| Unit Name: | III Military Regional Command/Siliwangi |
| Native Name: | Indonesian: Komando Daerah Militer III/Siliwangi<br>Kodam III/Siliwangi |
| Dates: | 20 May 1946 – present |
| Branch: | Indonesian Army |
| Garrison: | Bandung |
| Command Structure: | Indonesia Regional Military Command |
| Motto: | Indonesian: Esa Hilang, Dua Terbilang "Either vanished or be excels" or "Try earnestly to achieve goals" |
| Mascot: | Tiger |
| March: | Siliwangi March |
| Battles: | Indonesian National Revolution, separatist uprisings in 1950s and 1960s |
| Commander1: | Maj.Gen. Erwin Djatniko (id) |
| Commander1 Label: | Commander |
| Commander2: | Maj.Gen. Aminudin (id) |
| Commander2 Label: | Chief of Staff |
Military Regional Command III/Siliwangi[1] (Indonesian: Komando Daerah Militer III/Siliwangi or Kodam III/Siliwangi) is an Indonesian Army Regional Military Command that covers Banten and West Java province.
The division was formed during the Indonesian National Revolution by what was then known as the People's Security Army (TKR). It was stationed in West Java where much of its membership was recruited, and bore the name of a 15th-century kingdom located in this area and of that kingdom's King Siliwangi. it became a Territorial Division (Soldier & Territorium) on 24 July 1950,[2] and a military regional command, or KODAM, in 1959.
From May 1946 the division was commanded by then-colonel Abdul Haris Nasution and his adjutant was Umar Wirahadikusumah, and slightly later Amirmachmud was the Division Commander's Chief of Staff. Kemal Idris was also among the division's officers. All of these would play a significant role in Indonesia's military and political life during the coming decades.
Under the terms of the cease-fire agreement of January 1948 known as the Renville Agreement, the Siliwangi Division was obliged to evacuate West Java and hand it over to the Dutch, and to move over to Central Java. During this lull in fighting the colonial troops, the division was involved in the bloody crackdown against the People's Democratic Front (FDR) in the Madiun Affair, in the course of which thousands were killed.
In December 1948 the Dutch army launched the surprise attack known as Operation Kraai, swiftly capturing the Indonesian provisional capital at Yogyakarta and most of Indonesian territory. The Siliwangi Division at that time conducted a fighting retreat back to its original position in West Java, where its men had their social milieu and were familiar with the terrain, which was therefore the best suited for this unit to conduct guerrilla warfare in. On arrival in West Java, the division fought both the Dutch and the Militia groups DI/TII.
In 1953 Nasution wrote a book called The Fundamentals of Guerrilla Warfare, based on his own experience of fighting and organising guerrilla warfare, which would become one of the most studied books on guerrilla warfare along with Mao's works on the same subject matter.
Poncke Princen, a former Dutch colonial soldier who went over to the Indonesian rebels, took part in that "Long March" and was appointed a staff officer in the division.
On 23 January 1950, a rebel group called Legion of the Just Ruler (Indonesian: Angkatan Perang Ratu Adil; APRA) led by Captain Raymond Westerling attempted to seize Bandung during the APRA Coup d'état.[3] Lt. Col. Lembong and 93 other Indonesian soldiers and officers were killed. On 24 January 1950, the rebels tried to attack Jakarta, but the rebellion was quashed in a fierce battle in Pacet, near Jakarta. Sultan Hamid II was arrested, but Capt. Westerling managed to escape to Singapore (then still a British colony).[4]
In late 1951 the division was described as being 'a loose umbrella for five infantry brigades (each of which had up to four infantry battalions) strung across the western third of Java.' The post of commander of Tentara & Territorium III, the territorial military command encompassing west Java, was in effect synonymous with control of the division.[5]
Battalion 530 of the Siliwangi Division was involved in the 30 September Movement events in 1965. Following the later overthrow of Sukarno and the installation of the Indonesian "New Order" under Suharto, the Siliwangi Division's then-commander, HR Dharsono, belonged to a faction dubbed by scholars as "New Order Radicals".[6] Together with Kemal Idris and Sarwo Edhie Wibowo of KODAM II/Bukit Barisan (Sumatra), this group wanted political parties to be dismantled and replaced with non-ideological groups which emphasised development and modernisation.
"Factionalism within the army leadership, once a severe problem, no longer disrupted operations in the early 1990s. Traditional divisional identification continued to have some significance, however, especially regarding that developed in the former Siliwangi, Diponegoro, and Brawijaya divisions, which covered western, central, and eastern Java, respectively, during the war of independence and the years immediately thereafter. The detachment of the Jakarta area from the control of the Siliwangi division and the restructuring of the army from a divisional basis to the territorial Kodam system diffused the powers of the divisions and eliminated warlordism."[7]
4 Military Subarea Commands (Korem) and an Independent Military District Command (Kodim) comprise the command, which today covers the two provinces of West Java and Banten.
1. Korem 061/Surya Kencana (SK)
2. Korem 062/Taruma Nagara (TN)
3. Korem 063/Sunan Gunung Jati (SGJ)
4. Korem 064/Maulana Yusuf (MY)
5. Kodim 0618/Bandung City (Standalone/Independent)
The 3rd Regional Training Regiment (Resimen Induk Kodam III/Siliwangi) serves as the training regiment for new recruits to the territorial command. It is organized in the following manner: