Tjot Bēhēl was a kampong between Lamsajoeng and Kajoe-Lē in the XXV Moekims of Groot-Atjeh, part of the block of hostile kampongs — with Lambaroe, Lamsajoeng and Lamtengah — in which the enemy nested after Pel’s march of February 1876 and from which he cut the roads between the Dutch posts. Its narrows with Lamsajoeng were the place of the ambush of 4 March 1876.
The hostile kampong
After the return of Pel’s troops on 7 February 1876, the enemy held Tjot Bēhēl with the kampongs Lambaroe, Lamsajoeng and Lamkoenjit as his block of cover for attacks on the road between Kajoe-Lē, Atoë and Mesigit Pagar-Ajer. It was in the narrow passage between Lamsajoeng and Tjot Bēhēl that 74 bayonets and a section of artillery escorting sick men were attacked in front and on both flanks on 4 March; it was through Tjot Bēhēl that Major Diepenheim’s patrol march on 8 March — from Lamsajoeng through Tjot Bēhēl to Biloel and over Atoë back — finally moved unhindered after the storming of Lambaroe; and the kampong itself was put in ashes, with those of Lamrong, by Colonel K. van der Heyden’s 3rd column on 14 May during the Biloel Zuid operation.
See Also
- Lamsajoen
- Ambush of the Buijs detachment (4 March 1876)
- Biloel Zuid operation (13-15 May 1876)
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapters VI and VII.