Good point. While the Brookes have banned the practice, traditional notions of headhunting are still very strong amongst the locals (a fair number of longhouses across Sarawak and Sabah still keep skulls to this very day), so there is a good chance that most people see the Askari's atrocities as a perversion of cultural and martial norms. "Their ways aren't proper. Ours is how headhunting should be done", will be a phrase spoken quite a lot back home and on the front lines, and I can see many chieftains pressuring Rajah Charles to lift the ban when it comes to fighting the Askaris, both as revenge and to show their warriors how Bornean warfare should be conducted.
Of Rajahs and Hornbills: A timeline of Brooke Sarawak
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Good point. While the Brookes have banned the practice, traditional notions of headhunting are still very strong amongst the locals (a fair number of longhouses across Sarawak and Sabah still keep skulls to this very day), so there is a good chance that most people see the Askari's atrocities as a perversion of cultural and martial norms. "Their ways aren't proper. Ours is how headhunting should be done", will be a phrase spoken quite a lot back home and on the front lines, and I can see many chieftains pressuring Rajah Charles to lift the ban when it comes to fighting the Askaris, both as revenge and to show their warriors how Bornean warfare should be conducted.
October-November 1905: The Askari's atrocities and the end of Italian Sabah
Francesco Batti, Of Sultans and Headhunters: Colonial Italy in Borneo, (Nicollo: 1997)
…If there was anything that finally forced the Italian colonial command at Sandakan of the Askari’s volatility, it was the reports coming from the Sugut River [1]. Ever since its inception, the roundtable of military heads had been fighting amongst themselves over the ethics of employing criminals, pirates, and louts. Now, the grisly news – coupled with new orders from Rome-via-Manila to disband such groups – finally disgusted enough colonels to tip the balance. A majority of commanders overruled the Italian Resident Neopolo and the Askari Sabah were officially disbanded. Unfortunately, this would result in the bloodiest phase of the war, but that was far from Sandakan’s mind when it decided to ask their other neighbour for help.
For the longest time, the Spanish Philippines provided Italian Sabah with cheap contract workers [2]. When the War broke, it became the new home for all the colonists and merchant-barons fleeing the conflict. Now, the high command sent a secret deputation to the Philippine Governor-General, Tomas Capmany Elvira, requesting him of Philippine-made weapons, bullets, and trained men whom can be used in their fight against Sarawak. Unsurprisingly, the Governor-General was hesitant; the Spanish Empire practiced open neutrality as a whole, and even then, the Great War pretty much made the Philippines filthy rich as a place where every belligerent could obtain raw resources and ready-made weapons for their battlefronts. But giving bullets or men to Sabah would stretch their neutrality to an uncomfortable degree, and not wanting to make Great Britain their enemy, Tomas refused.
So, the Sandakan command went for the next best thing: illegal recruitment. Men from Mindanao and local workers in Sabahan estates were enticed to fight (the colony alone had close to 10,000 Philippine labourers), with promises of land and status conferred to them upon victory. Even here though, the results were mixed; enough stories had filtered through of the brutal nature of jungle war, and many didn't want to be a part of it. Still, a fair number of men joined enough to create their own armed company: the Forza di Difesa Sabah, or Sabahan Defense Forces. For the weapons, illicit arms deals were conducted by contacts in Zamboanga with the coal exports of Silimpopon acting as collateral. As the business was done without Philippine approval, there was a heavy requirement of secrecy amongst the commanders; no Filipino was to send any word of their involvement to their families.
Still, the Sarawakian forces advanced, and the end of September saw Rajah Charles crossing the Sapi River and threatening Sandakan itself. Now desperate, the colonial high command seriously considered relocating to Lahad Datu for a final stand. The Regia Marina – which was mostly successful in defending the Sulu Sea from Anglo-Sarawakian naval incursions – would provide cover, while the coal mines of Silimpopon and the Dutch oil fields of Bulungan would provide the administration with fuel and capital. Lahad Datu was also within sight of the Isolo del Diavolo prison complex, where some of Italy’s worst criminals and rabble-rousers are held [3]. With colonial Sabah falling apart, a disastrous prison break was not an option.
