CAMPAIGN IN TOGOLAND AND THE CAMEROONS

The first shots of the Great War had hardly detonated across Europe when their echoes were heard in Africa. The war fever began to hover over Germany's colonial possessions in Africa—Togoland, the Cameroons, German Southwest Africa, and, greatest of all, German East Africa. Each of these colonies became in turn the scene of armed invasions and fierce conflicts, as important to the small forces involved as the great campaigns on the continent across the seas.

When Great Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, and the news flashed across the world to the official representatives of the warring nations in Africa, the British acting governor of the Gold Coast and the French governor of Dahomey planned a concerted campaign by land in cooperation with the warships to be found in African waters.

The first blow was struck on August 8, 1914, in Togoland, a country about the size of Ireland, lying between French Dahomey and the British Gold Coast. It is populated by a million Hausas and about 400 whites. At the beginning of the war the military force of Togoland could not have exceeded 250 whites and 3,000 natives. Hemmed in on three sides by French and British territory, with a coast line easily approached by warships, the colony was not in a position to offer much resistance if attacked.

On August 8, 1914, a British cruiser appeared before Lome, the capital of Togoland, and the town was surrendered without a shot being fired. But before the British force landed, the little German army of about 60 Europeans and 400 natives fell back to Atakpame, 100 miles in the interior.

While this was happening at Lome an expeditionary force composed of the Gold Coast Regiment, with British officers and commanded by Captain F. C. Bryant, R. A., crossed the frontier in motor cars on August 8, or 9, 1914, and a French force entered Togoland from the other side. A few days later the Allies had possession of all the southern part of Togoland, and advanced together toward Atakpame to capture an important German wireless station at Kamina in the same region.

The only real fighting in this campaign took place on August 25, 1914, when Captain Bryant and his forces had crossed the Monu River. The Allies drove the enemy from his intrenchments, seized the wireless station, and occupied Atakpame. Their losses were two officers and 21 men killed and about 50 wounded.

On August 26, 1914, the Germans surrendered unconditionally, and the Allies came into possession of three Maxim guns, 1,000 rifles and 320,000 rounds of ammunition. It was stated at the time that the Germans offered such a feeble resistance because many natives, on whom they had counted, refused to take up arms against the British.

Togoland having fallen to the Allies, it was arranged between the officials of Great Britain and France that the colony should be jointly governed, each to control that part of Togoland nearest her possessions. In a few months' time normal trade was resumed in the Allies' colony, and since private property had been respected during the invasion, there was nothing left to show that the country had recently been the scene of small but decisive conflicts, far-reaching in their effects.

The action in the African war drama now shifts to the Cameroons (German Kamerun Colony), which Germany took possession of in 1884. It has a seacoast of about 200 miles on the Bight of Biafra. To the northeast and south are the British Protectorate of Nigeria and French Equatorial Africa. The country is largely mountainous and is 290,000 square miles in extent. Before the war there were less than 2,000 whites among a population of 2,500,000 negroes, principally of the Bantu race.

The Cameroons, though surrounded by territory of the Allies, was a more difficult country to conquer than Togoland, owing to its natural advantages and the difficulties of communication over great distances. The first moves of the Allies met with disaster. It was in the African rainy season and misadventures multiplied as the invading troops marched through a wild and badly mapped country. It was decided between the Allies that two French columns should move from French Congo, while British columns entered at different points on the frontier of Nigeria.

On August 8, 1914, a detachment of mounted infantry of the West African Frontier Force left Kano and, marching 400 miles in seventeen days through West Africa, got in touch with the Germans at Tepe, a frontier station just inside the Cameroons. In the fierce engagement that followed the Germans were repulsed, losing five officers and suffering other casualties.

On August 29, 1914, the river station of Garua was attacked, and here one of the most disastrous battles of the campaign was fought. On August 31, 1914, Lieutenant Colonel Maclear, commanding the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and native troops, left their intrenchments 400 yards from the German forts and advanced to attack. The German gunners having perfect range, poured a murderous fire from machine guns on the British forces. The native troops wavered and fled, leaving British officers in the trenches, and these in turn were soon forced to fly to escape complete annihilation. Lieutenant Colonel Maclear was killed, and of the 31 other officers only 10 escaped, while 40 per cent of the native troops were lost. The remainder of the British force retreated into Nigeria in such an exhausted condition that had the Germans followed up their victory not a man would have escaped.

The second British expedition which entered the Cameroons from a more westerly point along the Nigerian frontier occupied, after slight resistance, the German station of Nsanakong a few miles from the border, where a week later the Germans attacked in force at two o'clock in the morning. The British resisted stubbornly, but, having exhausted their ammunition, the garrison tried to cut their way out with the bayonet. The British lost three officers, while large numbers of native soldiers were killed or made prisoners. The remainder, escaping to the bush, after many hardships found their way back to Nigeria. Another British expedition from Calabar, near the coast, occupied Archibong, August 29, 1914, while about the same time a German force took possession of the Nigerian station of Okuri.

The British had failed by land; they were more successful on the sea, as will be seen in the chapter on Naval Operations. On September 4, 1914, an attempt was made by the Germans to wreck the British gunboat Dwarf, which with the cruiser Cumberland was watching German ships in the Cameroon estuary. The German merchantman Nachtigal tried later to ram the same gunboat and wrecked herself with a loss of 36 men. Further attempts to destroy the Dwarf also failed.

The British now taking the offensive cleared the channel for three miles, where the Germans had sown mines and sunk 10 or 12 steamboats to obstruct the waterway to Duala, the capital of the Cameroons. H.M.S. Challenger and five troopships joined the Dwarf and Cumberland on September 26, 1914, and, moving on Duala, bombarded the town.

On September 27, 1914, the Germans offered to surrender Duala unconditionally, and on September 28, 1914, Brigadier General C. M. Dobell came ashore and took it over. About the same time a battalion landing at Bonaberi, across the river from Duala, capitulated after some desultory fighting. The wireless station at Duala was found to have been wrecked, but the British took several hundred prisoners, captured 8 merchantmen with valuable cargoes and the German gunboat Soden, which was at once put into commission in the British navy. While the British were successful around Duala, a French force by sea from Libreville, French Congo, escorted by their warship Surpris, attacked Ukoko on Corisco Bay, south of the Cameroons, during which the armed vessels Khios and Itolo were sunk.

The Allies had captured the chief port and controlled the coast, but the most difficult work lay before them in the mountainous and almost roadless region still to be conquered. The retreating Germans occupied a defensive position on a river at Japona, where on October 8, 1914, a French column came up with them, forced a bridge, and compelled them to continue their retreat.

On October 8, 1914, Colonel E. H. Gorges, commanding a British naval and military force and four field guns, sailed up the Wuri in launches and found the enemy intrenched near Jabassi. The British made a spirited attack, but were driven back by the accurate fire of the enemy. After a flank attack failed, the order was given to retreat, and the British returned to Duala.

The Allies reenforced, and with two 6-inch guns resumed the attack on October 14, 1914, when the German batteries were soon silenced. After a brisk engagement the infantry occupied Jabassi, taking ten European prisoners. Minor successes won by the Allies at this time were the defeat of the Germans at Susa, and the occupation of the region around Mora, near Lake Chad by a Nigerian Regiment which had entered the colony from the northeast.

Two columns of Anglo-French troops under Brigadier General Dobell, with Colonel Mayer commanding the French colonial infantry, followed the retreating Germans to Edea on the Sanaga River, some fifty miles from Duala. Part of the road led through a thick forest where snipers were concealed, who harassed the expedition at every step and were dislodged with great difficulty.

On October 26, 1914, Edea was taken without resistance, and the enemy retired to Yaunde, a station far in the interior. Mujuka, a station about fifty miles from Duala, was occupied by the British a few weeks later.

Early in November, 1914, General Dobell planned an attack on the German capital of Buea, and its seaport Victoria. The latter place was bombarded by the French cruiser Bruix and the yacht Ivy; marines were landed, and after a short and spirited fight it was taken, while the enemy, who had concentrated on the hills leading to Buea, were scattered by the Allies' forces advancing from different directions.

The Germans made a determined effort to regain Edea, but were forced to retire with a loss of 20 Europeans and 54 natives. Meanwhile, in the hinterland, the French General, Aymerich, with a force of men and a steamer loaned by the authorities of the Belgian Congo drove the enemy from the Congo-Ubanghi region, which had been given to Germany in 1911. After two days of strenuous fighting the German posts of Numen and Nola were taken, and some officers, guns, and ammunition.

The greatest campaign in December, 1914, was the capture of the entire northern railway line, with rolling stock, locomotives, two aeroplanes, and about sixty white men. Mendawi, BarÉ, and Nkongsamba were other posts taken at this period.

At the close of the year the Cameroons were not conquered, but the Germans had been driven into the interior, could not secure supplies, and it was only a question of time when they must surrender or be annihilated. The allied forces were constantly harrying their enemy.

The Allies' next movement was an advance in three columns against Yaunde, where they fought two little battles January 27-28, 1915, and seized the post of Bersona. Near the coast some important operations were successful.[Back to Contents]