was completed in May 1875, the Lamara post had been strengthened and incorporated into the eastern side of the stelling-Pel. Borel lists the south side of the line as running from Oedjoeng Planggan through Soerian, Poe Oe, Poengej Blang Tjoet, Lamteboe, Setee Z., Lamara Olejlo, Longbatta Z. to Longbatta-Mesigit, and the east side as running from Blang Tjoet through Kota Alam, Lemboe O. en N.O., Lampriet, Langkroek O., Lamara Z.O. en N.O., Tiban to Moesapi. The Lamara posts (south-east and north-east) thus connected the river-defence chain of the Pedir-dijk with the eastern sea-face at Moesapi. With the completion of the line, operations could be suspended or postponed, and Pel was granted three months’ leave on 12 June 1875 to recover his shattered health.
Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — the Lamara posts of 1876
Meijer gives Lamara’s twin posts of 1876 — Lamara Northeast (N.O.) and Lamara Southeast (Z.O.), with Tibang, Langkroek and Langkroek East — as the small square earth redoubts set along the left bank of the Kroeëng Titi Pandjang, in marshy ground cut by ridges into salt pans and fish ponds, that watched the river and the hostile ground east of it, forbade fishing and salt making, and protected Penajoeng. Their garrisons fetched cooking wood themselves and drank the water fetched at Tibang.
Both posts were the object of the carefully prepared Atjehnese gate assault in the night of 28-29 May 1876: at Lamara N.O. First Lieutenant Verploegh, at the post since half past two, checked the “siin, siin” callers and the first men at the gates — receiving two lance wounds at the gate himself, losing 1 native fusilier; at Lamara Z.O. First Lieutenant Mahne stood two hours later against four Atjehers already busy destroying the outer gate, repelled them with corporal Mulder’s bayonet beside him, suffered two wood blows on the skull and lost no man. It was one of the pair that lay in Meijer’s account for the purpose of observing the enemy ground along the Titi Pandjang in his 1876 statistics; the same posts were continually fired on that summer.
Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)
Verstege names: the watchhouse of Lamara, one of the eighteen posts of the line of 1885; a patrol of 21 men under luitenant Nyland, going from Lamara to Kota Radja on 16 May 1885, fell upon the enemy (2 dead, 7 wounded of whom 3 died); on 11 August 1885 the night watch returning to Ketapang Doewa from Lamara was attacked (6 wounded, 3 of whom died the same day); the repair of the tramway between Lamara and Lampeneroet of 16 December 1885 (see Guerilla raids inside the concentration line (1885)). Lamara, with its sub-posts (south-east and north of it), was also a link of the position of April 1875 (see Verstege’s folding map of Groot-Atjeh (1886)).
See Also
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 63, 92, 95, 121, 125, 142, 165, 263, 322.
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 53, 81, 109-110. OCR: DLP-158.