But such a notion departure was halted by two new developments: The arrival of the Royal Navy through the Makassar Strait, and the outpouring of violence from across the Kinabatangan basin.
From their holdouts in Sandakan, the high command neglected to think of the dispossessed Askari’s. Being made up criminals, louts, pirates, and former headhunters, the group had acquired a taste for wielding power with modern weapons, and they did not take their disbandment well. Instead, massive raids to weapons stores were conducted across several forts in Italian Borneo, with the group itself migrating south to the Kinabatangan River. With this, the stage for the Bornean front’s bloodiest phase was set…
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Charlie MacDonald, Strange States, Weird Wars, and Bizzare Borders, (weirdworld.postr.com, 2014)
I don’t think I could even begin to start this with a light tone. Despite all the controversies, every academic and internet historian agrees on one thing about the Kinabatangan phase:
It was brutal.
Why? Well, does anyone have a week of spare time? Here’s an idea. To nip the multiple tangents of this topic which will surely drag this instalment down, I think it’s best if we go through the Sabahan war first, chronologically, and deal with whatever matters crop up as we go. Okey?
Still, where do we begin? How about: the murder of the warriors at the Sugut foothills?
True, the massacre of Timbang Batu unveiled the… volatility… of the Askari Sabah* to the general public, but the burning and slaughter at Sugut showed neighbouring Sarawakians a brutality they had rarely ever experienced. A tad odd, considering their history and the previous month’s battles with the Italians and French. But to the Malay reader of the Sarawak Gazette or the Barito salt-seller selling in Miri, they were foreigners, and everyone knows that foreigners are more powerful and morally different from the locals. The Brooke family notwithstanding.
But the Askaris were Borneans, veritable neighbours in the regional scope.
True, they may not speak the same language or share the same cultures, but they are all peoples of the rainforest and rivers, with cues and traditions that are shared across the land since forever. And that commonality, to say nothing of siding with the Italians, made their viciousness all the more shocking. Bornean tribal wars are never known for their bloodlessness, but there was always (generally) honoured codes that spared women, children, and the like from true harm. Only warriors and chieftains die and have their heads carved off. [4]
Small wonder then that after Sugut, many Sarawakian chieftains pressured Rajah Charles to lift the kingdom’s headhunting ban, both as revenge and to show their men “how real headhunting is done!”, because nothing says Moral Corrections of Decapitation when another group perverts said moral. We know that Clarke and Clayton Brooke refused to permit it, but the torn-off pages of Rajah Charles’ war journal leaves some doubt as to his answers, and there are still longhouses across Sarawak and Sabah whom swear that their skulls hail from the battles of the Great War…
"Don't worry! They were already dead when we took them! And we did it cleanly!"
In any case, the Askaris – warrior-warlords now, really – retreated southwards (though not without causing a few more massacres), and the initial disgust from every neighbouring longhouse allowed Sarawak to advance with surprisingly little fighting. After another round of whirlwind diplomacy, the Brooke forces crossed the Sapi River at October 1st and quickly battled against the catholicised villages of the opposite bank. For a moment, their progress seemed assured.
But then came the whispers of atrocities along the Kinabatangan. Then came the refugees.
Along the way, there was more bad news: the Italians have somehow gotten the Filipinos involved, and the Askaris have rooted themselves along the abandoned plantations of the Kinabatangan River. And the pro-Italian notables and chieftains there (there were a few, mostly Christianised) are fighting each other. And some of the traditional chieftains are also fighting each other. In fact, everyone down there was fighting each other. Did I mention the Askaris have rooted themselves along the Kinabatangan?
And the result? An absolute bloodbath. Night-time ambushes. Blowpipe assassinations. Machine-gun ambushes that ended in torn limbs and hole-ridden torsos. Artillery bombardments that sent rainforests ablaze and shrapnel through longhouse walls. Burned forests, orchards, plantations, and rice fields. Villages fighting whomever looked foreign or different. Men and warriors running away to find their own purpose.
Compounding the issue was the hardware. Rifles and Maxim guns are a lot more damaging than daggers or spears. Heck, modern artillery alone can affect more damage than plain old cannons. Then there was the software: the Askaris and local Dusun peoples know jungle tactics, and it takes forest peoples to understand forest peoples. But worst of all, it was the hunger. From Marudu Bay, rice imports from Sarawak provided the Brooke armies with a lifeline. But in the warring Kinabatangan, food quickly became a problem for everyone else, especially the Askaris. So with that, it wasn't long before villages and orchards were doorstepped by rifle-armed warrior-warlords. Should the village accept their plea for rice and men, they will be spared. To those whom don’t…
Well… you’re lucky if they just kill you.
The worst cases were the skull racks. And the headless corpses.
Even back then, fear was known as most effective weapon in war, and the Askaris took this to the very end. Taking neither side but their own, they would capture Sarawakian warriors and Italian men, recalcitrant warriors and Philippine scouts, and torture them for any information. After that, their heads will be kept on the racks, while the mangled bodies were left behind as a grisly souvenir and warning to all. A troop company may wake up one morning to see a few men missing, only to stumble on a mound of naked, headless corpses down the forest path. For a longhouse, being plundered and set alight was considered a mercy.
As psychological warfare went, it was horrifying.
A line of severed heads hung from a rack, found in an Askari camp in the upper Kinabatangan. As you can see, some of them are still fresh and rotting.
All in all, an estimated 9,000 people – Italians, Sarawakians, Filipinos, Sabahan Dayaks and Dusuns,– died at the direct hands of the Askaris. Indirectly, no one knows.
But the atrocities did produce one effect: It swayed many Sabahan tribes to the Brooke side, and I don’t think it’d take a space scientist to see why. There were a few chieftains whom didn't want to get involved in any way, though, and in fact, one local legend has it that Charles and Clarke had to hunt for wild boars and present the meat to frightened villagers as a peace offering [5]. With this, and their emissaries and spies providing intelligence reports, and with previous Dusun villages providing their own warriors as support, the Sarawak forces began their push southwards. They split up: Charles Brooke and his elder son Clarke would handle the mess along the Kinabatangan, while the younger Clayton Brooke would try marching to Sandakan.
As campaigns go, I want to say that the resulting front in southern Sabah can be compared to a cup of Turkish coffee: brief, but bitter. But I’d be lying. I won’t bog down this already overlong instalment with all the minutiae of battles and dates, and I won’t go into the Rajah’s reactions once he saw the mounds of corpses and the skull racks full of severed heads, or the discourse of the atrocities in the Sarawakian nation (that topic’s for later). But all in all, it took a full month to pacify the place. The local support of the Brookes and the horse-drawn artillery they carried (courtesy of the Sarawakian Sama-Bajau people) made for some indispensable progress. It also helped that the Askaris themselves were losing more men than they could be replaced. Only ‘round 4000 to 5500 fighters, remember?
By early November, most of the river basin was pacified. Around the same time, the Royal Navy finally broke through to the Celebes Sea after circumnavigating Borneo and swatting every last Regia Marina ambush off the Makassar Straits. With this, the Italian garrisons at Tawao, Semporna and Lahad Datu quickly fell, and the father-son army hatched a daring plan with the naval commanders once they all met: a general strike on Sandakan, from both land and sea…
Extra:
*I really don’t understand why westerners Italicize (huh, how serendipitous) this word. Yes, it’s Italian, but it’s such a hassle to check all the slanted words, so this is the only time I’m making it all slanty.
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On the hills around Sandakan, Italian Sabah, 13 November 1905
“Agi idup! Agi Ngelaban!”
The cry was met with a roar of rifle and artillery fire. The air around the ridge billowed with smoke as voices shouted out orders in different languages, only to be silenced by the weapons of war. An hour of fighting passed in a blur, but in the end, Clayton Brooke finally found himself resting on the top of the coastal ridge.
Now, he could truly see the sheer expanse of the battlefront. Behind him, he knew, lay the arduous dirt path that his forces had trekked. Over the past month, the Italian command had thrown practically everything they had on him and his forces, dotting the hills of Sepilok with forts that were commanded by foreign Philippine companies and the few locally-allied village warriors. It was a slow and arduous progress, not helped by the absence of his father and elder brother whom headed south to deal with the mess there. But at last, the ultimate prize of the Bornean war, and its end, lay within his sight. Sandakan.
