CHAPTER CXXXI. THE CONQUEST OF CAMEROON

AND TOG()LAND. ,.

EIGHTEEN MONTHS OF 'WEST AFRICAN vV ARFARE-THE GERMANS IN TOGOLAND-GERMAN PRO­ POSALS FOR" NEUTRAJ_ITY" IN AFRICA-FRANCO-BRITISH CO-OPERATION-SURRENDER OF TOGO ­ LAND~HISTORY OF CAMEROON-GERMAN AMBITIONS IN THE CONGO-MORE "NEUTRALITY" INTRIGUES-CAMEROON OPERATIONS ANALYSED-PLAN OF CAMPAIGN-SURRENDER OF DUALA­ GENERAL DOBELL'S FIRST OPERATIONS-THE CAMPAIGN OF 1915-THE FRENCH OPERATIONS­ JOINT ADVANCE-FALL OF YAUNDE- SURRENDER OF MORA IN FEBRUARY, 1916-REVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN

ERMANY lost Togoland, the smallest by a British column to seize Garua failed with of her African possessions, in the first heavy loss. But on September 21 Gen. G month of the war. French troops Largeau, at the second attempt, captured entered Togoland from Dahomey on KU8seri, the German post near Lake Chad, August. 6; on August 7 Lome, the capital, and thereafter sending a cohunn under Lieut. -Col. a strip of territory extending seventy-five miles Brisset to cooperate with the British forces in north from the coast was surrendered to a Nigeria, the combined columns being placed British officer sent from the Gold Coast. The under Brigadier-General Cunliffe, who took Germans made an effort to defend Kamina, command in February, 1915. It was not till farther inland, where they had a powerful wire­ Jlme, 1915, that, by the capture of Garua and less telegraphy station. On August 22 they N gaundere, the northern columns achieved were engaged at the Chra river, south of their first important successes. Kamina; by an Anglo-French force under Meanwhile the French columns advancing Lieut.-Col. Bryant. On the night of August 24 from the south and south-east, under Gen. the Germans destroyed their wireless station at Aymerich-who had the help of a detachment Kamina, and on August 26 Major von Doring, from the Belgian Congo-failed to make the the Acting Governor, lIDconditionally surren­ J?rogress expected. Gen. Dobell occupied dered to Col. Bryant. Northern Togoland was Duala, the chief port of the colony, on Sep­ 9.t the same tin'le occupied, w'ith scarcely any tember 27 , and in November took Buea, on the opposition, by French and British troops. slopes of the Cameroon mountain and the The campaign in Cameroon lasted eighteen administrative capital of the colony. The months. It was attacked on the north-east, governor, Herr Ebermaier, and the commander east and south-east by French troops from the of the troops, Col. Zimmermann, with the bulk Chad Territory and the Congo region; on the of the forces had, however, withdrawn, after the west by British troops from Nigeria, and from surrender of Duala, to Yalmde, in the centre of the sea by an Anglo-French force llnder Gen. the southern part of the colony. A French Sir Charles Dobell. The first attacks, made in officer, Col. Mayer, took command of the August, 1914, f.rom the Chad T erritory and forces sent by Gen. Dobell towards Yaunde, Nigeria, had not been successful. An attempt and on October 26, 1914, Edea, 32 miles in. a Vol. VIII.--Part 99. 273 274 THE TIMES H.lS'TORY OF THE TV AR.

A SQUAD OF THE ROYAL MARINE LIGHT INFANTRY.

direct line east of Duala, was occupied. In numbered over 800, and included the Governor January, 1915, the Germans made the only and the commander of the troops. considerable offensive movement undertaken The last place to fly the German flag in by them during the campaign; they tried, Calueroon was Mora. I ts garrison, under unsuccessfully, to dislodge Col. Mayer from Hauptmann von Raben, occupied a practically Ede~. In March a combined movement impregnable position on an isolated mountain. on Yalmde by the troops of Generals Aymerich All attempts to capture it failed, but on and Dobell was planned, but did not succeed. February 18, 1916, Hauptmann von Raben, Gen. Aymerich's troops failed to make pro­ seeing the hopelessness of his position, capitu­ gress, and Col. Mayer, after advancing some lated. Independent operations undertaken by distance, was compelled to fall back on Edea the French had earlier in the war cleared the (June, 1915). Germans out of that part of their colony lying A new combined movement was begun south of Spanish Guinea. The conquest of towards the close of September, in which the Cameroon was complete. forces of Generals Dobell, Cunliffe, and Ay­ merich all took part. The Germans at first Togoland and Cameroon were acquired by resisted firmly, but by the close of December Germany in 1884., being among the first fruits their opposition had been' overcome. Yaunde of the partition of Africa among European was occupied by one of Gen. Dobell's Powers-a partition which resulted from H. M. columns on J anuary 1, 1916. A few days Stanley's discovery of the course of the Congo previou:sly' that place had been abandoned by and his revelation of the abLmdant richness of the Germans, who, despite the efforts made to the interior of the equatorial r egions of the cut. them off, succeeded in escaping into continent. Togoland, part of thE> old Slave Spanish Guinea, where they wore interned, Coast of West Africa, has only 32 miles of sea­ being subsequently removed to Spain. Those board, and though its hinterland widens its Germans who found refuge on neutral territory total area is less than 34,000 square miles; THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 275 it is a trifle larger than Ireland. When the Germans entered into the scramble for Africa, Togo was the sole p atch of coast in Upper G uinea not appropriated by other European States, and it was h emmed in, save seawards by French and British t erritory- Dahomey c!:! the east, the Gold Coast on the west, and the U pper Senegal and Niger colony on the north. Differing in no essential respect in physical features from the adjacent districts of the W est Coast, Togoland is rich in sylvan pro­ ducts, and its r esources had been greatly developed by the German s. Lome, the capital and chief port, a creation of the Germans, lies n ear the Gold Coast border. In the interior, and connected with Lome by railway, is Kamina, where just b efore the war b egan the Germans had, as has b een seen, complet ed a very powerful wireless t elegraphy station. It communicated direct with N alIen, n ear COL. E. H. GORGES, C.B., D.S.O. B erlin, and with the wireless stations in been erected with such se.erecy that the Cameroon and German South-·West Africa. French author.ities were not aware of its Though only 38 miles from the Dahomey ex:istence. Baron C odelli, the designer of the border, the wirf~ l es s station at Kamina had station, was still in Togoland, and on August 16 was taken prisoner hy the British. When the European situation became threatening in July, 1914, Major von Doring, Acting Governor and commander of the troops in Togoland, made preparations to attack the French in Dahomey, on the assumption that Great Britain wm.lid not enter into the war. When he found out his error he abandoned his design. Acting on instructions from Berlin, in telegrams dated August 4 and 5, addressed to M. William Ponty, Governor-General -of French West Africa, to tbe Lieut.-Governor of Dahomey and to the Governor of the Gold Coast, he proposed that Togoland and the neighbouring French and British colonies should remain neutral. The GBrman Govyrn­ m ent shortly afterwards came to have wider conceptions of neutrality in Equatorial Africa, conceptions to whieh reference is made later on, but the Togo proposal was a distinct move, and though reasons of humanity and the supposed need of the white races to present a solid front to the blacks were urged by Major von Doring, the real object of the Germans in wishing to keep Togoland neutral was to preserve for their use the Karnina wireless station. Both the French and the British authorities refused to entertain the proposal. The Lieut.-Governor of Dahomey, . M. Ch. [Speaigilt. .... MAJOR-GENERAL SIR CHAS. DOBELL. Nouffiard, who did not even answer Major Commanded Allied Forces in Cameroon. von Doring's t.elegram, d.irected Comma,ndant 27G THE TINIES HISTORY OF THE WAR.

Maroix, the senior n~ilitary officer in Dahomey, structions to surrender the colony as far to open hostilities. On August 6, French as a line drawn 120 kilometres (74.57 miles) colonial troops crossed the Togoland border north of Lome. Major von Daring, the German near the coast. They met with no opposition; troops, and many German civilians had r etired Little Popo (Anecho) was seized, and on the up the r ailway, the Acting Governor having evening of August 8 the town of Togo was received iluperative instructions to defend the occupied. wireless station at Kamina. * On their side the Gold Coast authorities Up to this tim.e the French and British had not been idle. Mr. W. C. F. Robertson, authorities had worked indep endently, but Acting Governor, in the absence of Sir Hugh on August 8 arrangem ents were made b etween Clifford, and Capt. F. C. Bryant, R.A., senior Mr. Robertson and M. N ouffiard for their co­ officer on the Gold Coast station, took prompt operation. Capt. Bryant, who was granted the and energetic measures. European volunteers temporary rank of Lieut.-Col., was in chief com­ at Accra, . Sekondi and Kumasi were enrolled mand of the Allied forces. Capt. Castaing, of and every necessary step was taken, both for the French Colonial Infantry, commanded the defence and offence. On August 6 Capt. French column (eight Europeans and 150 Barker was sent to Lome under a flag of truce Senegalese Tirailleurs), which, having com­ to demand the surrender of Togoland, and pleted the occupation of south-east Togoland, was told to point out to Major von Daring joined Col. Bryant's troops on August 18. that, as strong columns were ready to invade Col. Bryant had landed at Lome on August 12 the colony from west, east and north, his with two companies of the Gold Coast Regi­ position was hopeless. A twenty-four hours' ment, machine guns, medieal tramlport, and armistice was granted. When Capt. Barker sllpply staffs. The total strength of the British returned to Lome at 6 p.m. on August 7 he fo~d that the German troops had evacuated * In the diary of a Protestant pastor, J. Spieth, who took part in the defence of Kamina, is the entry, under the to~n and that the District Commissioner date August 18, that Major von Daring had received the left behind by Major" von ' Daring .had in- message, four times repeated, to defend Kamina,.

BRITISH MACHINE-GUN SECTION. Ready to advance. THE 'TL1V1E8 H1S'l'OHY OF THE WAR. Q77

BRITISH MACHIN E-GUN SECTION. Smaller picture: B~itish Field Gun.

force was 57 Europeans and 535 natives, with 2,000 carriers and labourers. Pushing up the railway towards Kamina, the main body came into contact with the en emy on August 15, On the same day Capt. Potter, with the "I" company of the Gold Coast Regi.ment, very neatly trapped a much stronger column of the enemy, operating on the railway at Agbelafoe, by getting b etween it and von Daring's force. By August 20 Col. Bryant's colmnn had marched to Nuatja, and on the 22nd there wa a stiff left, bLlt after gettmg to within tifty yards of fight at the village of Chra. The en emy, the trenches was obliged to r etire. Here Lieut. whose force consisted of 60 Europeans, 400 Cuillemart, of the Fre~ch Colonial Infantry, and native soldiers, and three machine glIDS, held Lieut. G. M. Thompson (Royal Scots, attached a very strong entrenched position north of G.C. R egiment) were killed. Lieut. Thompson the river, the railway bridge over which had had b een placed in command of a company of heen blown up. The bush here was very Senegalese Tirailleurs; after the fight he was dense, and the attacking columns were unable found surround'ed by the bodies of a Gold to keep touch with one another. After attacking Coast native N.C.O. and the sergeant, two all day the Allies failed to dislodge the enen1.Y. corporals, and nine privates of the Senega­ At nightfall they entrenched themselves, pre­ lese, who had died in his ' defence. They pared to renew the attack at dawn, but during were buried on the spot, Thompson's grave the night the Germans evacuated their position. in the centre. Maj or von Daring had learned that another On the night of August 24- 25 loud explosions force, a French colmnn lmder Comm~ndant ",,,ere h eard at Col. Bryant's camp in the direction J\l(aroix, advancing from the east, was within of Kamina, and in the morning the masts of two days' march of Kamina, and he was the wireless station, which had been clearly unwilling to risk depletion of the garrison visible from the Allies' advanced post, were seen available for its defence. to have disappeared. The wireless station had, .At the Chra :6ver fight the Germ,am; suffered i.n fact, been destroyed by the enemy. There I ittle loss, but the Anglo-French casualties were had been a good deal of dissension among the 73 (including 23 killed), or 17 per cent. of the 200 Germans, military and civilian, gathered f Jrce engaged. The hottest fighting fell to the at Kamina, and Maj or von Daring, tho\lgh French column, which attacked the en emy's amply supplied with arms and ammunition, 99-2

