GENERAL SUDIRMAN

General Sudirman (January 24, 1916 - January 29, 1950; also spelled Soedirman) was the first military commander of Indonesian forces during the country's fight for independence from the Dutch in the 1940s.

Life

Sudirman was born in Bodas Karangjati village, Rembang, Purbalingga, Central Java, 24 January 1916. He studied at the Dutch Native School in Purwokerto, and then at a Muhammadiyah teacher training college in Surakarta. He worked as a teacher at the Muhammadiyah school in Cilacap.
During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia during World War II, Sudirman trained to become a battalion commander in Peta, the "homeland defense" army promoted by the Japanese.^[1] When Japan surrendered and Sukarno proclaimed Indonesian independence, he organized his Peta battalion into a Banyumas-based regiment of the Republican army to resist Dutch reoccupation of its former colony. The first major battle that he led was the Battle of Ambarawa against the British and the Dutch (November–December 1945).^[2] On 12 December he led a "coordinated attack" against British positions in Ambarawa, driving the British all the way to Semarang. The battle ended on 16 December.^[3]
On 12 November 1945 he was elected Commander-in-chief of the Army, a position he held until his death. During much of the next five years he was sick with tuberculosis, but led several guerrilla actions against the Dutch. He led the resistance to the Dutch attack on Yogyakarta, then the Republic of Indonesia's headquarters, in December 1948. Theodore Friend (2003) describes him as having "...a strangely blended samurai discipline, Marxist disposition, and raw courage."^[1]
Sudirman died in Magelang, 29 January 1950, at the age of 35 due to tuberculosis. He was buried in Heroes' Cemetery in Semaki, Yogyakarta. He received the title of National Hero of Indonesia as an Independence Defender Hero. Sudirman was the first and the youngest