The History of Bandung Sea of Fire (Bandung

Lautan Api)
This incident was motivated by the condition of Indonesia's
security and defense after Indonesia's independence which was
still not completely stable. Bandung sea of fire began with the
arrival of allied troops under the MacDonald Brigade on
October 12, 1945.

When relations between the local Indonesian government had

heated up, the allies came and asked for all firearms owned by
the population, except for the People's Security Army (TKR)
and the police. And the situation gets worse when Dutch people
who had just been released from detention camps began to carry
out actions that disrupted security.

On the night of November 24, 1945, TKR and other fighting

agencies launched an attack on Allied headquarters in northern
Bandung. And three days after that, MacDonald gave an
ultimatum to the West Java governor to quickly clear all north
Bandung areas including all the weaponized troops no later until
November 29, 1945, at midnight. But Indonesian didn’t give up,
they respond to it with built a guerilla post in many places.
Later in December 1945, a few wars happened at many places
around Bandung City. Allies tried to take over the train station
and failed. They also tried to free the internal Dutch but also
failed. Until entered 1946, the war got heated up.

On March 23, 1946, allies released the second ultimatum to

prime minister Syahrir. The ultimatum said that all Indonesian
and Indonesian troops had to leave south Bandung at least 10
km from the city center. For the safety reason of Indonesian and
Indonesian troops, Syahrir insist Jendral Nasution fulfilled the
ultimatum. Syahrir also thinks that Indonesian troops aren’t
capable to faced the allies. In the end, they decided to make a
better decision than just left Bandung. They decided to leave
Bandung by burning Bandung before the city was abandoned.

So later on March 24, 1946, at 9.00 PM Bandung began to be

scorched by blowing up the Bank Building. Then another area
such as Banceuy, Cicadas, Braga, and Tegalega.

With a heavy heart and for the sake of freedom, all Indonesian
and Indonesian troops finally left Bandung. Since that night
incident, March 24 1946 is get to know as the Bandung sea of
fire.