THE TllYlE8 HISTORY OF THE vVAR. 279 abandoned his intention of resisting to the last. whole cost, £60,000, incurred in the British On August 25 h e sent Major von H.aben, his military operations, and a lso the cost of subse­ second in cOInmand, to Col. Bryant, offering quent administration-£3,000 a month. to surrender on terms, but von H.aben was told A grave charge fully proved, that of u sing that the smTender must b e unconditional. To explosive bullet s, was brought against Major this von Daring agreed on the 26th, and on the von Daring and Dr. Gruner (Commissioner of next day Col. Bryant took possession of the Misahahe district). Some 200,000 r om1ds K arnina. H e had brought to a r apid conclusion of soft-nosed bullets of large calibre issu ed by a little campaign which, mishandled , might the German Government were captured. Maj or easily have b een prolonged, and its su ccess was von Daring also armed natives over whom h e very largely due to his initiative and prompti­ h ad no control and hundreds of them were let tude. For his services h e was promoted to the substantive rank of Major, and received the C.M.G. Credit was also due to the excell ent work of Dr. W. "\tV. Claridge, best Imo''''TI, p er­ haps, as a uthor of a history of the Gold Coast , and the other members of the W est African Medical Staff connect ed with the expedition. "While Col. Bryant's campaign was in pro gr ess British and Fren ch columns occupied Northern T ogoland. The r apidity of the movements of the Allies completely surprised the Germans, who offered but a feeble r esistance. Acting on instructions from Capt. C. H . Armi­ t age, Chief Commission er of the Northern T erri­ tories, Major Marlow with a force of eight m en only occupied Yendi, the German Commissioner b eing misled by spies into thinking that a large force was b eing brought against him. The r est of Northern Togo,land was seized by Fren ch forces numbering 630 rifles all told, under Capt. Bouchez, of . the 2nd H. egiment Sen egalese Tiraille urs. Traversing an inun­ d ated region, crossed by numerous unfordable rivers and under continuous rain, the F rench columns covered 310 miles in twenty d ays. The German troops at Sansanne Mango, over 400 strong, fl ed b efor e them, and on the second day of their r etr eat 180 of the German n ative MAP OF TOGOLAND. soldiers deserted to the Fren ch. This was typical of the attitud e of the natives of T ogoland loose in the bush . The vast majority of the to their German masters, by whom they wer e n atives gave, however, no trouble, and in a few h arshly treated. Equally typical was the weeks the economic life of the country was b eing eR.gerness' of the natives of the Fren ch and carried on as smoothly as if there han b een no British colonies to h elp in crushing t h e Ger­ interrupt ion to it wh atever, mans. A pict-uresque featm'e of Capt. Bouchez's fOTce was a body of J\i[ossi warriors, The conqu est of T ogoland was a comrara­ inhabitants of a kingdom in the N iger B end tively simple task, though h ad they h ad good under French protection. They volunteered lead ership the Germans could h ave made a their services, ach chieftain com:n g in feudal m u ch stronger defen ce. It was othei'wise in fashion to the rendezvous wit h his r etainers. Can'leroon. In the first place the size of the Col. Bryant employed no partisan s, but the colony m.ust be borne in mine , It had an area chiefs and p eoples of the Gold Coast and of 292,000 square m iles, being equal to the area Ashanti were lavish in h elp. Besides much of Germany and Great Britain combined. Then other financial assistance, they d efrayed the the charact er of the country should b e rem em- 280 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE TiVAR.

bered. Extending from the Gulf of Guinea c01.mtry get s its name from a broad and deep north to Lake Chad, west to the Benue, and estuary called by its Portuguese discoverers east and south to the Congo basin, it natm-ally Rio dos Camaroes. * Immediately north of the presents many varying types of land. In a estuary the great volcanic mass of Camer oon broad generalization it may be said that the MOlmtain rises abruptly from the sea, it. ' northern third of the colony is flat and open, summit 13,700 feet high. The only lofty save on the western border, where are the mountain on the coast of Africa, with sm ok e and Mandara Hills.. The central region is a broken vapour ever issuing from its many craters, it is a plateau, mostly covered with long grass and magnificent and unforgettable landmark. B ut mountainous in its western section. The it was the fine harbourage presented by the southern third, also mountainous in the west, estuary which proved the attraction to the is largely covered with primeval forest which in West Coast trader, and since the seventeen th the east grows thinner, becomes park.like, and century Europeans have trafficked with the finally gives place to the low and marshy valley natives living on its b ank" a very shrewd of the Sanga. The climate in general is un­ n egro people called Dual&. From the b egin healthy, and the weather, save in some of the ning till towards t he close of the nineteenth higher districts, is always hot, night and day, in century the Duala were under British influen ce, the rains and in the dries; malaria. is very and generally regarded the n earest British prevalent. Moreover, Southern Cameroon is consul as their overlord. To Baptist mis­ one of the wet,test regions in the tropics. The sionaries-notably Alfred Saker and George Grenfell-the Duala owed t h eir early training both in civilization and Christianity. The treaty on which Germany based her claims t o Cameroon was concluded on July 15, 1884, with an ebon and bulky figure long familiar to t raders on the vVest Coast-King BeU, of B ell Town (n ow Duala ), · in the estuary . K ing Bell (his real nam e was Mbeli), a veritable m.erchant prince, had long sought British prot ection, and had been fobbed off by a Colonial Office on' !' * R io d os Camar6es .mean s R iver of P r awns, and t il l' e.-;tuary was so n am ed from the ab undance of p r a \\" '" fOlmd in It. I n Its E n glish t0rm thc t erm Cam eroo ll :­ was applied to t h e whole district. When t h e Germ an:­ e ,tablished their au t hority t hey gave the nam e, in its T eutonic form, Kamenm, to the wh ole of t h e territory th ey acquired.

[CC T il11eS " P hotographs. FOUND ' ON GERMAN NATIVE TROOPS. Saw-edge bayonet, belt and scabbard, caps and eagle. Smaller picture: Identification discs. 'THE TllYlE8 HISTORY OF THE Till AB. 281

,l

[" Times " PhotograPh. BULLETS USED AGAINST THE BRITISH TROOPS. German dum-dum bullets of various patterns, used by the Germans in Cameroon. a nx ious to avoid responsibility. Too late '''Test Africa, was fated to surrender that Downing Street awoke to the designs of Ger­ colony to General Botha., In conseqnence of Inany, and Consul Hewett was on his way the harshness with which the Germans treated from the Oil Rivers (the Niger Delta) to con­ the Duala and other negro tribes of Southern clude the overdue treaty with King Bell when Cmneroon, those natives were never recon­ Dr. Gustav Nachtigal, a famous explorer of ciled to German rule, and their very doubtful Inner Africa whom Bismarck had turned into attitude towards the government before and a diplomatic agent, put into the estnary on after the declaration of war in 1914 was given the gunboat Mowe, having t en days before by the German colonial officials as one reason induced the King of 'Togo to cede his country why they abandoned the coast region so to Germany. I{ ing Dell had waited long and readily. In Northern Cameroon, where many in vain for his friends the English-whose of the inhabitants are Moslem's anel the Fllla tongue in the quaint pidgen dialect of the \ iVest (a non-negro people) are the leading caste, the Coast he spoke fluently-and he was per­ Germans adopted in part the wiser plan of s uaded b y Dr. Nachtigal to sign a treaty with ruling through the native chiefs, alid they him. When, five days later, Mr. H ewett had rallied to their cause certain Fula sultans, arrived it was only to find that King Bell, tQ whom they had left a considerable measure having parted with his birthright, could only of autonomy. One of these s1.utans in the lament that he had nothing left to give the early days of the war took the field with a Great \i\Thite Queen but his blessing. Bell and train of mOLmted warriors on the side of the his n eighbours soon f01md that in the Teuton Germans. they had a mast er not to their liking, and Along the whoie of its western frontier certain unp}easant incidents induced the Ger­ Cameroon was bordered by the British Pro­ luans to send a squadron, under Rear-Adm,iral tectorate of Nigeria. This frontier remained Knorr, to the Cameroon coast. It was on constant, but on the east and south, where board the Bismarck, a vessel of 'this squadron, Cameroon bordered French Equatorial Africa, * t h at Admiral von Scheer, who commanded there were important changes subsequent to the German Fleet at. the Battle of Horn R eef the early agreements between France and C~Vlay 31, 1916), lWl,c-le his debut as a naval Germany respecting the lin~its of their respective. officer. powers of influence. Internal communica­ Of the later history of Can~eroon, save as it tions in Central Africa being largely by river , affected Franco-German relations, it is not each State endeavoured to secure navigable n ecessary to say mue-h. For years it exhibited waterway for its possessions, and the boun­ all the worst forms of German colonial methods. daries of Cameroon were so fixed that the In 1906, after some rather unsavoury scandals, Germans obtained in the north·east access to t he Governor, H err von Puttkamer, had the Shari, the greatest feeder of Lake Chad, to h e r ecalled, his successor being the Dr. * Formerly officiall y , and still often popularly, call ed Seitz who afterwards, as governor of South- French Congo. 282 THE TIlYIES HISTORY OF THE VVAR.

and in the south-east part of the Upper Sanga, sufficed Germany for the moment. H er fingers a navigable tributary of the Congo. A modi­ touched the coveted land, and at a later p eriod fication of the frontier was made in 1908 on she intended to extend her grasp. For the mutually satisfactory lines, Germany giving up French the sacrifice they h ad b een called part of the Shari region, and gaining a better upon to rnake vI'as unpleasant. The German position in the Sanga district. antenna) cut the Inean s of cOlnmunication Then followed the Agadir crisis, arising out between the various colonies included in French of the extension of French authority in Equatorial Africa sav e by river, and their Morocco. Into that question it is not necessary colony of Middle Congo was reduced to a to enter here save as it affected '~T est Africa. fragment. At first Germany dernanded in return for her Another t erritorial concession which the r ecognition of a French Protectorate in Morocco French felt obliged to make revealed clearly the cession to her of the maj or part of French Germany's African ambitions. " Th en the Equatorial Africa, including the whole of the scramble for Africa was in progress Spain had seaboard. Her ambition was to extend German made good a claim to a squarish bIock of territory from Cameroon across the Congo country on the coast between French Congo basin to join up with German East Africa, and and Cameroon. It was known variously as thus create a vast trans-continental empire Spanish Guinea or (from its chief estllary) stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Muni. Up to 1911 Spanish Guinea was bounded Ocean. France strenuously r esisted these east and south by French t erritory and only on dernands, but in the end, by the agreement of the north by Cameroon, while Spain h ad given November, 1911, she sacrificerl a considerable to France the right of pre-emption in case part of her equatorial possessions. The eastern of the sale of her colony. But by the 1911 border of Cameroon was greatly enlarged. But agreen1.ent Rpanish Guinea became an en clave this was not all; Germany also secm'ed two of Cameroon, the German frontier being drawn tongues of land which gave h er direct access 20 miles south of its , outhern border. The to the Congo River and its great northern Germans thus obtained the southern shores tributary, the Ubangi. One of these antenna) of the Mlmi estuary and part of Mondah was the valley of the Lower Sanga to its con­ Bay, and their frontier was only a few miles fluence with the Congo; the other the valley north of Libreville, the chief seaport of French of the Lobaye to its confluence with the Ubangi. Equatorial Africa. In area alone the Germans As they touched the rivers these strips of by the 1911 agreement added 107,270 square t erritory were only a few miles wide, but they miles to Cameroon, the only return-apart

