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Kamerun campaign

Coordinates:03°52′N11°31′E/ 3.867°N 11.517°E/3.867; 11.517
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Kamerun campaign
Part of theAfrican theatre of World War I

BritishQF 12-pounder 8 cwtfiring at Fort Dachang in 1915
Date6 August 1914 – 10 March 1916
(1 year, 7 months and 4 days)
Location
German KamerunandBritish Nigeria
03°52′N11°31′E/ 3.867°N 11.517°E/3.867; 11.517
Result Allied victory
Territorial
changes		 Kamerun divided intoLeague of Nations mandatesunder British and French rule (1919)
Belligerents

British Empire

France

BelgiumBelgium

Germany

Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandCharles M. Dobell
United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandFrederick H. Cunliffe
French Third RepublicJoseph G. Aymerich
BelgiumFélix Fuchs		 Karl Ebermaier
Carl H. Zimmermann
Units involved
NigeriaWAFF
British RajWIR[1]
Belgian CongoForce Publique		 Schutztruppe
Strength
British:
1,668–7,000[2]
French:
7,000
Belgian:
600–3,000[3][4]

Total:
9,000		 1914:
1,855
1915:
6,000[5]
Casualties and losses
British:
917–1,668[6]
French:
906–2,567[7][8]		 5,000[9]
hundreds to thousands ofDualacivilians killed[10]

TheKamerun campaigntook place in the German colony ofKamerunin the African theatre of theFirst World Warwhen theBritish,FrenchandBelgiansinvaded theGermancolony from August 1914 to March 1916. Most of the campaign took place in Kamerun but skirmishes also broke out inBritish Nigeria.By the Spring of 1916, followingAlliedvictories, the majority of German troops and the civil administration fled to the neighbouring neutral colony ofSpanish Guinea(Río Muni). The campaign ended in a defeat for Germany and the partition of its former colony between France and Britain.

Background

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Germanyhad established a protectorate over Kamerun by 1884 during theScramble for Africa,and expanded its control in theBafut WarsandAdamawa Wars.In 1911, France cededNeukamerun(New Cameroon), a large territory to the east of Kamerun, to Germany as a part of theTreaty of Fez,the settlement that ended theAgadir Crisis.In 1914, the German colony of Kamerun made up all of modernCameroonas well as portions ofNigeria,Chad,Gabon,theRepublic of the Congoand theCentral African Republic.Kamerunwas surrounded on all sides byEntenteterritory. British-heldNigeriawas to the north-west. TheBelgian Congobordered the colony to the south-east andFrench Equatorial Africalay in the east. The neutral colony ofSpanish Guineawas bordered by German Kamerun on all sides but one, which faced the sea. In 1914, on the eve of World War I, Kamerun remained largely unexplored and unmapped by European invaders.[11]In 1911–1912 the border with the French colonies of Gabon, Middle Congo, Ubangi-Shari and Chad was established and in 1913 theborderbetween the colonies of Nigeria and Kamerun was defined.[12]

The German military forces stationed in the colony at the time consisted of around 1,855 Schutztruppen (protection troops). However, after the outbreak of war by mid-1915, the Germans were able to recruit an army of around 6,000. Allied forces on the other hand in the territories surrounding Kamerun were much larger. French Equatorial Africa alone could mobilize as many as 20,000 soldiers on the eve of war while British Nigeria to the west could raise an army of 7,550.[5]

Operations

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Invasion in 1914

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At the outbreak of war in Europe in early August 1914, the German colonial administration in Kamerun attempted to offer neutrality with Britain and France in accordance with Articles 10 and 11 of theBerlin Actof 1885.[13]However this was rejected by the Allies. The French were eager to regain the land ceded to Germany in theTreaty of Fezin 1911. The first Allied expeditions into the colony on 6 August 1914 were from the east conducted by French troops fromFrench Equatorial Africaunder GeneralJoseph Gaudérique Aymerich.This region was mostly marshland, undeveloped, and was initially not heavily contested by Germans.[14]

By 25 August 1914, British forces in present-day Nigeria had moved into Kamerun from three different points. They pushed into the colony towards Mara in the far north, towards Garua in the centre, and towards Nsanakang in the south. British forces moving towards Garua under the command of Colonel MacLear were ordered to push to the German border post at Tepe near Garua. The first engagement between British and German troops in the campaign took place at theBattle of Tepe,eventually resulting in German withdrawal.[15]

In the far north British forces attempted to take the German fort at Mora but initially failed. This resulted in a long siege of German positions which would last until the end of the campaign.[16]British forces in the south attacking Nsanakang were defeated and almost completely destroyed by German counter-attacks at theBattle of Nsanakong.[17]MacLear then pushed his forces further inland towards the German stronghold of Garua but was repulsed in theFirst Battle of Garuaon 31 August.[18]

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Main article:Naval operations of the Kamerun campaign

In September 1914, the Germans had mined the Kamerun orWouri estuaryand scuttled naval vessels there to protectDouala,the colony's largest city and commercial centre. British and French naval vessels bombarded towns on the coast and by late September had cleared mines and conducted amphibious landings in order to isolate Douala. On 27 September, the city surrendered to Brigadier GeneralCharles Macpherson Dobell,commander of the combined Allied force. The occupation of the entire coast soon followed as the French captured more of the territories to the south-east in an amphibious operation at theBattle of Ukoko.[19]

War in 1915

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Kamerun, 1914

By 1915, the majority of German forces, except for those holding out at the strongholds of Mora and Garua had withdrawn to the mountainous interior of the colony surrounding the new capital atJaunde.In the spring of that year German forces were still able to significantly stall or repulse assaults by Allied forces. A German force under the command of Captain von Crailsheim from Garua even went on the offensive, engaging the British during a failed raid into Nigeria at theBattle of Gurin.[20]This surprisingly daring incursion into British territory prompted General Frederick Hugh Cunliffe to launch another attempt at taking the German fortresses at Garua at theSecond Battle of Garuain June, resulting in a British victory.[21]This action freed Allied units in northern Kamerun to push further into the interior of the colony. This push resulted in the Allied victory at theBattle of Ngaundereon 29 June. Cunliffe's advance south to Jaunde, however, was stalled by heavy rains, and his force instead participated in the continuingSiege of Mora.[22]

When the weather improved, British forces under Cunliffe moved further south, capturing a German fort at theBattle of Banjoin November and occupying a number of other towns by the end of the year.[23]By December, the forces of Cunliffe and Dobell were in contact and ready to conduct an assault of Jaunde.[24]In this year most ofNeukamerunwas occupied by Belgian and French troops, who also began to prepare for an assault on Jaunde.[25]

Surrender in 1916

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In early 1916, the German commander, Carl Zimmermann came to the conclusion that the campaign was lost. With Allied forces pressing in on Jaunde from all sides and German resistance faltering, he ordered all remaining German units and civilians to escape to the neutralSpanishcolony ofRio Muni.[26]By mid-February of that year the last German garrison at Mora surrendered, ending theSiege of Mora.[27]German soldiers and civilians which had escaped to Spanish Guinea were treated amicably by the Spanish, who had only 180 militiamen inRío Muniand were unable to forcibly intern them. Most native Cameroonians remained in Muni but the Germans eventually moved toFernando Po;some were eventually transported by Spain to the neutralNetherlands(from where they could reach home) before the war was over.[28]Many Cameroonians, including the paramount chief of theBeti people,moved to Madrid, where they lived as visiting nobility on German funds.[29]

Atrocities

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German forces ordered a scorched earth policy against the indigenousDuala peopleto repress an alleged "people's war." Duala women were victims ofwartime sexual violenceby the German forces. Numerous killings were committed by German forces including inJabassiwhere a white commander reportedly gave the order to "kill every native they saw."[10]

Aftermath

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In February 1916, before the campaign ended, Britain and France agreed to divide Kamerun along the Picot Provisional Partition Line.[13]This resulted in Britain obtaining approximately one fifth of the colony situated on the Nigerian border. France gained Duala and most of the central plateau, which consisted of the majority of former German territory. The partition was accepted at theParis Peace Conferenceand the former German colony became theLeague of Nations mandatesofFrench CameroonandBritish Cameroonby theTreaty of Versailles.[30]

Notes

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  1. ^Paice 2007,p. 299.
  2. ^Karlheinz Graudenz, Hanns-Michael Schindler: Die deutschen Kolonien, P. 261
  3. ^Karlheinz Graudenz, Hanns-Michael Schindler: Die deutschen Kolonien, P. 261
  4. ^Strachan 2004,p. 31.
  5. ^abKillingray 2012,p. 116.
  6. ^Golf Dornseif: Britisch-französische Rivalitäten im Kameruner Feldzug. (pdf; 2,6 MB) (Memento vom 28. September 2013 im Internet Archive)
  7. ^Golf Dornseif: Britisch-französische Rivalitäten im Kameruner Feldzug. (pdf; 2,6 MB) (Memento vom 28. September 2013 im Internet Archive)
  8. ^Moberly 1931,p. 426.
  9. ^Erlikman 2004.
  10. ^abNjung, George Ndakwena (2016).Soldiers of their Own: Honor, Violence, Resistance and Conscription in Colonial Cameroon during the First World War(PDF).University of Michigan.
  11. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 49–52.
  12. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 46, 50.
  13. ^abNgoh 2005,p. 349.
  14. ^Killingray 2012,p. 117.
  15. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 73–93.
  16. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 170–173, 228–230, 421.
  17. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 106–109.
  18. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 93–97.
  19. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 129, 156–157.
  20. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 268–270.
  21. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 294–299.
  22. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 300–301, 322–323.
  23. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 346–350.
  24. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 388–293.
  25. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 383–384.
  26. ^Moberly 1931,pp. 405–419.
  27. ^Moberly 1931,p. 421.
  28. ^Moberly 1931,p. 412.
  29. ^Quinn 1973,pp. 722–731.
  30. ^Moberly 1931,p. 422.

References

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  • Elango, L. Z. (1985). "The Anglo-French" Condominium "in Cameroon, 1914–1916: The Myth and the Reality".The International Journal of African Historical Studies.XVIII(4). Boston, MA: Boston University African Studies Center: 656–673.doi:10.2307/218801.ISSN0361-7882.JSTOR218801.
  • Erlikman, Vadim (2004).Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke: spravochnik(in Russian). Moscow: Russkai︠a︡ panorama.ISBN5-93165-107-1.
  • Killingray, D. (2012). John Horne (ed.).Companion to World War I.London: Blackwell.ISBN978-1-4051-2386-0.
  • Moberly, F. J. (1995) [1931].Military Operations Togoland and the Cameroons 1914–1916(Imperial War Museum and Battery Press ed.). London: HMSO.ISBN0-89839-235-7.
  • Ngoh, V. J. (2005). "Cameroon (Kamerun): Colonial Period: German Rule". In Kevin Shillington (ed.).Encyclopedia of African History.Vol. I. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn.ISBN1-57958-245-1.
  • O'Neill, H. C. (1919) [1918].The War in Africa 1914–1917 and in the Far East 1914(reprint ed.). London: Longmans, Green.OCLC786365389.Retrieved9 May2014.
  • Paice, E. (2009) [2007].Tip and Run: The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa(Phoenix ed.). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.ISBN978-0-7538-2349-1.
  • Quinn, F. (1973). "An African Reaction to World War I: The Beti of Cameroon".Cahiers d'Études Africaines.XIII(Cahier 52). Paris: Éditions EHESS (France).ISSN1777-5353.
  • Strachan, H. (2004).The First World War In Africa.New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-925728-0.

Further reading

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