Lemboe was a strongly fortified kampong at the southern end of the Pedir-dijk on the right bank of the Atjeh-rivier, which Borel calls “the key” to the dike and therefore to the entire Dutch defensive line on the river. It was the scene of the bloody battle of 25–26 December 1873, abandoned immediately afterward on van Swieten’s order, and finally conquered for good on 7 November 1874 in the operation led by overste Diepenbrock. Its recurrent importance — first fought over in 1873, finally held in 1874, reoccupied in 1875 — makes it, in Borel’s narrative, the prime example of the cost of premature abandonment.
The battle of December 1873
After eight idle days at Penajoeng following the landing, the Atjehneezen had entrenched everywhere along the river. On 25 and 26 December 1873 strong Dutch columns rukten zuidwaarts to find a grasvlakte for the camp. They hit enemy stellingen at Lemboe and were “van alle zijden hevig beschoten” — heavily fired on from all sides. For hours Dutch troops were exposed on the open sawah (irrigated rice field) to “moordend vuur.” After a “bloedigen strijd” Lemboe was taken, at a cost of nearly 150 gesneuvelden and gekwetsten. “Onbegrijpelijk genoeg” van Swieten immediately ordered the place abandoned, a major error later compounded when the same ground had to be re-fought at the conquest of 7 November 1874.
The final conquest and later posts
On 7 November 1874 overste Diepenbrock led two half-battalions and a field-artillery battery against Lemboe, attacking from Penajoeng and Langkroek across open sawah. Contrary to expectation, resistance was light; the western part of Lemboe, called Berauw, with its main dike fortifications, fell. The Dutch lost Diepenbrock and about 20 men or coolies wounded and one officer’s servant killed, and three posts were immediately built. The post of Lemboe-zuid, a large southern rivier-benteng armed with an 8 c.M. rifled gun, was added later. The original Lemboe N.O. post, low-lying and flooded, was relocated on 10 March 1875 opposite Pinang and renamed Nieuw Lemboe N.O.; the intermediate post of Lemboe Oost was established on 12 March 1875. A night attack on Lemboe-N.O. on 23–24 January 1876 cost one officer and 22 wounded.
Nineteenth-Century Historiography & Campaign Analysis
Capture in 1874
Guarding the western approaches to the royal palace, Lemboe was heavily fortified by warriors from the XXV Moekims under Teuku Imam Lueng Batoh. In January 1874, during the Second Aceh Expedition, General J. van Swieten launched the Capture of Lemboe, deploying infantry battalions to storm the earthworks.
In his 1876 study, the author of Atjeh gedurende de tweede expeditie en later noted that when Dutch forces seized Lemboe and the Mesigiet, inspection revealed that the redoubts were still undergoing defensive enhancements, proving that an earlier arrival by Dutch columns might have encountered even more formidable resistance.
See Also
- Atjeh-rivier
- Baiturrahman Grand Mosque
- Battle of Lemboe (25–26 December 1873)
- Berauw
- Capture of Lemboe
- Conquest of Lemboe (7 November 1874)
- J. van Swieten
- Jan van Swieten
- Kolonel Diepenbrock
- Langkroek
- Pedir-dijk
- Teuku Imam Lueng Batoh
- XXV Moekims
Source
Atjeh gedurende de tweede expeditie en later, Een Oud Officier, Batavia: Ogilvie & Co., 1876, pp. 19-23.
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 14, 20, 24, 30, 46, 64, 142, 200–202, 209–211, 262.