BRITISH OFFICERS TRAINING NATIVES. THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 283 from Morocco--b eing the cession to France of 6,450 square miles in the Shari r egion, the German frontier there b eing drawn in to t.he. Logone river as far as its confluence with the Shari. If to France as a nation the sacrifices made in Equatorial Africa were painful, in spite of the immense advantages involved in the settlement of the Morocco question, the Colonial Party, in p articular, felt them to b e grievous. Most of the ceded area had b een discovered by de Brazza and his asso­ ciat.es, and through French capital and by French enterprise flourishing stations and plantations had b een established in it. The French of Equatorial Africa r egarded New Cameroon as, in the words of M. Merlin, the Governor-General, " our Alsace-Lorraine." Thus when the war b egan their first object was to recover the ceded territory and so prompt and so successful were their measures that by August 7 the Genuan posts at the Sanga-Congo confluence and on the Ubangi were in French OUTPOSTS. possession. The war in Cameroon began Men of the Nigerian Regiment in the trenches. with a French success, and on the Congo side that success was, at the outset, rapidly cation, dated September 15, 1914, to Mr. followed up. Gerard, Herr Zimmerman stated that Germany's It was at this junct.ure-on August 23-that object in making the proposal was" to prevent the German Government made a singular an aggravation of the state of war which could demarche. It was the day after the fight at Chra, serve no purpose, while prejudicial to the in Togoland, and the eve of the destruction of comml.mity of culture of the white race." the wireless t elegraphy installation at Kamina. This was so far from being the truth that the Germany saw herself b eing cut off from com­ Germans had made elaborate preparations to munication with her other African colonies, attack French Equatorial Africa; Berlin and knew already that the German navy could simply sought a way of escape from a position not afford them any protection. She bethought which left it without means of succouring its herself of a declaration of the Berlin Conference colonies. The German proposals met with of 1884- 85 in favour of the neutrality of the no encouragem ent at \Vashington, the State conventional basin of the Congo and invoked it D epartment contenting itself with forwarding to preserve, as far as possible, her possessions -without any observations-the German pro­ in Equatorial Africa. By the Berlin Act the posal to the Governments concerned. And the basin of the Congo was conventionally extended Governments concerned r efused to entertain so t hat it included not only the Belgian Congo, B erlin's overtures. but about half of French Equatorial Africa, a German diplomacy tried hard to prove that third of Camer oon, all German East Africa , it was the Allied Powers which "violated the all British East Africa, all Uganda, all N yasa­ n eutrality" of the Congo basin. As to that land, the northern part of Portugue~e the text of t.he B erlin Act to which they West Africa, and a small part of Northern appealed left the declaration of neutrality in Rhodesia. the Congo basin facultative, not obligatory, In a note addressed by H err Zimmerm::tn, and the only State affected by the B erlin Act Under-Secretary of State in the German Foreign ,,,,,hose African t erritory h ad b een declared Office, to Mr. Gerard, American Ambassador n eutral was B elgium. At its foundation the at B erlin, the aid of the United States Govern­ Congo Free State proclaimed its p erpetual ment was ask ed to procure the n eutralization n eutrality, and when t.hat State became a of all this region. In a s ub se qu e~t commlmi- B elgian colony the obligation of neutrality f',:J 00

BEES iN BATTLE. BABOONS IN BATTLE. A swarm of bees attack troops during a skirmish with the enemy. Cameroon patrol hears stran&e footsteps approaching. THE TIMES HIS TORY OF THE WAR .. 285 was taken over. And Belgium had loyally von 'Vissmann, * on August 22, bombarded the ,endeavoured to pres"erve neutrality on the Belgian port of Lukuga (Albertville) on Lake Congo, even after the viola.tion by Germany of Tanganyika. Belgium'S own n eutrality, accompanied by The first effor.t s of the French, as of the acts of such infamy that they could not have British, were directed to purely local objectives ; b een exceed ed in brutality by the cannibal with the forces immediately available each tribes of the Congo. On August 7, 1914, M. struck at the enemy where he found him. Davignon, B elgian Minister for Foreign Affain, But when towards the end of September, 1914, who had instructed the Governor-General of an Anglo-French Expeditionary Force, under B elgian Congo to observe a strictly defensive Gen. Dobell, secured Duala, it became possible attitude, addressed a note to the British and to consider plans of cooperation. The French Goverm-nents asking if it was their strength of the enemy could only be esti- intention to proclaim. the neutrality of their mated. According to official statistics the t erritories in the conventional basin of the military force in Cameroon consisted of some Congo. On the 9th the Belgian Minister at 200 Germans and 2,000 natives, supplemented Paris assured M. Davignon that the French by an armed police force of 40 Germans and Govermnent 'was "very disposed" to pro­ 1,250 natives. In reality the native soldiers claim n eutrality. This attitude was soon employed by the Germans were abollt 20,000, modified in view of the hostilities actually and fully 3,000 Germans were till del' arms. This begun in Central Africa, and on August 17 lllunber was reached by calling up all Germans Comte de Lalaing, B elgian Minister in London, of I~ulitary ,age in the colony, including the inforn1.ed M. Davignon that neither Great crews of the n1.erchantInen which, on the eve Britain nor France could adopt his suggestion. of war, sought refuge in the Cameroon estuary. The action of Germany both in the Congo Not all the Germans hastily enrolled at the and in East Africa had shown h er true inten­ last moment possessed military ardonr, as 'was tions. There was the further difficulty that shown by 400 of them staying behind in Duala in \iV est Africa large parts, both of Cameroon on its occupation by the Anglo-French force. and of French Equatorial Africa, ,~; er e outside This apart, the enemy forces were well trained, the conventional basin of the Congo, which well armed, and well led, and they were plenti­ - had n eutrality been proclaimed-would hav0 fully supplied with machine gLillS. The Police left the Germans free to attack Nigeria and Force (Polizeitl·t~p'pe/'l) were armed with a Gab-Lill without serious risk of b eing themselves carbine firing a soft-nosed bullet, but the attack ed in rear. It was not until a full week Schutztruppen were armed 'with the regulation after the failure of the B elgian proposal that rifle. The defence had hrrther the advantage Germany-in view of hor unfavourable situa­ of possessing nearly thirty fortified posts, all tion in Africa-made h er own proposals for placed with a good eye to rnilitary require­ neutrality. Belgium, however, for some time, ments. Col. Zilmnermann, the conn;n.ander of still endeav01.rred to preserve the B elgian t h e t r oops, proved an able and resolute soldier. Congo n eutral; it was not until August 28, \iVhen the Expeditionary Force landed at when the mOV81nents of Gern1.an colUlnn ~ Dllala, French columns tillder Gen. Aymerich towards the Ubangi and the Middle Congo \yere advancing, from the south-east l and east, constituted a direct menace to B elgian territory up the to~gues of land which the Germans -which, moreover, h ad already been . attacked had acquired in 1911. On the Nigerian border by Germans in ' the Tanganyika r egion- that the British columns which had invaded Came­ the Governor-General of the Congo, M. Fuchs, roon had n1.et with serious reverses, and all but \ was given permission to help the French in one were actiIfg on the defensive. On the their campaign in Cameroon. This h elp M. Lake Chad side Cen. Largeau had captured Merlin, the Governor-General of French Equa­ Kusseri, and was preparing to send a cohm1n torial Africa, asked for, and on September 30 south. Warships had made various demonstra­ B elgian forces were placed at his disposition. tions, notably at Victoria, the port at the foot The German allegation that the Belgians of 1\10lmt Cameroon founded by the Baptist b egan hostilities by seizing the post of Zinga on the Ubangi on August 7 was false; the first * There was another German anned steamer; the Hermann von vVissmann, on Lake N ya.'3a. This h ad act of war in Belgian Congo was committed been captured by the British Government steam·or by the Germans when their steamer Hedwig Gwendolen on August 13. 99- 3 286 THE Tl}'([ES HiSTORY OF THE JiVAR . missionaries. and named by them .in honour of August 30 that d anger carne near. On that Queen Victoria. H err Ebermaier, the Governor day a British cruiser was reported at F ernando of Cameroon, whose administrative centre was Po and the German boats at Duala were Buea, a hill station beautifully situated on the anchored farther up stream. The estuary had sout he r~ slopes of Mount Cameroon, had in­ by this time been mined about 12 miles below structed Col. Zimmermann to prepare defensive Duala and several small steamers had been measures. The diary of Lieut. Nothnagal, who sunk in the fairway. The British ships which was stationed at Duala, afterwards fell into the now appeared off the coast were the CtIDl.ber­ possession of a British officer, and it gives a land, Capt. Cyril Fuller, R.N., a cruiser of 9,800 graphic picture of life in that town in the tvYO tons, mounting 14 6-in. guns, the branch boats m.onths preceding its capture by the Allies. ~T all'llS and Vampire, the gLIDboat D warf, the Col. Zimmermann arrived at Duala on August 4, Nigerian Government's armed y acht Ivy, and followed the next day by the Governor and his other craft from the Nigeria Marine-craft :-:;taff. On August 6 proposals were made for suited for work in the creeks. On September 3 laying nunes in the estuary. A significant a British d etachment was landed at V.ictoria entry in the diary w1der date August 8 reads: without opposition, but the n ext d ay "Capt. In the afternoon Rudolph Bell [a member of the royal Gaisser ordered them to leave the place at once family of the Duala] and Negro Din h anged before the or he would throw them out." They did leave, prison for high treason. Great outcry among the populace a ll night. The Dualas leaving the town in but as soon as they got aboard ship Victoria crowds. was bombarded, and all food stores were de­ 'With this entry may be coupled another stroyed by gunfire. By Septc mbe!' 9 the entry in the diary, under date September 8 : British ships were anchored off the mouth of the estuary. That Lieut. N othnagal had' a The British were led at Victoria by two Duala rascals. A reward of 1,000 marks has been put on each of their true appreciation of the situation is shown by heads. All canoe traffic in the creeks is st opped. No his entry on September 10 : less tha,n 48 Dualas h ave been captured by the patrol" a nd brought up for judgment; eight are to be hanged. At the barrier the g unboat Dwarf is anchored and No Duala native may cross the rOll,d after dark. seem s to be working at its removal. vVe may be sm'e By their wireless communications the Ger­ the enemy m eans business. If h e is sharp it won't go well with us. The Dwarf h as b een this side of the mans were k ept cognisant of the movements barrier already. A libht pinnace h as been sighted at of the enemy at sea, and on August 8 Lieu t. Malimba; it almost looks as if they wished to cut off N othnagal notes "Two English cruisers were our retreat. In the evening we pack up everything at the P ost Offi ce and load it into the train, which is rea,dy yesterday at. Teneriffe." It was not till standing waiting. 'To·morrow we f'xpect an attack.

GERMAN MISSIONARIES IN CAMEROON, On their way to Nigeria. THE TIMES HIS TORY OF THE WAR. 287

BRlTISH 12-POUNDER II'; ACTION NEAR Y AUNDE.

