Compagnie Eric

MAJOR General Engles, the Dutch military commander in West Java, went ballistic. His army failed to arrest former Corporal Johannes Cornelius (Poncke) Princen, his former subordinate who had defected to the Republican side.

According to reports from the Dutch Military Intelligence Service (NEFIS), Princen had joined the Siliwangi Division, and after the long march from Central Java, he was appointed commander of the Special Forces of the Kala Hitam Battalion led by Major Kemal Idris with the rank of lieutenant.

"He was under the company command of Captain Saptadji," wrote Ronald Frisart in a report entitled "Speurtocht door vergeeld papier naar Poncke Princen" in the Leidsch Dagblad newspaper, September 11, 1993.

Since then, Princen and his troops often troubled the Dutch military. It was reported that they seized many weapons and killed Dutch soldiers in Sukabumi and Cianjur. Politically, this was a major headache and embarrassment for the Dutch: how could a full-blooded Dutchman become a part of the Republican fighters?

The Dutch Army did not remain silent. Around June 1949, two battalions of soldiers from the elite red beret and green beret units almost captured Princen in the area between Cisaat and Sipiangan. However, Princen skillfully escaped and dodged to the Special Forces headquarters in the Cipakel area.

"They hunted me by utilizing local people who became their spies," Princen said.

In his letter dated July 20, 1949 to Lieutenant General D.C. Buurman van Vreeden, the Dutch military commander in Java, major general Engles promised: "... above all will endeavor to get rid of the deserter Corporal Princen", as quoted by Joyce van Fenema in Poncke Princen: Een Kwestie van Kiezen.

Buurman van Vreeden responded positively to Engles' letter. At the highest levels of the Dutch military, finding Princen became a priority. Ciphers were deployed. Dutch troops also began arresting residents and, if necessary, torturing them to obtain information about the whereabouts of Princen and his troops.

Their effort paid off. When Princen's location was confirmed, Engles asked Lieutenant Henk Ulrici, commander of one of the three special forces units (Korps Speciale Troepen/KST), to form a special team of selected KST soldiers. The target: capturing Princen dead or alive.

In early August 1949, Lieutenant Ulrici succeeded in forming a commando team of one platoon of approximately 60 soldiers consisting of Ambonians, Timorese, Sundanese, Javanese, and a small amount of Dutch. Lieutenant Ulrici named the unit Compagnie Eric, his nickname when he was a Dutch partisan against Germany.

"We had to move quickly. Before the ceasefire came into effect on August 10, 1949, we had to get Princen," former aide of Captain Raymond Westerling told Joeri Boom and Paul Rubsaam in "De Princenjagers", published in De Groene Amsterdammer magazine, August 16, 1995. This ceasefire was part of the Roem-Royen Agreement.

Disguising as TNI

Lampegan Station, August 7, 1949. Morning had just dawned when a train unloaded the Compagnie Eric hunter team who came directly from their dormitory in Batujajar, Cimahi. Wearing red headbands and armed to the teeth, they acted like soldiers of the Indonesian National Army (TNI). After deploying all his men, without much ceremony, Lieutenant Ulrici ordered his men to move towards Cibeber.

"In their act, they brought an assistant of a wedana (regent's assistant) and a Lampegan clerk named Idang," said Oedjang Nawawi, a member of Princen's troops.

Unexpectedly, at an intersection near Cisitu, they met a group of Siliwangi Division troops from Yon F. One of the Compagnie Eric members who was a native tried not to panic.

"Merdeka!" he shouted, which means freedom.

"Tetap merdeka! (Freedom for all!) Where are you from?" asked the TNI commander.

"We are assigned to pick up someone," he said, offering his right hand for a handshake.

Their hands hadn't yet reached each other when suddenly a series of shots came from the direction of the Compagnie Eric, immediately turning everything into chaos. Soldiers from the two hostile armies ran for cover.

According to private Qadim, one of the TNI witnesses to the incident, as soon as a barrage of gunfire wounded a comrade named private Ajum, he spontaneously fired a stun gun at the Compagnie Eric unit.

"We were both shocked and angry and realized they were the enemy. So, there was close combat after hearing the gunfire," he recalled.

Due to unbalanced weaponry, after about 15 minutes of fighting, the Yon F troops decided to retreat. Qadim himself slipped into the bushes carrying Ajum, who was wounded in his right thigh.  

