Lamreng was a Dutch military post in the XXV Moekims of Groot-Atjeh — one of the two principal posts (the other being Lambaroe) at the south-eastern corner of the Dutch geconcentreerde linie in the late concentratie period. The post was the seat of the linie-commandant (line-commandant) for the Lamreng sector, and it was one of the principal bases for the operations against the Atjehnese fortification of Kaloet — a fortification that lay approximately 800 metres from the spoorbaan (railway line) between Lambaroe and Lamreng.
The strategic position
The Atjeh-Album of 1896 records that Lamreng — together with Lambaroe — formed the south-eastern corner of the Dutch geconcentreerde linie, and that the two posts were connected by the ceintuurbahn (belt-tramway) of the Atjeh-tram system. The album’s narrative of the Strijd om Kaloet records that the *Kroeng Kali|Kroeng Kali]] — the river that ran some two hundred metres west of Kaloet — flowed recht noordwaarts (straight northwards) towards Lamreng, and that the bed of this river was the principal route by which the Dutch patrols approached Kaloet.
The patrols of August 1892
The Atjeh-Album records that, on the night of 22-23 August 1892, Lieutenant Brant — of the maréchaussée — lay in ambush with a detachment of maréchaussées in the dry bed of the Kroeng Kali opposite Kaloet, with the intention of catching the Atjehnese garrison as they came in the morning. The Atjehnese, however, versliepen zich (overslept), so that the Dutch patrol had to return to Lamreng at 7 a.m. without having caught anyone. The patrol returned along the footpath that the Atjehnese band had earlier followed, and the album’s narrative of the patrol is one of the principal Dutch accounts of night-patrolling in the late concentratie period.
The reconnaissance of 23 August 1892
The Atjeh-Album records that, directly na terugkomst te Lamreng van de patrouille Brunt (immediately after the return to Lamreng of the Brunt patrol), a reconnaissance column — under Captain Jhr. Graafland — set out from Lamreng up the Kroeng Tandjong, with Lieutenant Brant as guide. The reconnaissance destroyed the Atjehnese fortifications in the Kroeng Tandjong and approached to within 50 metres of Kaloet’s vóórwal (front wall) before withdrawing. The reconnaissance — the reconnaissance of 23 August 1892 — was the first Dutch operation against Kaloet.
The 1 October 1892 assault
The Atjeh-Album records that, on 1 October 1892, a strong column from Lambaroe under a captain and three lieutenants — supported by 75 men from Lampermej and 50 men of the 14th Battalion — assaulted Kaloet from the north-east, while a detachment from Lamreng attempted to approach the west side of the benting. The assault — the battle of Kaloet (1 October 1892) — was repulsed with 7 killed and more than 30 wounded, including Lieutenant Hoolboom (mortally wounded) and Lieutenant Drijber.
The 1893 capture of Kaloet
The Atjeh-Album records that, on 4 August 1893, Toekoe Oemar — supported by the 4th Mountain Battery from the Kraton and approximately 1000 men — invested Kaloet, while het geschut van Lamreng, maar vooral van Lambaroe, hield de omliggende vijandelijke kampongs voortdurend onder vuur (the artillery of Lamreng, but especially of Lambaroe, kept the surrounding enemy kampongs continually under fire). The investment was followed by the bloodless capture of Kaloet on the morning of 5 August 5 August 1893, when Toekoe Oemar found the benting abandoned.
Significance
Lamreng’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as one of the two principal posts at the south-eastern corner of the Dutch geconcentreerde linie — the post whose linie-commandant commanded the sector opposite the Atjehnese fortification of Kaloet. The post’s role in the Strijd om Kaloet of 1892 and 1893 — as the base for the night-patrols of Lieutenant Brant, the reconnaissance of Captain Graafland, the assault of 1 October 1892 and the artillery support of Toekoe Oemar’s capture of Kaloet of August 1893 — places it as one of the principal operational centres of the late concentratie period.
Account in Hooijer’s De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897)
Lamreng was a place within the geconcentreerde linie of Groot-Atjeh to which Toekoe Nja Banta had the wives of Toekoe Tjoet transferred from the Toengkoeb district, an act which caused the general dispersal of that chief’s population.
The transfer and its consequences
Hooijer recorded that, having little success in resuming hostilities, Toekoe Nja Banta caused de vrouwen van zijn vroegeren medestrijder uit zijn gebied om Toengkoeb naar Lamreng, in de geconcentreerde linie, te doen overbrengen — the women of his former fellow-combatant to be brought from his territory around Toengkoeb to Lamreng within the concentrated line — and thereby provoked a general dispersal of that population. Of this the Moslemin immediately took advantage, occupying the abandoned terrain and breaking communications between the Dutch establishments at Kroeng Kali and Toengkoeb.
See Also
- XXV Moekims
- Groot-Atjeh
- Lambaroe
- Kaloet
- Kroeng Kali
- Kroeng Tandjong
- Lampermej
- Atjeh-tram
- Geconcentreerde linie
- Reconnaissance of Kaloet (23 August 1892)
- Battle of Kaloet (1 October 1892)
- Capture of Kaloet by Toekoe Oemar (August 1893)
- Jhr. Graafland
- Brant
- Hoolboom
- Drijber
- Toekoe Oemar
- Aceh War
- 1892
- 1893
- Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896)
- XXVI Mukims
- Great Acheh
- Keumala
- Pidie
- Dalam
- Murder of Teuku Chut Lamreueng in Pidie
- Disputed succession to the panglimaship of the XXVI Mukims
- Toekoe Nja Banta
- T. Tjoet Toengkoeb
- Toengkoeb
Sources
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, pp. 25, 30–33 (De Strijd om Kaloet — Eene herinnering uit den Atjeh-oorlog).
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, p. 24.
Acknowledgement of sources. This article is a single consolidated account combining the material previously held in this entry with the account given in De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897) by G. B. Hooijer. Dutch terminology has been rendered in English, the original Dutch being retained only in direct quotations and in bibliographic citations.