The attack did not come the next day, but sent an officer in a launch to summon the the Dwarf continued her activities at the Commandant to surrender the whole colony. barrier, and on September 11 came under fire This being refused, Duala was bombarded from the shore battery. The Germans now early on September 26, a land demonstration fi tted out small petrol-driven launches with being made by way of a neighbouring creek. infernal maclunes-home-made torpedoes-and As soon as the bombardment b egan Col. sent them under cover of darkness to the Zimmermann left Duala by train; the Governor barrier in efforts to blow up the Dwarf (Com­ had already gone, and Lieut. N othnagal . mander Fredk. Strong, R.N.), a 701-ton vessel became commandant. His diary for that day armed vvith 2 4-in. and 4 3-in. (12 pOlmders) reads: gm'ls. One of these attempts n early succeeded. 26.9-At six 'o'clock the first shot. The Commandant On Septernber 14 a boat carrying a " torpedo" goes to Edea. Slow bombardment, various buildings destroyed, but no loss of life. At noon news that large was towed by a man in a rowing boat close to bodies of troops are landing. One thousand m en the Dwarf, the infernal machine just missing advancing from Gori, Pitti, and Japoma. I am now Commandant of Duala. the gunboat. The man in the row-boat Out at five a.m. under full protection as the bOlnbard­ sprang overboard, but was captured among the ment may b e expected at once. At 7.30 instruction: shipping the next day. * from Captain ·Haedicke that the companies are to retire. I am still keeping up telephonic communications with On the arrival of the transports with the the commander, and receive the definite order to give :Expeditionary Force a passage through the up t he useless opposition, march off the coloured troop.' wlt,h arms, make all war material useless, and hoist the obstructions in the estuary was forced by the white flag. light cruiser Challenger (5,880 tons), which Acting on his instructions, Lie ut. N othnagal mOlmted 11 6-in. guns. She was accompanied surrendered Duala the next morning and with by the plucky little Dwarf, which had met with it all the shipping in the estuary. Nine liners­ m.any adventures and misadventures, and under eight belonging to the Hamburg house of hot fire found and destroyed over 30 mines. W'oermann-with a total tonnage of 30,915 were On September 25 the Challenger took up a posi­ the chief prizes. They included some of the tion 7,000 yards from Duala, and General Dobell newest ' and best boats engag~d , in the "VVest * This individual proved to be a missionary, and when African trade. Many other boats were cap­ interrogated d eclared, "I am a soldier first and a mis­ sionary second." The German Colonial Office, pained tured as well as the Governor's yacht. by certain comments made on this incident in England, Major-Gen. Sir Charles M. Dobell, K.C.B., explained, with a wealt.h of corroborative detail, that the officer chosen to command the Expedi ~ the man was only a lay brother was of military age and h ad been called to the c()!ours. tionary Force, was, when the war began, Inspec- 288 THE TINJES HISTORY OF THE TV AR.

tor-General of the ,~T es t African Frontier Force originally promised. The exp edit,ion r eached -a force composed entirely of natives of the Duala without incident. The s"lITrender of vVest Coast, under officers seconded from their Duala was accompanied by th,e surrender also British regiments. It now furnished the of the town of Bonaberi, on the opposite side of British contingent which served under Gen. the Cameroon estuary. Bonaberi's importance Dobell. The French on their part also made , lies chiefly in the fact that it is the sea terminus up their expeditionary force of \~T est Africans of a railway numing north- in the direction of - the famous Senegalese Tirailleurs, Composed Nigeria- and that it gives access to the culti­ of an equal nmnber of French and British vated regions on the east ern slopes of Mount troops, the total force placed at the disposal of Carn,eroon. Duala, besides being the chief port Gen. Dobell at the beginning of the campaign of the colony, is the starting-point of another was 4,300. This was not nearly strong enough, railway, a line running eastward in the direction nor was it adequately supplied with heavy of the Congo. Duala and Bonaberi afforded artillery. The power and resistance of the Gen. Dobell safe and convenient bases for f lll'ther enemy h ad been under-estimated. operations. Gen. DobeH was in London in August, The loss of Duala had gravely compromised 1914, and having completed his plans he sailed the prestige of the Germans among the natives for Dakar, where the French contingent under of the coast r egion, and H err Ebern1.aier felt it Col. Mayer, of the French Colonial Infantry, necessary to n1.ake SOlne comlter-stroke. In a embarked. Here the Bruix, the principal circular letter to the officials concerned the French unit in the convoying squadron, joined Governor ,;\lTote that, as the loss of Duala could the Cumberland, which had gone to Las not be concealed and as " damaging perversion~ Palmas to meet Gen. Dobell, who, it is inte­ and exaggerations" would b e the result if the resting to note, was travelling in the Appam, circulation of the n ews was left to native which later on was captured by a disguised gossip, h e aut,ho.cized the district authorities German auxiliary cnuser and t aken to an to announce the fact in a forn1. "suited to American port as a prize. The British troops the circumstances of each district." L est were embarked at Sierra Leone and other they should b e in doubt as to the suitable ports on the vVest Coast, although owing to form H err Ebermaier added that the pu.b­ the r everses sustained in their frontier con· lication was to b e made on " t,h e following 'flicts, the Nigerian authorities were not able lines" :-- to send Gen. Dobell all the men they had At home th e Kaiser h as fir, 't taken ,the country which

IN THE CAMEROON ESTUARY. The plant on the Wuri River. THE TIlYlE8 HISTORY OF THE WAR. 289

language to be used as far as possible "- and the number of distinct languages spoken by Cameroon n egroes IS perplexingly large. 'While on the one hand the Germans endeavoured to deceive the coast natives iT} the way dest)ribed, in Northern Cameroon, where a large number of the inhabitants are Moslems, they endeavoured to stir up a iihad, and backed these endeavours by propaganda among t,h e M03lems of. Nigeria, a propaganda which did r..ot meet 'with success. A proclamation in Arabic addressed to the Chief of Marua stated that the great Caliph, the Sultan of Turkey, was the friend of the Gern1.ans, and that war had come because the British wished to take Constantinople and give it to the Pagans. vVhen they found that, these appeals were useless the Germans adopted a policy of persecution, and on the pretext that they were disloyal several chiefs and Moslem religious leaders were killed. '\iVherever they had the power, and felt the least suspicion of any lack of devotion on CAPTAIN FULLER. the part of the natives to their cause, the Of H.M.S. "Cumberland." Germans treated them with characteristic inflicted horrors on the natives-namely B elgium, to brutality. In the north the Hausa settlers which the Congo belongs. . . . The Kaiser h as capturecl from Nigeria--generally the chief traders and General Kitschener, whom the English r egarded as their business m en-were the especial object. of Le ~ t commander , tcgether with 10,000 soldiers .... As our enemies at hcme cannot do anything to us they persecution. The result was that the native3 Hr-e now trying to rob us and Ollr natives in Ainca. retaliated whenever they had the chance; Africa is further from Germany t han from France and E ngland so that their ships can be r.ere sooner than we some Germans were killed and much German can. The English were not strong enough to take property looted. Duala, but had to call in the h elp of the French. \Ve h fwe, moreover, only surrendered Duala because there were so many white women and children there to whom, according to the law of the whites, nothing can happen if no fi ghting takes place in a town. Till now things have gone as follows in Cameroon :­ ,Ve have a llowed the English and French a short dis· tance into the country. As soon as they were within it we, with Ollr brave black soldiers and vvith the help of our natives, drove them out and killed many whites a m ong t h e enemy .... At Dua la the same will occur. H err Ebermaier ended his instructions to his subordinates in the art of lying by an injtmction which revealed a condition of affairs which seemed strange to many of the British officers making their first acquaintance with "Vest Africa. The natives of Duala and the whole coast region of Cameroon speak pidgen English-thirty years of r esolute rule had not taught them to appreciate the beauties of the German tongue, and the lingua franca of the vVest Coast is English. But on this occasion H err Ebermaier forbade its u se. " In announcements the English language (he wrote) is, under all circLUTIstance~ to be avoided " ; and he added the difficult injunction, " Local CAPTAIN BUTLER, V.C. 290 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR.

THE " DWARF."

\iVhile Gen. Dobell had not to fear the apparently limit less extent are its n1.ost oppres­ hostility of the natives, he had to overcome sive features. Native clearings with cultivated not only the Germans but manifold natural patches of ground are very few and the forest obstacles to easy campaigning. ·Writing of yields no food supplies save a little game. the region. in which most, of his oper ations were Moreover the Cameroon forest is gorilla and carried out, h e said: " All the coast line, and elephant cOlmtry; herds of elephants more for som e 150 m.iles inland, one m eet.s .the sam e than once routed the troops. * l1'lOnotonous, impen etrable African forest, This everlasting forest (wrote one officer) You go fringed on the coast by an area of mangrove m arching along ID single file, never knowing whoil. you a re goillg to be sh ot at. The enemy may be only a few swamp in varying depth." To those who yards away, but you cannot see them. It is a bit nerve­ know the West Coast this brief sentence is racking wh ~n suddenly a sh ot rings out. in the wonderful stillness-very often a signal for all your carriers (500 pregnant with m eaning. Nothing at once or more) to stampede with their loads. There is an more witching or more forbidding can be eternal twilight in t h ese for~ s ts, the trees Ir..geting imagined than a mangrove swamp in \iVest overhead and interlaced by creepers. It is a fine sight to see the column on the march ; it covers two to three Africa, wher e in some places for fifty miles miles of road, taking n early an h our to pass a given spot, from the coast there is ' not a foot of solid and it is a seriOllS matter to defend this long line. And the h eat! le.nd. A phrase or two from letters written After havip..g occupied the cOlmt.ry in the by officers may help to convey an idea of neighbourhood of Duala, G ~n er al D obell orga­ what campaigning in these swamps was like. nized columns to follc Vi' up the enemy eastward " The mangr ove swamps are awful," wrote to Edea. In t heir r etreat the enemy had one young officer, adding thoughtfully, "the wrecked the r ailway, breaking in two places crocodiles don't look inviting." "We made a the bridge, 900 yards long, by which the reconnaissance up to our ltnees in mud," said Dibamba cr eek is spanned at J apoma. The another; and a third, " N early every night enemy h eld the farther side of the creek. the there is a t ornado, and the rain comes down in bucket s." "Always wet and hot: t em­ * One officer wrote h om e, " vVe were h aving a hot scrap with the Germans when suddenly an angry elephant perature 1040 F." "Hundreds and hundreds appeared between Ul:', and darted first one way and then of creeks, 200 to 300 yards wide; all the the other. Before you could c01 lgh both sides h ad done islands soft mud in which alligators wallow." a bunk." Other small parties h ad similar experiences, antI one large camp was completely overrun by a herd As to the forest its solitude and gloom and of eleph ants. Insect pests were an equal terror. THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 291 passage of which was forced by the French tion where were the columns under Gen. tirailleurs under a galling rifle and machine­ Aymerich ; but something like 400 miles gLill fire. In this operation the Na~/y and separated them from their comrades. And Royal Marine L.l. gave material aid. between them was Col. Zimmermann, with the General Dobell sent three columns to Edea, two largest section of the German forces. Col. going by land on a line north of the railway, Zimmermann had taken up his headquarters at the third ascending the Sanaga River, on which Yaunde, 100 'miles east of Edea. Thither also Edea is situated. The Sanaga (which must not had gone Herr Ebermaier, and at Yaunde the be confounded with the Sanga in the ~xtreme seat of the German administrati()ll remained south-east of Cameroon) is the largest of the until the end of the campaign. It was a place rivers which rise in the central highlands of well chosen. It was on the tableland, beyond Cameroon and flow direct to the Atlahtic. * the edge of the primeval tor-est, between the It 6~ters the ocean just south of the Camer oon Sanaga and the Njong, and in a position where estuary. The Sanaga has a bar at its mouth communication could be maintained with the and sandbanks obstruct its passage all the German forces in the north and in the east. way to Edea. Nevertheless, Commander L.°W. The enemy garrisons left in the region of Braithwa~te, R.N., brought an armed flotilla Mt. Cameroon were, however, cut off from up to Edea, which was occupied on October 26. help, though they were able, if they chose, to The column advancing on a line parallel to the retire northward. They did well in their first railway had met with strong opposition, but engagement. General Dobell sent troops up to Col. Zimmermann retired before the converging attack Jabassi, a place on the Wm-i, a river movement, and the Allies were not strong entering the Cameroon estuary from the enough to pursue him. The force stationed at north. This was an amphibious fight in which Ede::t consisted of French troops, under Col. armed river craft co-operated. The attack, :\IIayer. They looke::l eastward, in the direc- delivered on October 8, was a failure, partly * Next in importance of the rivers running direct to because the native troops, for the fir::;t time, thf' Atlantic is the Njong, which has a course south of and roughly parallel to tnat of t,he Sanaga. C3,rne under machine-glill fire. The force was

A 12-POUNDER ON BOARD A BRITISH BOAT. 292 THE Tll\lES HISTUBY OF THE lIVAR .