Moving Headquarters

News of the Cisitu clash spread quickly within the Kala Hitam Battalion base. Madhani remembered that a few hours after the clash, a courier from the company headquarters in Batusirap (about 20 km from Cilutung, the headquarters of the Special Forces) came to Princen. "He delivered a letter from Captain Saptadji, warning him to be aware of the movement of a Dutch army unit in the Lampegan area," said Princen's trusted courier.  

Avoiding the capture, in the evening, Princen moved the headquarters to Cibogo, a small valley flanked by Mount Kancana Tea Plantation and Cadas Gantung hill. After settling some of his troops and Odah, his wife who was eight months pregnant, Princen brought some of his men back to Cilutung Girang. There, they fired signal bullets to the south and occasionally fired live rounds into the air.

"The sound of Princen's gunfire could even be heard in Cihaur Kanoman," recalled Endi, a youth leader at the time. Cihaur Kanoman is a village that neighbors Cilutung Girang.

The shots didn't provoke Ulrici's troops. Finally, after several hours of waiting and not finding his hunters moving, Princen ordered his men to return to headquarters in Cibogo.

Once there, for security reasons, Princen ordered the guards to dig defensive pits and place snipers in them. He entered the hut and was greeted by a smile from his wife, who was preparing dinner for him: fried chicken, white rice, and sambal. While eating, he listened to Odah talk in Sundanese about many things.

The night was getting colder. The sounds of night animals echoed like an orchestra. The chatter continued as Princen finished his meal. Towards dawn, they gave up and indulged their drowsiness on a tattered mat. They slept until a series of gunshots broke out in the morning.

Astana 12

While scattering bullets from his jungle carbine, Ulrici ordered his troops to form a semicircle around the small hut surrounded by a moat. From the top of Cadas Gantung, some of his men threw a few grenades at the TNI snipers defending the holes. Smoke billowed; flames raged. Five Siliwangi soldiers lay bleeding.

"What happened then was that we finished off Princen's troops who ran around in confusion. Then the Ambon children acted brutally with their klewangs," said Ulrici.

Followed by some of his men, Ulrici ran to the hut. After breaking down the door, he rushed inside. However, a shot unexpectedly wounded his right hand. While enduring the pain, the corner of his eye caught a glimpse of someone moving. Without doubt, Ulrici shot the person.

In a careful motion, Ulrici approached the dead body on the ground. His heart sank when he realized that his shot had hit the head of a young woman who was holding a tommy gun. Besides the young woman, who was none other than Odah, he only found a diary belonging to Princen. Realizing that his operation had failed and that the time for a ceasefire had come, he ordered his troops to burn the hut and retreat with the two dead soldiers. The small hut and the area were quiet again.

Meanwhile, on the hill opposite the hut, some of Princen's men tried to restrain their commander who was desperate to approach the hut. Oedjang Nawawi witnessed how devastated the commander was, who felt guilty for leaving his wife, Odah alone. "He kept crying and looked sorrowful while hugging his wife's charred body," said the retired TNI sergeant major.

As a result of the attack, 12 members of the Special Forces died, including Odah. Several weapons and equipment were lost. The troop morale plummeted. "We cried. We knew we had lost them. For me, it felt like something cracked inside at that moment. Like something was broken in my whole life. Suddenly, everything became different... We became quiet but numb," Princen said.

The 12 people who died were buried at the edge of the forest near Cilutung Girang village. Because the situation was still very cautious, all 12 bodies were buried in one pit. Since then, the area has been known as Astana 12; a grave containing 12 people. In 1951, the Siliwangi Division moved the 12 skeletons to the Cianjur Heroes Cemetery. However, the place in Cilutung Girang is still called Astana 12 until now.

What happened to Compagnie Eric? Until now, there isn't any latest data about the continuation of this special unit. From Princen, I only learned that their leader, Lieutenant Henk Ulrici, was later awarded the Militaire Willems Orde medal, a prestigious war star, by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. After leaving the army as a captain, he became involved in business and lived in Mallorca, Spain, until his death on January 29, 2005.

What is certain is that with Princen's life saved, the mission of the special force's unit failed. It was one of the failed silent operations carried out by the Korps Speciale Troepen during their time in the Dutch East Indies.

‍