Lamsoet

Lamsoet — written in Dutch as also Lam-Soet, Lam Seet, Lam Soet — was a Dutch outpost in the III Moekims Kerkoen, situated on the right bank of the Atjehrivier and serving as the river crossing between Lambaroe and Ana’ Galong. As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, Lamsoet was garrisoned in 1895 by 2 officers, 50 men, 4 artilleristen, and 1 European hospital attendant, and was the location of one of the machine guns of the buitenlinie — one on a field-carriage and one on a breastwork-carriage; the field-carriage mitrailleur’s chest with barrels was lost during the evacuation of 17 April 1896. Lamsoet was lifted on 17 April 1896, was retaken without opposition by the 12e Bataljon on 2 May 1896 and burned, and was later the site at which Habib Samalanga nested with 50–60 men.

Description and Location

Lamsoet lay in the III Moekims Kerkoen on the right bank of the Atjehrivier, and served as the river crossing between Lambaroe and Ana’ Galong. The post was situated among the kampongs along the right bank of the Atjeh river that had been, from 1878 to 1885, a favourite residence of marauding bands. The garrison in 1895 consisted of 2 officers, 50 men, 4 artilleristen, and 1 European hospital attendant. The post was armed with two mitrailleurs — one on a field-carriage and one on a breastwork-carriage — and the field-carriage mitrailleur’s chest with barrels was lost during the evacuation of 17 April 1896. The post was linked by telephone to the forward area and served as the headquarters of the liniecommandant in the 17 April 1896 operations.

Historical Background

Lamsoet had been constructed as part of the buitenlinie to control the river crossing on the Atjehrivier between Lambaroe and Ana’ Galong and to dominate the kampongs along the right bank of the river that had been a favourite residence of marauding bands from 1878 to 1885. The post was one of the eastern anchors of the buitenlinie in the XXII Moekims / III Moekims Kerkoen sector. The post’s two mitrailleurs were a notable feature of its armament, reflecting the Dutch reliance on early machine guns in the outer line.

Role in the 1896 Operations

Lamsoet was one of the buitenposten lifted by the Dutch in April 1896. On 30 March 1896 the column of Van der Noordaa reached Lamsoet at 5:15 PM after the relief of the blokhuizen of Aloer Oe and Toei Selimbing, and the wounded were re-bandaged there on 31 March 1896 at 2 PM. On 17 April 1896 Lamsoet was lifted by the first colonne of Van Heutsz, which used Lamsoet as its base of operations and as the headquarters of the liniecommandant; during the evacuation the field-carriage mitrailleur’s chest with barrels was lost. On 2 May 1896 the diversionary operation to Montassik retalso the old Dutch post of Lamsoet without opposition by the 12e Bataljon, which arrived via Belang-West and Bralon, and the post was burned. Thereafter Habib Samalanga nested at Lamsoet with 50–60 men, making it a centre of Achehnese resistance in the III Moekims Kerkoen until the tuchtiging of 16–17 June 1896 in which Lamsoet and its versterkingen were burned on 17 June 1896.

Significance

Lamsoet was the principal Dutch buitenpost on the Atjehrivier and the eastern anchor of the buitenlinie in the III Moekims Kerkoen. Its loss of the field-carriage mitrailleur’s chest with barrels during the evacuation of 17 April 1896 was a notable material reverse, since it implied the loss of advanced weaponry to the enemy. The post’s subsequent reoccupation by Habib Samalanga demonstrated that even the evacuated buitenposten could be turned into Achehnese strongpoints, requiring the tuchtiging of 16–17 June 1896 to clear.

Account in Hooijer’s De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897)

Lam Soet was a Dutch temporary post erected on the Atjeh-rivier a few days after that at Anagaloeng, in order to secure the road running from Lambaroe to Anagaloeng in the XXII Moekims of Groot-Atjeh.

Description

The post was surrounded by an earthen rampart one and a half metres thick, revetted with lying coconut trunks, and — except on the river side — covered by ijzerdraadversperring and a dry ditch in front. Outside lay the bathroom and the little house of the Chinese merchant. On the rampart stood the summer-house in which the commandant could take his ease and from which he had a view over the river. In the hut projecting behind it a mitrailleur was mounted. The soldiers were quartered in an old Achehnese dwelling, and the officers lived in the house that Toekoe Samalanga had occupied before returning to his own country. The whole looked homely and neat, and gravel from the river covered the paths between the quarters.

Conditions

The mitrailleur seldom or never had to be used, for after the completion of the blokhuis at Lampaleuh it was quiet and safe in the neighbourhood. Most of the rifle-shots fired were aimed at iguanas appearing at or in the river, whose white flesh was consumed by the native soldiers.

The limits of the post’s effect

The erection of Lam Soet had indeed secured the safety of the stretch of road from Lambaroe near Anagaloeng, but it had not put an end to the enemy’s activity. The hope that Toekoe Moeda Soleiman, guardian of the young Panglima Polim, sagi-head of the XXII Moekims, would continue to lend support after being given the opportunity to ship his pepper out of the bay of Kroeng Raja proved vain; the population of the southern part of the XXVI Moekims took flight; Toekoe Moesa Anaq Batee attacked the passer-goers between Lambarih and Anagaloeng and penetrated the IX Moekims; and the Dutch post on Boekit Daroe was continuously shelled.

March 1896

On 7 March 1896 the liniecommandant (commander of the line), hurrying from Senelop towards the firing at Anagaloeng, picked up forty men from Lam Soet and Lambarih on the way, with whom he relieved Kapitein Blokland’s mauled patrol.

See Also

• Battle of Senelop (17 April 1896)
• Diversie to Montassik (2 May 1896)
• Tuchtiging der V Moekims Montassik (16–17 June 1896)
• mitrailleur
• Habib Samalanga
• Majoor G. P. M. van der Noordaa
• Ana’ Galong
• Lambarih
• Atjehrivier
• buitenlinie
• 1896
• Anagaloeng
• Lambaroe
• Lampaleuh
• Toekoe Samalanga
• Toekoe Moeda Soleiman
• Panglima Polim
• XXII Moekims

Sources

ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 22, 32, 35, 39, 40–41, 51–53, 55, 75–76, 92–93, 99–105, 108–118, 148, 150–156, 279, 292, 541.

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. 49-50.

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.