S inder 0 Gure

.'. 0 MBr8d; 0 Jetkorom ,,.... ~.-.- ._.,...... '

F ~ Crampe l ~ 'J ~unde OON

9

MAP O F C A.ME RO O N. r eorganized, r en ewed its a ttack on October 14, and the other, under Lieut.. -Co]. R ose (Gold and this time captured J abassi. Lieut. -Col. Coast R egiment), advanced overland and A. H . Haywood, R.A., an officer known to occupied Buea on November 15. In it were travellers as the only Englishman who, in recent 60 white men with 20 white women and years, had crossed the Sahl:\ra, took charge at children. It was for gallant conduct during the beginning of October of a co!umn which Lieut.-Col. Rose's later operations that Capt. started to advance up the northern r ailwa.y. J. F. Butler, K.R.R., won the Victoria Cross. The enemy, who had the u se of an armoured General Dobell now d ecided to clear the train, was vigorously pursu ed. Gen. D ob ell \-vhole line of the northern r ailway of the also sent a naval force to make a demonstration en emy, and Lieut.-Col. Haywood was r ein­ at Victoria, while two columns, one under forced by a strong column under Col. Gorges. Col. E. H. Gorges, D .S.O. , who had had con­ This column gradually push ed its way north­ siderable experience of warfare in East Africa, ward, and captured railhead , Nkongsamba, THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 293 on D ecemb er 10. Among the spoils were killed and 11 tirailleurs wounded. N otwith­ t wo "st eamers for sky," as the natives called standing this success Col. Mayer was unable to the aeroplanes. These machines were the take the offensive. Fronl various causes, fir3t that had ever ani ved in W est Africa, chiefly lack of men and. heavy guns, the opera­ -n, nd the Germans had not even unpack ed tions were at a standstill. This wa.s the case then~ . Col. Gorges pushed north to Dchang, also witli. the British and French forces in the .55 miles b eyond railhead, and d estroyed the north and General Aymerich's columns in the fort there (January 3, 1915), r etiring to Nkong­ south-east. ,samba and its outpost Bare. This withdrawal It was essential to strengthen, reorganize and was unfortlmate, for D chang lay n ear the co-ordinate the efforts of the forces at the r egion where the Cross River column sent from disposal of the Allies. The French and British Nigeria in August had b een practically anni­ W est African colonies wer e appealed to for hilated. additional men and the reinforcements asked The n et r esult of three months' operations for arrived at Duala in February. Meantime was that Gen. Dobell h eld the cOlmtry for 50 Brigadier-Gen. Clmliffe had been select ed to miles east and 70 miles north of Duala, a take over the command of the French and mere fragment of Cameroon. In addition the British troops in Northern Cameroon, and in whole coast line as far as the guns of the ships January he went to Duala to consult with Gen. coukl carry had b een evacuated by the enemy, Dobell, the result being a decision to prosecute and smaU forces were stationed at the three the northern campaign with more vigour. The p orts south of the Camer oon estllary- Kribi, enemy forces wel'e showing considerable bold­ Campo and Coco B each. Gen. Dobell realized ness at this time in the direction of the northern that his original force was too weak for the task railhead, and in two engagements in February assigned it, and he asked for r einforcem ents. t.he British had 120 casualties among the native Col. Zinunermann had shown that he had good soldiers, chiefly among the Sierra Leone Batta­ reason for n ot surrendering Calueroon without a lion of the "\iV.A.F.F .'s. An attack made by the struggle; indeed, at this j1..lncture-January, 191 5- h e took the offensive. Col. Zimmermann had been preparing a blow at the French colum n under Col. Mayer at Edea. for some t ime, but had not been able to k eep his intentions secret. Consequently Col. Mayer's ou tpost at K opongo, a few miles east of F-dea, h ad been strengthened on January 4 by 90 m en sent from Edea, and when on January 5 it was assailed by 150 Germans the attack was easil y beat en off. Aln~ost at the sam e time a German colun~n 800 strong and with several machine guns attacked Col. Mayer 's ma,in force at Edea. The buildings at Edea are scatter ed, they lie close to dense forest, and the ground is mnch broken up. These factors favoured the attack, but Col. Mayer had very skilfully constructed his defences and the marksmanship of t.he tirailleurs was so accurate that after sustaining severe losses the enemy r etired-and never again atten~pted an offensive Inoven~ ent on a con­ siderable scale. ·The Germans left on the ground 23 dead Europeans, of whorn six were offi cers, 88 native soldiers killed and 102 wounded; their casualties were thus 25 p er cent. of the force engaged. They also left b ehind a machine gl.m, a quantity of ammlmi­ tion and many rifles. The French losses were MEN OF THE WEST AFRICAN one European N .C.O. and three tiraillem's FIELD F ORCE. 29-4 THE TlMES HISTORY OF THE WAR.

British (March 4) in this region on the points on Yal.mde. By May 1, however, Colonel known as Stoebel's and Harlnann's Farm.s Haywood had r eached a point which enabled failed, among the killed being two white officers Colonel Mayer to advance. The British and (Lt.-Col. G. P. Newstead, commanding the French columns moved forward on parallel Sierra Leone Battalion; and Captain C. H. lines. The French column followed the line Dinnen, Staff Captain). The enemy had, how­ of the railway east-the line itself had been ever, sl.lffered severely, and he evacuated the torn up by the enemy-and Commandant positions, retiring north. Mechet, who conducted the advance, occupied M. Fourneau, Lieut. -Governor of Middle Eseka, Colonel Mayer's immediate objective, Congo, arrived at Duala in March and asked and the terminus of the railway, on May 11. Gen. Dobell to co-operate with Gen. Aymerich The British column followed a route north of in an immediate advance on Yaunde. Gen. the railway, and on May 3 came up to a for­ Dobell was very doubtful as to the wisdom of midable entrenched position which the enemy such a Inove, as is obvious from his statement occupied on the left (farther) bank of the in his despatch concerning the operations. He Mbila river-a tributary of the Sanaga, at wrote :- -VVrnn Biagas. The enemy's position extended I fully r ea.lized the political and strategic importance over a front of some three miles, and hl.mdred& of Yaunde, but demurred embarking on such an opera­ of natives had b een employed for many months ' tion at that moment. It was late in the season and the rains were already beginning, besides which the troops in digging the trenches. After an action 1 was able to employ were insufficient to ensur e success lasting 18 hours Col. Haywood stormed this in t,he absence of effective co-operation, in the immediate position on May 4, but not without serious loss vicinity of Yaunde, by the troops under General Aymerich. Owing to the difficulty of communication both in Europeans and native ranks. After it was quite unsafe to C01.mt on this. the capture of Wrnn Biagas Commandant However, in view of the great advantage Mechet moved from Eseka to that place, and which would follow an early occupation ot Col. Mayer came from Edea to take personal Yaunde, General Dobell consented to co-operate command of the combined force in its fm'ther 'with all his available strength. The result advance on Yal.mde. Supplies and stores wera was not favourable. Colonel Haywood, who hurried forward, also a naval 12-pounder gun was senb east to make a methodical advance in to reinforce the lighter pieces. co-operation with Colonel Mayer's force at It was at this point-May ll-that General Edea, met with strong opposition, Colonel Dobell learned from M. Merlin, the Governor­ Zimmermann withdrawing troops from dis­ General of French Equatorial Africa, that tant posts to help in stemming the advance as Drnne and Lornie, r espectively 140 miles

DIFFICULT FIGHTING GROUND IN CAMEROON. TIlE TINIE8 HISTORY OF THE WAR. 295

THE GERMAN BLOCK.HOUSE AT YOKO. Captured by the French under Colon el Brisset (x), December I, 1915.

N.N.E. a.nd 150 miles S.S.E. of Ymmde, the eEtimate of the obstacles to be overcome_ immediate objectives of General Aymerich's General Dobell himself set out those obstacles columns, had not been captured, no definite with commendable fraclrrwss : date could be given for the advance of the I regret (he wrote) that supply difficulties soon made French from those places on Yaunde. Never­ themselves evident, the country was barren, and with all available carriers and the few motor vehicles at my theless General Dobell decided not to abandon disposal, at that time only three, I was unable to trans­ his operations, and in accordance wit.h his port food for Europeans and natives with sufficient r apidity. Handicapped by the almost impenetrable' instructions Colonel ,Mayer left vVum Biagas on bush and a t errain which afforded many d efensive May 25. His total force number ed about positions, the advance became exceedingly slow. At every turn of the road the advance was m et by machine­ 2,000 men, of whom 300 had been brought glill fire, so that during the 25th and 26th May only from Edea and had not t ak en part in the five miles was made good. The enemy evidently had fatigues of the first part of t'h e advance. He r eceived reinforcements and commenced to interfere with our line of communication, which was peculiarly bad machine g"lllS, and b eside the naval susceptible to attack, while the long convoys of carriers. 12-pounder a n"lll~b er of 80 mm. guns. The were singularly prone to panic. I received an appeal from Colonel Mayer for reinforcements, as, in ade.ition decision to send the column forward, as was to other disabilities, dysentery had broken out in his quickly apparent, was founded on an insufficient force. I sent forward such troops as were available and 296 THE TiMES HiSTORY OF THE lV AR.

took measures to obtain more ca rri~'l" from the ' ;Vest at once, hIs r earguards being constantly African Colonies. harassed, but n ever broken. Gen. Dobell By "dense bush" the reader should under­ hlU'ried forward the last available men to Btand a forest so dense that often an advance the succour of Col. Mayer. These t roops could only be made by felling t.he trees­ made a vlonderful march in tropical rain Colonel Mayer had in grim fact to hack his and reach ed Col. Mayer at an opportune way through the forest. To add to the moment, for his r earguard was b eing h eavily horrors of the situation the grotmd was a morass, attacked. By J tme 28 Col. Mayer had taken and at almost every step the risk was nm of up n ew strong positions, and the FLU'suit sinking in the swamp. On June 5 Colonel by the en emy ceased. In this ill-fated advance Mayer had covered only t"velve miles fron.~ the casualties r each ed 25 per cent. of the , Yum Biagas ; the rate of progress was exactly force engaged. Y et n either the Senegalese a m.ile a day. Yatmde was still 40 miles nor the ' iV.A.F.F.'s lost their discipline, cli stant; sickness was rile, the enelny was comage, and inextinguishable gaiety. The stubborn, and the situation such that Co1. failure of the advance was in no respect due to 31ayer infcrmed Gen. Dobell that in his opinion Colonel Mayer. " I fully recogni.ze," wrote any further adva.nce on Yatmde was imprac­ General Dobell, "that Colonel Mayel' "vas not ticable. M . lerlin having telegraphed (May 7) in a position to undertake, single handed, an t·hat there was no further news from Gen. advance on Yaunde, but I had hoped that the Aymerich, Col. Mayer's column ,vas ordered to pressur e which was being brought on the with draw. Col. Mayer having lost part of his hostile forees in the Southern Cameroons food supplies through a raid by the enemy would have had the effect of preventing a on a convoy of 500 carriers, began his retreat coneentr{1tion against u s."

