Post 01/05/2026

Mortars have repeatedly been found in Batujajar, West Bandung. The rounds fired from these small artillery pieces are believed to be remnants from the Indonesian War of Independence.

Over the past year alone, mortars have been discovered in Batujajar on around three occasions. The most recent incident occurred on Wednesday, 17 December 2025, on a plot of land in Sukamaju, RT 05/12, West Batujajar. The landowner was digging the ground to plant banana trees when he suddenly came across an unfamiliar object shaped like an elongated iron sphere. At first, he thought it was merely scrap metal. However, nearby residents realized that the object resembled ammunition. The find was then reported to the neighborhood head (RT), followed by the community police officer (Bhabinkamtibmas) of West Batujajar, and eventually to the duty unit of the Batujajar Police Station. An inspection confirmed that the object was a mortar round made of corroded metal. The mortar was subsequently destroyed by the Explosives Disposal Unit (Jihandak) of the Gegana Detachment, West Java Regional Police Mobile Brigade.

The Batujajar Police Chief stated that almost all mortar discoveries have occurred in the Sukamaju area.

In the past, exchanges of mortar fire between Dutch forces and Indonesian independence fighters did indeed take place. This was because the positions of the Dutch troops and the fighters were separated only by the Citarum River. At that time, the Dutch were stationed in Batujajar, while the fighters were based across the river in Cililin.

According to the testimony of Soegih Arto, a former commander of Battalion 22 of the Siliwangi Division based in Cililin, Dutch forces stationed in Batujajar were reluctant to cross the Citarum to attack the independence fighters in Cililin. Instead, they would occasionally fire mortars toward Cililin.

R. J. Rusady W, a soldier of Battalion 33, Sukapura Regiment, once fired mortars when his company was assigned along the Citarum River in the Cililin–Patrol–Cihampelas–Cipatik area while facing Dutch red-beret troops in Batujajar. “Once, in a battle, to achieve maximum firepower, I fired a babymortar[1] horizontally from my thigh. As a result, my thigh swelled for a month,” Rusady wrote in his book Tiada Berita Dari Bandung Timur 1945–1947.

Dutch records describe Batujajar as the site of annual mountain artillery firing exercises. The emergence of military training facilities and related infrastructure in Batujajar is thought to be linked to the gradual concentration of Dutch East Indies military institutions in Bandung between 1895 and 1918.

[1] : A babymortar is a very small, lightweight infantry mortar used at short range, typically operated by one or two soldiers and fired from a simple tube or improvised support rather than a full mortar baseplate. In the Indonesian context of the War of Independence, the term usually referred to low-caliber mortars, often around 50 mm or smaller, that could be carried by hand and quickly deployed in jungle or riverine fighting. Unlike standard mortars, which are fired vertically from a baseplate on the ground, a babymortar could be fired at a lower angle or even roughly horizontal in emergency situations, although this was unsafe and inaccurate. Because of its light construction and minimal recoil control, firing it improperly could easily injure the operator. The term itself was informal rather than an official military designation, used by fighters to distinguish these small mortars from heavier, conventional ones.