Lamara Olejlo

Properties2
tagsplace, kampong, fortification, acehnese, aceh-war, dutch
aliasesLamara Olejlo, Lamara Oleilo, Lamara Olehlo, Kampong Lamara Olejlo

5 min read

Lamara Olejlo (also written Lamara Oleilo) was a kampong to the south of Kota Radja whose fortified northern edge was occupied by Dutch troops in a surprise attack in the night of 14/15 February 15 February 1875 and was thereafter fortified and held by the Dutch as part of the southward extension of the Dutch perimeter in the middle phase of the Atjeh-oorlog. The kampong, together with the neighbouring kampongs of Gitjiel Olejlo and Lohong, had been one of the strongpoints from which the Atjehers continued to harass the Mandarsah Poetih. The fortification of the captured benting on 15 February 15 February 1875 — see Lamara Olejlo fortification — was the last field engineer operation of Tweede-Luitenant C. J. Snijders in Atjeh.

Context

After the Missigit Longbatta operation and the capture of Pungej Blang Tjoet on 23 January 23 January and of Mandarsah Poetih on 28 January 28 January 1875, the southern line of Dutch outworks was repeatedly harassed from the fortified and partly gun-armed edges of the kampongs Gitjiel Olejlo, Lamara Olejlo, and Lohong. A reconnaissance in the night of 14/15 February 15 February 1875 led to the surprise occupation of some fortifications on the northern edge of Lamara Olejlo.

The Fortification of 15 February 1875

Snijders received orders at midday on 15 February 15 February at Kota Radja and marched with part of the company and a detachment of 100 dwangarbeiders, with a quantity of tools and sandbags, to put the captured benting in a state of defence. The full operation is described on the operation page. With the completion of the work Snijders’ task with the field column ended.

Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)

Verstege names Lamara-Oleyloe (Lamara near Oleh-leh) in the chain of posts of the position of April 1875: in the southern chain from Oedjong Palanggahan to Longbatta-Missigit — Soerian, Poe-oe, Blangey, Bang Tjoen Tjoet, Setoe Zuid, Lamara-Oleyloe, Lohong (see Verstege’s folding map of Groot-Atjeh (1886)).

See Also

Source

D. van den Berg, Cornelis Jacobus Snijders (1852–1939): Een leven in dienst van zijn Land en zijn Volk (Voorburg: September 1944), pp. 32–33. Koninklijke Bibliotheek shelfmark 0301 4872.

Account from Een Vaderlandsch Belang by H. Borel (1878)

Lamara Olejlo was an Atjehnees kampong about 600 paces south of Mandarsa Poeti seized by surprise on the night of 14–15 February 1875 in the surprise of Lamara Olejlo by kapitein von Ende, the commandant of the new Mandarsa Poeti post. The capture yielded three or four enemy benteng (fortifications), several cannon and lilla’s, and permanently extended the southern arc of the stelling-Pel at exactly the point where it had been weakest.

The surprise

Von Ende had noticed that the enemy left the fortification at the northern rand of Lamara each evening and returned in the morning. He verified this personally by creeping across the sawah (irrigated rice field) on a dark night with a few men. Without asking permission, von Ende crossed the sawah in the night of 14–15 February 1875 with part of the Mandarsa Poeti garrison and occupied the abandoned fortification. He at once reported to Pel and asked for reinforcements. Between 8 and 4 a.m. the Atjehneezen arrived as usual — to considerable surprise they met with Beaumont salvos. Von Ende beat off their attempt to retake the works and held with a handful until reinforcements under overste van Dentekom arrived, then majoor Romswinckel. Fighting continued all morning as the enemy streamed in from all sides. The whole Lamara Olejlo stelling remained permanently in Dutch hands.

The captured guns and Pel’s judgement

Three or four enemy benteng, several cannon and lilla’s fell into Dutch hands, including a 4-pounder that had fired on Mandarsa Poeti — it had no carriage but was ingeniously suspended on ropes. Von Ende received from Pel both formal praise for his courage and a reprimand for his unauthorised action; “he had fully deserved both; achieved success made everything good.” The cost was one dead, about 12 severely wounded, and two officers wounded after the fight was already over. Lamara Olejlo then became a permanent post of the southern arc of the stelling-Pel, linking Setee to Lohong and Longbatta Z. on the south side of the line. Its capture was, Borel notes, the kind of aggressive initiative that van Swieten’s passive afwachtende houding had forbidden; that it succeeded so completely was the strongest possible vindication of Pel’s more aggressive aanvallende tactiek.

See Also

Source

Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 246, 250–251, 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), p. 53. OCR: DLP-158.

Graph View

Backlinks