A GERMAN BLOCK-HOUSE A T G ARUA. Dest royed by the A llied Artillery. THE TIJYIES HISTORY OF 'THE TV AB. 287

A WRECKED WIRELESS STATION, CAMEROON. After this episod e there was a prolonged pause in Gen. Dobell's operations. In the area in which his forces were engaged the heavy rains r endered the renewal of active campa{gning impossible until September or October. The unsuccessful a dvance on Yaunde coin­ cided with brilliant successes achieved by the Anglo-French forces in Northern Cameroon, t hough the scen e of operations there was too field and strongly garrisoned, Kusseri proved distant to affect Col. Mayer's fortunes. The too strong for the force brought against it, and can'lpaign in the north b egan with Gen. Lar­ Gen. L argeau was obliged to retire. The geau's attack on Kusseri. Gen. Largeau was Germans on th!Olir side took the offensive, cap­ one of the mo t distinguish ed of that brilliant ttITed a small French post and induced Karnak. band of French officers who rnade their fame in Sultan of Logone, to raise his levies against Africa. H e had been one of lVJ archand 's com­ the French. On August 28 the French met r ad es at Fa h oda, had p layed a major part in and defeated these levies, Sultan Karnak bringing the central Sudan under French b eing killed. This was the only instance in rule, and in 19] 3 he had crowned his efforts by Cameroon of a n ative chieftain allying himself the defeat of the Senu!O si. He now organized with the Gennans; and the fate of Karnak may the Fren ch forces which invaded Camer oon h ave ser ved as a warning to others.. On from. the north-east and r emained in com­ September 21 Gen. L argeau again attacked rnand until Octorer, 1915, when the end of t h e Kusseri; this time with su ccess. ' After a campaign being n ear , he r eturned to France. stout resistan ce the Gerrnan t roops gave way Given a brigade of infantry at Verdun in b efore a bayonet charge of t h e Senegalese. In February, 1916, h e was killed there on March 26, a panic flight they abandon ed everything ­ aged 47. gtms, ammunition , h orses and baggage. With Gen. L argeau led in person the battalion Kusseri in his possession Gen. Largeau organized which in the first week of the war endeavoured a column to go south and join with the British t o carry Kusseri by ·assault . Situated just forces from Nigeria. above the junction of the Logone with the Col. Brisset, to w horn t h e con:lInand of this river Shar1, with a water front, strongly forti- column was given, left, Kusseri on October 4.

THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. taking a south-west rout.e towards the Man Cunliffe in person made unavailing efforts to d1ra mountains. His force was largely com­ storm the fortress. In one desperate attack a posed of young recruits from Mossi, the country foothold was gained on the summit, and part north of Ashanti which had raised a levy to of the 1st Nigerian Regiment attempted to h elp in the conquest of Togoland. Capturing carry an outer work with the bayonet, but three or four small German posts en route, was stopped within sixty yards of the enemy Col. Brisset. on October 14 joined a British defences. These gallant fellows held on to column camped south of Mora, a fortified post the position they had gained for forty-eight on a commanding eminence in a very rugged hours without food or water, but after every and difficult c01mtry, in parts inaccessible. effort to supply them had failed Gen. Cunliffe M ora was abundantly provisioned and almost was compelled to order their withdrawal. impregnable. Its commandant was Haupt­ From September 17 onward to the end no m3.nn von Raben. further assaults on Mora were made, the On the instructions of Sir Fredk. Lugard, blockade being resumed. G overnor-General of Nigeria, three colmnns drawn from the Nigerian Regiment of the Of the other columns which in August, 'iV est African Frontier Force were, as soon as 1914, entered Cameroon from Nigeria., one, t.he war b egan, concentrated at points close to the Cameroon frontier. A larger move­ ment was designed, but the demands on the Inilitary strength of the protectorate by Sir · Charles Dobell reduced the r6le of the frontier columns, for the time being, to that of "local activity." All the columns crossed the German frontier on the sa:rp.e day-August 25. For forces destined simply for "local activity," they acted ambitiously. The most northerly column, starting from Maidugari under Capt. R. W. Fox, tried to carry Mora by assault, and failed. It was still watching Mora when it was joined by the French under Col. Brisset. The French in. their turn tried to capture Mora, and they likewise failed. ·Col. Brisset's men carried several positions in night attacks, from which, however, they were driven by HERR EBERMAIER. counter-attacks. The fighting was: so severe German Governor of Cameroon. that the Germans sought an armistice to bury their dead. It was then decided that Capt. lllder Lieut.-Col. P.· Maclear (Dublin Fusiliers) Fox's column should remain to blockade starting from Y ola, attacked Garua on the Mora, while Col. Brisset marched south towards night of August 30. One fort was captured, . Marua, a considerable Moslem town. He but at dawn the following day the en emy drove back a German force sent from that counter-attacked in force and compelled the place to the relief of Mora and later on attacked British to retreat. In this fighting Col. Marua itself. The conflict appeared to be Maclear and three other officers were killed, indecisive, but under cover of darkness the three were wounded (one of whom died), and German cOlnmandant evacuated the town, two doctors of the ViT.A. Medical' Staff were retiring to Garua. TIns was on December 12, captured 'while at~ending to the wounded. and thus, with the exception of Mora, the The losses in the native ranks were heavy, extreme northern end of Cameroon passed and the COlllllll was compelled to fall back from the possession of the Germans. on Y ola. Later in the year the Y ola cohum'l It may be added here that the situation was placed undeI Lieut.-Col. vVebb-Bowen, at Mora remained l.llchanged till the end of and a force was again sent towards Garna. the war. Up to August, 1915, the British It was joined by the French colmnn under were content to n'laintain a blockade. Between Col. Brisset, who had r eceived reinforcements August 23 and September 15 Brig.-Gen. from Gen. L<:trgeau. The ViTebb-Bowen-Bri'sset 300 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. columns rnade no attempt to take Garua, the dead and the p osltlOn was h op eless th at Milne -Howe gave the order to ch ar g!3, and t h ey went through the situation ther e remammg nnchanged until en em y ana escaped into the bush. There t h ey m ostly t.he middle of April, 19 ] 5. managed t o eva,de the German s, a nd after day,' of ' iVhile the Maidugari column had not achieve!l . ·tarvation got back to Ikom. On t h e following Frida,y (September 11 ) I visited Nsana kan g wi th thc m a rine m.uch, and the Yola column had suffered a tran sport officer . 'liVe wen t on a la unch fl y ing the white serious reverse, it fared still worse with the fl ag and t h e R ed Cr os fl ag, and t ool;: with us m edical l"; tores for t h e 'wounded and p er. 'on a l stores for th e in colunm whi@h invaded Cameroon August, prisoners. The German o'ffi cors were v ery good foll ows, 1914, from Ikom, in the Cross River district. and we and they and t h e prisoners (,"" h o were on p arole} TIlls colurnn, under Lieut.-Col. G. T. Mair, sat r ound a big ta ble a nd sm oked cigarettes and dra nk '

THE RAILWAY BRIDGE, JAPOMA. Blown up by the enemy . hilated. Of?,ly two officers and 90 native him where t hcy could n ot , slept in t he d ense b u ::; h , oldiers escaped by forcing a way through the cut their way at the rate of eight miles a d ay, swum a river , and fina ll y brought up on Briti. h territory and saw enemy vvith th~ bayonet. The British 10sse.· OLlr la unch approaching. 'liVe took t h em on board, were two officers, one ~uropean N .C. O. '- and gav e them food, put them in the dinghy 'with some m ore and ~ent them down t o Ikom. The following d ay, as 95 native rank and file killed, one officer and we were coming back, we found a whole section who 16 natives wounded, and thrte officers, one Euro­ had been with Rodwe ll and refu sed to follow him over p ean N.C.O., and 49 natives taken prieoner--a the liver; they h ad . m ad e a handrail for t hose who could n ot .·\\-im. They h ad been a week with o ut total of 168 casualties. The German losses in food. personnel 'were even heavier than those of the CoL Mair Jater on r eoccupied N sanakang, British, but the effect of t.heir victory was and advanced to and seized Ossidinge. marked. B etween December 25, 1914, and January 8, A medical officer serving with the Nigerian 1915, h e made a further advance in face of forces who visited Tsanakang a few days later, strong opposition, but a littJe later drevv b ack describing his experien ces, wrote : to Ossidinge. It was oniy when th e tren ch es wej'e piled up with The position in the north in F ebruary, 1915, THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE TiVAR. 301

MBO FORT.

when Hrig.-Cen. F. J. Cunliffe, con1.mandant of as their comrades in Europe-a shortage of the Nigerian Regim.ent, took over the command ammunition. both of the French and British forces on that The reduction of Garua was the first impera. front, was one approaching stalemate. Gen. tive step in the northern campaign. Gen. Cunliffe in cons'ultation v;rith Cen. Dobell had Clmliffe was not, however, able to invest the agreed to take en ergetic action. H e had for place until the middle of April. His force at Chief of Staff Col. ' iV. D. vVright , V.C., who Garua consisted of 11 companies of infantry had up to then been on Gen. Dobell's staff. (8 British, 3 French), one company of mounted Foreseeing the need of " big guns "-the tern'l infantry (British), and one squadron' of cavalry is relative- h e obtained the loan of a 12- (French). The Challenger's naval gun was p.olmder from the Challenger, while from Dakar with the force; the French 95 mm. did not Col. ~ri sse t was supplied with a 95 mm. gLID. arrive till May 28. Hauptmann von Crailsheim, These two glIDS played an important p art in cOlun'landant -of Garna, had a force of about the subsequent defeat of the Germans, although 40 E-uropeans and 400 natives His defensive t he gunners sllffer ed from the sam e disabilit~T strength was, however, great. Carua lies

MBO FORT. 302 THE TllVlES HiSTORY OF THE TV AR.