It was odd, Clayton mused, looking at the capital before him, how such a city could affect so much to Borneo and beyond. Stately and ordered, Sandakan was bathed in the evening light, with its government quarters and church spires glowing yellow and orange amongst the surrounding forest green. Villas once owned by rubber barons and timber magnates peeked out of the surrounding hills, and the few fishing vessels by the docks bobbed incessantly on the dark blue of the bay.
And speaking of the bay, Clayton lifted his sights to the other battle unfolding before him. With shots and blasts, the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina were having their last battle at the centre of the bay, but the Brooke prince could see the nimble Prahus and river gunboats boasting the Sarawak flag closing in on the city, with the main flagship in full view. From what he’d heard, his father and elder brother would land at the outskirts and take care of the garrisons there first. Then, the whole family would have a reunion at the Government House with the British, finally concluding the war for Sabah and Borneo.
Finally. Clayton already had a laundry list of things to say about the colonial high command and their actions. But before he could continue, a new sight flitted into his view.
By the docks, a strange shape seemed to be moving underwater, its presence causing the waters above to swirl around its dark body [6]. Like a silent whale, it moved out towards the sea. Towards… the Sarawak flagship.
Clayton wanted to scream. He wanted to cry out and warn his family about the danger. But time seemed to set still as he saw another dark shape separating from the main body of the craft, hurtling underwater towards the landing fleet. He saw the Prahus and gunboats rain down fire upon the subsurface vehicle, but their actions were then blinded by a huge explosion that seemed to rock the entire world.
The battle of Sandakan was at an end, and Clayton Brooke saw his father and brother die before his eyes.
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Notes:
1. See the previous narrative instalment.
2. See post #929.
3. See post #929.
4. However, it should be noted that rules regarding tribal warfare aren't uniform throughout the island, or even in Sarawak. For instance, the Brooke family may be appalled by senseless destruction, but they saw no problem in plundering and cannonballing longhouses.
Headhunting was also a fluid notion, with the Apo Kayan of north-central Borneo being notorious for being indiscriminate towards their enemies, decapitating men and women regardless during tribal wars. But in most subgroups, and as a general guideline, only warring chieftains and warriors have their heads cut off.
5. Such peace ceremonies are known in Brooke-era Sarawak as Bebanchak Babi, where peace deals are hashed out which were then followed by a feast of boar meat.
6. And there goes my hint in the last narrative update.
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How to do headhunting right 101: Chieftains and warriors are the main source for collecting heads, because the best heads to earn come from worthy opponents. Women are somewhat okay, depending between the peoples. Children are a huge no-no, we have a line drawn on that, okay?
Sadly, the Askari Sabah being what they are, I doubt the men were taught that, even if there are a few that are honourable. So they get to learn the hard way of having almost everyone becoming their enemy and coming down on them, hellbent to destroy them.
It's heartbreaking for the sole surviving Brooke prince to see, but compared to OTL, Charles and Clarke went out with a (literal) bang in the war. I can already picture the statues and memorials just popping up anywhere and everywhere in Sarawak and Sabah.
And now I imagine that despite the how morale shattering the scene is with the torpedo boat, the Italians are still getting screwed. Possibly, they're now even more screwed.
Sadly, the Askari Sabah being what they are, I doubt the men were taught that, even if there are a few that are honourable. So they get to learn the hard way of having almost everyone becoming their enemy and coming down on them, hellbent to destroy them.
It's heartbreaking for the sole surviving Brooke prince to see, but compared to OTL, Charles and Clarke went out with a (literal) bang in the war. I can already picture the statues and memorials just popping up anywhere and everywhere in Sarawak and Sabah.
And now I imagine that despite the how morale shattering the scene is with the torpedo boat, the Italians are still getting screwed. Possibly, they're now even more screwed.
Oh yes. Sarawak and the new Rajah will not forgive or forget this eleventh hour 'treacherous attack'.
So ends the Reign of Charles Brooke, the end of an era.
I could see Rajah Clayton demanding all of Sabah for Sarawak by both right of conquest and as recompense for the deaths in the royal family. If Britain denies him that we could see frostier relation with the British Empire after the war. After all they already denied Sarawak the chance to finish off Brunei.
I wonder if the Dutch will join the war now?
I wonder if the Dutch will join the war now?
Well I imagine the Black Marketeers and anyone that can profit off of Neutral Wartime Port status are making money hand over fist.
I wonder if the Sarawakian troops will go wild and sack Sandakan. They already loathed the Italian colonial regime before the war, and the invasion and the Askari atrocities stoked it up. Now their Rajah has been slain and one of his sons. Would Clayton even be inclined to reign his forces in after this personal loss?
On a diplomatic point of view, it would be better for Clayton to reign his forces in, despite the personal loss that he had been through. As much as revenge is tempting and on the table, he's the Rajah now, and in the long term people in Sarawak and Sabah would look up more to the Rajah for peace and stability than some colonial government where the only time you ever get to see who the Head of State is is on a painting/picture. I think the elder chieftains with some wisdom and experience would convince the now Rajah Clayton with that option and do their best to assist him in keeping the warriors and soldiers in check. After all, they want to be seen as liberators of those in Italian Sabah, not as a continuation of the Italian colonial government.
Although revenge can still be on the table, for it would be no doubt that once the Italians are flushed out of Sabah, their presence in the Kingdom of Sarawak and Sabah would be persona non grata.
Sure the best move is to be civil in victory, I am just wondering if such sense will prevail with the battle freshly won and grief still raw after the most bloody war the Sarawakians have ever waged.
As for gains, Britain will have a big say in that, and they may decide to give Sarawak less in their game on a global scale. For instance they might give a chunk of territory to the Dutch in order to bring them into the war on Britain's side; or not want to take an Italian restoration to some of Italian Sabah off the table just yet to keep as a card when dealing elsewhere.
Of course any talk of Italian rule restored to any part of Borneo will make heads burst into flame in Kuching at this point.
Oh god please tell us they'll retrieve the bodies, imagine the tragedy that would be a Kingdom being unable to put their Raj and Prince to rest. On a side note, I hope the New Raj stops the family tradition of burying themselves in St Leonard's Church. I know it's a family tradition, but they should really bury themselves close to their people.
Poor Clayton. This will either break him or temper, mayhaps both. While it should have happened differently, the most immediate priority after the war and mourning/burying the dead will have to be finding a young suitable spouse that can quickly give him sons lest the direct royal bloodline cease to exist. Personally, I would prefer that Clayton think of the future of his Kingdom in the region and marry a Japanese or Thailand princess, though this might be straddling the TL.
I agree it would be best diplomatically and in the best interests of the future to show self restrain. But I do wonder with the differing notions of honor what the majority of the Malays and Dayaks would think would be appropriate in this situation.
Also great chapter, a part of me thought this might happen, war always has consequences after all.
It would be amusing for the Brits to mull over it like this: "Hmmmm should I give favour to the Sarawakian kingdom who did all the legwork on ground and hate the Italians to their guts? Or should I favour the Dutch to give them more land to get them onto our side? Or should I maybe throw a bone to those poor Italians after what they've been through?"
Then again, I don't think that it's a wise move to piss off Sarawak who did a lot of the legwork for them just in order to appease the enemy that they defeated and have been responsible for killing their Rajah and crown prince in one blow.
Heirs might be a bit of problem:
Doesn't he have a sister back in Kuching? Charles line could continue through her.
I suppose, but if she married and left Kuching I imagine her children wouldn't have the same connection to Sarawak and might be inclined to be more under the umbrella of Britain. Maybe if she had a son and he were adopted by Clark such as Charles was OTL.
I don't see why they would be. Not unless he became a Eunuch without anyone knowing.
Well its implied he is homosexual, and that was why he and his brother had such a falling out before the war. So that might be a bit of a hitch, or he may be bisexual actually and it won't be an issue siring heirs. We will have to see.
Really? I had no idea. I thought it was never explained why they had a falling out. Maybe I skimmed over something.