o~ the Benue, which protects it on the south, to assault Fort A, when at 3.30 p.m. the white in hilly cOlmtry, and it had been turned into flag was hoisted. The German native soldiers an entrenched camp 'which would have done had got out of hand; and had refused to fight oredit to the engineers on the front in France. any longer. It appeared that the fire of the Without the aid of the two big guns its reduo­ two heavy guns, which had been bombarding tion would have been almost impossible. In Garua since May 28, had wrought much damage, the early days of the investment Hauptmann and had had a terrifying effect on thfl natives, von Crailsheim distinguished himself by a who had never before had such an experi­ daring manceuvre. ' iVith a few Europeans, 100 enc,=, Hauptmann von Crailsheim at first mounted men and 170 infantry he broke out of asked for terms; he was told that failing un­ Garua and was joined by some four European conditional surrender in two hours the attack and 50 native soldiers from N galmdere. He would begin again. At the last minute of the then attacked a British outpost, but failed to second hour a German officer bearing a w hi te capture it, and next, to quote Gen. Clmlif£e's flag issued from the fort, and surrendered words: Garua unconditionally. The personnel of the by avoiding all roads and making a wonderftu march of fort was 37 Europeans and 212 native ranks. 28 . hours without a halt, succeeded in avoiding the troops I haC! sent to intercept him, and made his way Five glms and ten maxilns and a good deal of safely back to Garua. ammunition was also taken. By the night of May 30 the bulk of the troops Immediately after the fall of Garua Gen. were entrenched from 3,000 to 3,500 yards from Cunliffe sent troops south to seize the edge of the plateau on which Ngaundere stands, and thus prevent an en81uy concentration on a valuable strategic line. " On June 28 German outposts, holding the .steep paths leading up to the edge of the plateau, were, in the midst of a terrific tornado, completely surprised and defeated by the advance guard of Col. \Vebb­ Bowen's column, and Ngaundere itself was occupied the same evening." In the night the enemy cOlmter-attacked, was repulsed and retired on Tibati. At this point, Gen. Dobell's attempt to capture Yalmde having failed, Gen. Cunliffe NLOHE STATION. decided to be content to hold the line N galmder e - Kontscha - Gashaka until Gen. the fort upon which Gen. Cunliffe had Dobell and Gen. Aymerich were ready to decided that the assault should be made. resume their offensive. Meantime he made the This was called Fort A, and was on the summit effort to capture Mora, which we have already of a spur at the northern end of the defenc0s. chronicled, By advancing and entrenching under cover of darkness, the Allies had by Jlme 10 a line of Gen. Aymerich, the officer in command of trenches with 400 yards frontage within the troops in French Equatorial Africa, had 1,000 yards of the fort. Part of the difficulties made it his first duty to secure his lines of com­ the force had to meet may be gathered from the munication, threatenecl by the German posts at fact that water had to be carried to the front Bonga, on the Sanga, at its confluence with the trenches in pots over a distance of two miles. Congo, and at Zinga, on the Ubangi. Inspector On the night. of J Lme 9 the'enemy had made tvvo Leprince embarked at Brazzaville with a small attempts to break out to the south across the force as soon as war was declared. ascended the river; but they were met by a hot fire, and the Congo, and on August 6 surprised Bonga and majority were driven back. The Benue was captured its garrison. D.escending the Ubangi in flood, and numbers were drowned in trying from Bangui, 60 miles above Zinga, with a to cr oss it- the British recovered 70 bodies. single cO,mpany of Senegalese, Capt. Beon sur­ About 45 natJive solcliers only made good their prised and captured that place on August 7. escape. Documents found in the captured .positions On June 10 Gen. Clmliffe was preparing showed that the Germans had instructions to THE ADVANCE ON Y AUNDE. The British Forces attacking a fort. 303 304 THE TL7\1lE8 HISTOR Y OF THl') lVAR.

Y AUNDE FORT. Occupied by British Force under Colonel Gorges, January 1, 1916. ' invade French territory, a s1.uncient com­ the outset a number of French planters and mentary on the German proposals for neutrali­ traders in the Upper Sanga district had made zation. Gen. Aymerich then organized two their escape to ' iVesso, a French border town at columns: one, under Col. Rutin, was to advance the junction' of the N'Goko with the Sanga, north up the Sanga valley; the other, under and had with the help of a few native troops Col. Morisson, was to advance west along the seized a n eighbouring German post. There Lobaye, which joins the Ubangi near Zinga. they had b een surprised by the enemy, and all The Lobaye column did much good work the Frenchmen save one killed. The survivor completely out of the limelight. By October fled to W esso, which was h astily evacuated Col. Morisson h ad occupied Carnot, over by its small garrison. The Germans took 200 miles from his st,arting-point, and farther possession and began to loot, but, in their south, Bania, where h e got into touch with turn, hastily fled b efor e Col. Rutin. By Col. Rutin's cohunn. Pushing still west· Octob er 18 Col. Rutin h ad secur ed the impor­ ward Col. Morisson found that the Germans tant and fortified post of N ola, on the Sanga retreating b efore him and Col. Rutin had con­ over 300 miles from. B onga. Sever al German centrated at Baturi, on the road to Dume and officers and N .C.O.'s, together with a small Yaunde. On December 9 Col. Morisson reached cannon, four machine guns, and a large quantity Baturi, which is in 'the dense forest area. The of ammunition wer e captured. But a German Germans, who had hastily evacuated Baturi force coming from lVIolundu on the N'Goko during the riight of the 8th, retired to Bertua, cut his line of con:lInunication by seizing 33 miles farther west, whither Col. Morisson the post of N'Zimu, m idway between Bonga pursued them. After a sharp fight on Decem­ and Nola. Gen. Aymerich himself took com­ ber 28 the Germans again evacuated their mand of a force which hurried from Bonga position in the night. So far Col. Morisson's to retak e J' Zimu. It was at this juncture advance had been rapid, and he pushed on to that the B elgians came to the aid of the French, t he neighbourhood of DDI?e ; but as the Ger­ placing their river st eanlers and their art.illery mans fell back and the garrisons of various at the disposal of Gen. Aymerich. They posts united, they became stronger. Col. also sent 180 tirailleurs with the force which Morisson's progress was not only checked, he attack ed N'Zimu, their boat, the Luxem­ was forced to give up Bertua, and the Germans bourg, conveying part of the troops. The established themselves solidly at Moopa, 25 Belgian contingent was later incr eased to m.iles south of Baturi. 580 rifles, besides supply trains, carriers, etc. The Sanga column under Col. Rutin also At N'Zimu, which was retaken on October 29, made good progress at the beginning. It was after three days' obstinate fighting, the Belgian a combined river and land expedition. At native soldiers, as in subsequent engagements, THE TIMES HIS TOR Y 011 ' THE WAR. 30[) behaved with the utInost gallantry. The compelled to give up its aclvan e. Col. Hutin Luxembourg was steered under heavy fire to had had many engagements and had take n. within 150 yards of the German positjon, prisoner several Europeans and some hundreds and its small guns had a good deal to do wjth of German native soldiers ; he was also joined the victory. M. Fourneau, Lieut.-Governor by over 300 German native troops who had of Middle Congo, who was on board the boat, deserted, while the natives in the region south was seriously wounded, but recover ed. of Yaunde were in open r evolt . The N 'Zimu incident showed the danger to Col. Morisson had not been able to advance which the Sanga cohmul was exposed on its a new until May, 1915. Re attacked Moopa left, and Col. Rutin had to devote much time (June 3- 7) but failed to break through the to clearing the Germans from the N ' Goko defences, which were cleverly constructed. region. It was not lmtil D ecemb er 21 that, Another attack was lllade on June 23, the after very hard fighting, Molundu was occupied assailants being now provided with a mountain by the French. Col. Rutin then from bis gun of 80 mm. Six hours' bombardment was Hl3.in body- his total effectives, including the followed by a bayonet charge, and Moopa was Belgian contingent, were at that tUlle uncleI' captured. On July 22 B ertua was agair~ 2,000- formed two divisions to advance west occupied, and on July 25 Col. Mori 'son entered towards Lomie, on the road to Y a"Lmde. Dunle, which the Germans set on fire in their It was about this period that M. Fourneau r etreat. went to Duala to pr opose the joint advance French forces, whose activities had not on y aunde. Gen. Apuerich had, however, hitherto had any effect on the general situa­ over estilnated the ability of the comparatively tion, now b egan to threaten Col. Zunmer­ weak RutUl and Morisson columns to m ake lnann's poslt ion fr01u the south-west. Tn good Dume and Lomie, whence the advance on Y aunde was planned to be made. As soon as they lost the advantage of river transport they had to face all the difficulties presolit2-.:l_ by forest and swamp which hinder ed Gen. Dobell's advance. It was not "Lmtil J une 25, 1915, that Col. Rutin captured Lomie-threl' weeks after Col. Mayer's column had t een

AT BANY O FORT. Signaller with heliograph communicating with the troops att acking Banyo Hill. Smaller picture: A view of the fort. 306 THE T INIES H1STORY OF THE WAR

/

- - _ / '\ -_ ...... ; ... Lomie b .I'

--"' ReFerence _ am Q Railways- Principal Roads---_ '-llFfPPlF,AW- ~ j;' ~'" :':"i.': ~~ : ~ \; MILES. ----~ Q ~o R ' R I 0 M U N I . \: ------:- San /s h ) 1:.\ 852

DETAIL MAP OF CAMEl<.OON. the first week of t h e wa.r the German armed By the end of July Gen . Aym erich's b oat s R ohlfs and Itolo had m ade dem on stra ­ forces were ready for the final advan ce on tions on t he Gabun coast. The F rench r ep lied Yaunde, and Gen. Cunliffe's forces were by sending some 600 Sen egalese, con voyed but waiting for the signal t o sweep south. b y t h e gunboat Surprise, to Coco B each , at the Further consultations between the various entran ce to t he Rio Muni, and the capital commanders took p lace ; t he combined m ove· of German Muni. After a very st iff fight, in luents were p lanned and as soon as the rains which t h e Rohlfs and Itolo were sunk, Coco permitted Gen. Dobell again took the B each , which t h e Germans had ren am ed offen siv e. His command h ad been strengthen ed Ukoko, was captured on September 21, 1914. by the arrival of the 5th Lignt Infantry of t h e Thereafter Fren ch tr oops, tmder Col. Miquelard, I ndian Army, and in N ovember , 1915, his cleared the en emy en t irely from German force reached its m aximun'l strengt.h of 9,700. Muni, and a column under Col. le Meillour T h e n ew advan ce on Ya unde ha d by t hat advan ced nort h , p arallel to the east ern frontier t im e m ade good progress. It b egan on Sep. of Spanish Guinea . Col. le Meillour took t ember 22. This time the French and British successively Oyem and Bitam, the last-named columns under Gen. Dobell moved eastwar d station , n ear the north-east corner of Spanish separat ely. Col. Mayer 's force went for ward Guin ea, b eing carried by assault on July 17, from its b ase n ear E dea along t he railway, 1915. A French force also advan ced from t he reoccupied E sek a on Oct ob er 30, and was port of Campo, parallel to the northern Spanish directed to m ak e good the road leading from front ier, t h e intention b eing t o cu t off the Y aunde to Kribe. The Brit ish column , operat­ Germ ans sh ould t h ey attempt t o escape ing somewha t t o the n ort h of Col. Mayer, into n eutral t erritory. T his ob ject was not fotmd its passage m ost stubborn ly disputed attained, t h e Campo force and that of Col. unt il the end of Novemb er , "vh en Nglmg was le MeillolU' n ot b eing able to j oin h ands in t ak en. By this t ime t h e Brit ish bad worked time, while closely to gu ard a fron t ier 130 m iles their way almost t hrou gh t he primeval for8st, long was an under taking b eyond t h e power of and on D ecember 17 t hey seized D chang Mangas, the force a.vailable. which st an ds in more op en and cultivated THE TIlYIES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 307

FRENCH TIRAILLEURS AT JAPOMA. country. On December 21 the French column, semicircle in north-central Cftmeroon. The which h ad b een very heavily engaged and had French colmnn tmder Col. Brisset togeth er with suffer ed serious loss, had broken down the Col. Webb-Bowen 's column entered Tibati on enemy r esistance, and Col. Mayer 's tenacity of November 3. B amenda was occupied, after a purpose had its r eward in the capture of brisk fight, by the Cross River colmnn, now Mangeles on D ecember 21. under ~/Iajor Crookenden, on October 22. In the Cross River sector, where the Nsanakang B oth Gen. Aymerich's forces and those of disaster had happen ed, Gen. Dobell cooperated Gen. Cunliffe were also now closing in on by sending the 5th Light Infantry of the Yaunde. The northern forces, which at this Indian Army and other troops under Lieut.­ time numbered b etween 3,000 and 4,000, were Col. Cotton forward from the northern railway. set in motion in October, Gen. Ctmliffe's first This column hftd a great defti of hard marching movements b eing directed to the line Tibati, and several minor encounters with the enemv, Banyo, and Bamenda, which forms a rough who retreat ed north. Col. Cotton reoccupied

TRANSPORT DIFFiCULTIES IN CAMEROON. 308 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR.

Dchang on November 6, and going on to circle on the plain-rolling grass land, un­ Bagarn, there joined Major Crookenden. Mean­ inhabited- to give notice of any attempt of time, 1\,lbo had been seized. the garrison to break out. Three 2.95-inch The capture of Banyo, which lies between guns supported the attack. Bamenda and Tibati, was an · operation of From Banyo the enemy's position on t.he mountain more difficulty. The European settlement at looked gl'iil1 and stupendous (wrote an officer in a letter to Sir Fredk. Lugard), huge rocky boulders Banyo was occupied on October 24, but the standing out prominently right up to the very top, garrison were entrenched on an isolated monn­ and the. ides of the mountain bristling with strongly built "sangars." vVe began our attack early on the tain rising steeply 1,200 :eet from the sm'­ mornil1.g of Jovember 4. The infantry, covel'ed b y rounding country. It had very strong defences, t he fire from our three guns, worked t heir way up was amply provisioned, the garrison was well . 'lowly and doggedly foot by foot, climbing over rock " and tearing their way through the thorny scrub and armed, and every German in Cg,meroon believed long grass, under a heavy rifle and maxim-gun fire that it would hold out till the end of the war. from the enemy's "sangars " and con cealed snipers among the rocks. By the evening mo:::: t of the cum · By November 2 Gen. Cunliffe, who personally panies had managed to struggle half-way up the bill, directed the operations, had five companies there getting what shelter they could from the inces­ of infantry on the under-features of the moun­ sant fir~ of the enemy, aided by the light of fir e b a ll ~ and rockets. Officers and men, exhausted and drenched t.ain, with his rnounted infantry in a wide with ra,in, hlU1g on d eterminedly to the grm,md gained . [Under cover of the fog Capt. Bowyer -Smijth had led hi ,; company right. up to t h e summit. There it came IlDder a hot cross fire, and Capt. Bowyer·Smijth h aving been killed, the company was forced back to the foot of the mount,a.in. ~ At d awn on the morning of the 5th they sta,l'Lell climbing once more. Our troops having got diroctly under the first line of "sa ugars," the enemy, in addi­ tion to rifle and maxim-gun fire, started rolling d own rocks and throwing dynamite bombs. All that uay our m en gradually worked their way up, capturing a small stone r edoubt and " sangar" here and there.­ Owing to the paucity of glU1 ammunition, the covering a rtillery Are could not afford th e infa ntry the as.'istl1ll.ce so imperatively n ece sary on these occasions. For­ t u.nately a convoy arri\'ed on the afternoon of the ;3th bringing with it 200 more rounds of gem ammuni­ t ion \\'hich, hurriedly sent out, enabled the guns lO AI'e

AT JAPOMA. Tirailleurs resting. Circle picture: A house at Japoma. THE TI1JtlES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 309

Cunliffe had concentrated his striking force on the line N gila-N denge and was ready for the final advance. CoL Brisset, ·who was sent forward to secure the crossing of the Sanaga river. at N achtigal Falls, soon came into touch with Gen. Aymerich's columns, which were pouring eastward on Yaunde. By Janu­ ary 8 Gen. Cunliffe's advanced troops were within forty ruiles of that place. It was only on that day that the general learned that Yaunde had already fallen. When the British column from Wum Biagas had fought its way through the forest and reached the open tableland at lYIangas, Gen. Dobell directed it to push forward to Yaunde, without wai.ting for the French column under CoL Mayer . For a few days the enemy still offered resistance, but from December 22 onward str ongly entren ched positions were

BRITISH T ROOPS ON T HE ROAD TO YAUNDE. somewhat more rapidly till the upward advance of the infantry rendered it too dangerous to continue their fire. Darkness set in early that evening-at 5 p.m. An hour or two later a terrific thunderstorm burst over the mountain. H eavy firing and the explosion of bombs and fireballs continued. A misty morning prevented our seeing what was happening as dawn broke on the 6th, but as the mist dispersed a white flag could be seen on the top of the hill and our men silhouetted against the sky.line. The enemy, completely d emoralized by the deter­ mined advance of our m en despite h eavy losses, had during the night of the 5th-6th broken into small ~cattered parties. Owing to the darkness of the night, the noise of rain and thunder, and their knowledge of ~he country, the majority of the enemy parties had managed to worm their way down the hill without being intercepted, only, however, to run up against the detached posts of Olu' mounted infantry guarding all roads in the vicinity. These enemy parties then fired a few wild shots and scattered into the long grass (10 ft, high] where it was ~ifficult to follow them. " This action," wrote Gen, Cunliffe, and not without r eason, "may, I think, be justly d escribed as one of the rnost arduous ever fought by native African troops." After the fall of Banyo Gen, Cunliffe's columns struck towards Yalllde, the enemy still offering steady resistance and destroying the bridges over the rivers in his r etreat, Y oko was seized by CoL Brisset on Decernber ] ~

Fllllban by CoL Cotton and lYIaj or U niacke MAJOR-GENERAL DO BELL (on left) WJ TH on D ecember 2, and by January 1, 1916, Gen. COLONEL GORGES. 310 THE TIMB'/:) HIS TORY OF THE liV AR.

THE ENTRY OF THE FRANCO-BRITISH

fOlmd t.o b e abandoned. On January 1, 1916, t erritory on F ebruary 4, and a few d ays later the British column under Col. Gorges marched H err Ebermaier was permitted to send an into Yaunde unopposed. Herr Ebermaier, Col. open t elegram in French to Dr. SoH, the Colonial Zimmermann and over 800 Germans, with Minister at B erlin, announcing that " want of native troops and several thousands of carriers, IInmitions compels me to leave the Protectorate had evacuated the place some days previously, together with all troops a~d staff." H err making south-west for Spanish Guinea, the Ebermaier and Col. Zirmn.er mann surrender ed n earest point of n eutral territory b eing 125 to the Spani::>h authorities, and a li ttle later miles distant. on the Germans, who numbered 825, were The enemy had had a good start, and thOllgh tran sported to Spain, where they were columns went in pursuit they failed to over­ interned . take the main body. After a rearguard action A British officer, Col. Gorges, and his column on January 8 at Koimaka on the Njong river, were, as stated, the first of the Allied troops to Col. Haywood, however, r eleased seventeen enter Yaunde; n ext to arrive ,vas the French British and seven French civilians, and seven column from the n orth under Col. Brisset. It British and three French officers and N.C.O.'s h ad b een on active ca~paign over fifteen who had been held prison ers by the. Germans. nlOnths, and h ad marched and fought over (These prisoners, among whom were som e ladies, 1,000 miles of territory . On Col. Brisset's had b een very fairly treated during their heels the Fren ch troops from the east p oured captivity. ) in, and Gen. Aymerich took command of the By January 18 H err Ebermaier and Col. Allied forces at Yaunde. A little later , on Zimmermann had retreat ed b eyond Ebelowa. January 28, the B elgian contingent Jnarche.d A strong French force under Col. Morisson into Yalmde, and t he flags of Britairl, France followed them ..uP, the French column working and B elgium were hoist ed on the fort. west from Campo cooperating. They did n ot The few places which r emained in the hands bring the enemy to a stand, but, in Gen. of the Germans were ab andoned b y t h em by Dobell's phrase, they "succeeded in driving the end of January. H auptmann von Raben t.he Gerrnan force across the Campo river on his Jl1.ountain fastness of Mora in the far into neutre.l territory." north alone h eld out. To take the stronghold The fir t German refugees enter ed Spanil:: h b y for ce would b e a costly proceeding, and THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 311

FORCES INTO GARUA, JUNE 11, 1915.

Gen. Cunliffe decided first to offer terms to the it is to the officers "and men that the chief gallant garrison-that the officers should retain tribute is due. There is no finer fighting their swords, that all Europeans should be material in the world than the West African interned in England, * and that the native ranks native, and when led by officers in whom he should be r eleased and given safe passages to has confidence " no day appears to be too long, their homes. Von Raben accepted this offer, no task too difficult." The attachment of and on February 18 Mora was surrendered. the Senegalese to their officers is common Cameroon was conquered. Apart from the knowledge, and it would be impossible to praise very valuable h elp given by British and French too highly the devotion and loyalty to their warships and marines, some 7,000 British, British officers of the native ranks of the 11,000 French, and 600 Belgian troops had ~~est African Frontier Force. Several of the been employed, the rank and file, save for the native soldiers received the Distinguished Indian 5th Light Infantry, b eing all natives Conduct Medal for rescuing, or attempting to of vVest or Central Africa. t They had b eaten rescue, exhausted officers. Among other valu­ an enemy fully as numerous and in whose ranks able lessons, the Cameroon campaign proved were some 3,000 Europeans. Mistakes had beyond question that in vVest Africa Great b een made, as we have indicated, but the Britain and France possessed reservoirs whence operations as a whole were well conceived and could be drawn great and invaluable additions brilliantly executed. Generals Dobell, Aymerich to their fighting forces; soldiers not unworthy and Cunliffe worked in p erfect harmony, and to take rank: with the best European troops. the coordination of the final advance on Throughout the campaign the Germans­ Yaunde was a triumph of organization. The with some honourable exceptions in the case lines of cornmunication, both of Gen. Aynlerich of officers-treated the native population with and Gen. Clmliffe, were over 400 miles long; great severity. In the words of a report by those of Gen. Dobell fully 200 miles. Yet a Nigerian " official published by the British Colonial Office the conduct of the enemy * The Germans had a great dread of being interned in Africa. "created a reign of terror in the neighbour­ t Perhaps anoth er exception should be made, as hood of any German garrison." Food supplies part of the West India Regiment served under Gen. and cattle were taken without payment, DobeIl. This regiment, however, is composed of negroes, though recruited in the W"e8t IndiE>s . and many natives were deliberately murdered. 3]2 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR.

A SECTION OF THE GOLD COAST BATTALION, W.A.F. P.

The policy of the authorities was exemplified in England, as European kultur nations, had a memonmdum written by a German captain chosen to bring war into Africa they must take which fell into the hands of General Dobell. the consequences. On their side the Germans The German officer wrote :- complained of ill· treatment by the French and I have ordered the destruction of all Duala villages. Briti h of German colonists-complaints either All Dualas met on the roads carrying weapons (matchets, entirely untrue Or frivolous. Such damage as bows and arrows, spears. and also rifles) are to be shot. Prisoners will only be made when they are caught red­ was suffered by German residents was inflicted handed and can be legally tried and condemned to death. by natives, Duala and others, in retaliation for 'While this officer's orders reflected the injuries inflicted upon them. As was naIvely general attitude of the Germans, they did not, stated by some of the Germans themselves, ID some cases could not, restrain their own their overthrow was hailed with such joy by native troops from outrages. In the early the inhabitants of Cameroon that "the sky months of the war the establishments of the rang again with an indescribable shout of scorn . French traders in New Cameroon were looted, and rej oicing." The British, wrote Gen. Dobell • and this, among other offences, led Gen. were received by the people as their deliverers, Aymerich to lodge a formal complaint with and similar testimony was borne by the French Herr Eberrnaier. The Governor's answer was authorities. The disappearance of the German characteristic. H e would, he said, do what h e flag from West Africa opened up for its native could to prevent outrages, but as France and races a future bright with hope.