Cameroon in the First World War
British gun in Cameroon, 1915
| date | August 5, 1914 to March 1916 |
|---|---|
| place | today's Cameroon |
| output | Internment and surrender on the German side |
| consequences | Division of the colony into British Cameroon and French Cameroon |
| Peace treaty | Versailles Peace Treaty |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
|
| Troop strength | |
|
approx. 19,000 soldiers
approx. 30,000 porters |
1735 ( protection force )
1230 (police force) |
| losses | |
|
1668 (British),
2567 (French) |
|
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The German colony of Cameroon became the scene of fighting shortly after the beginning of the First World War in August 1914. The Schutztruppe carried out defensive battles against the advance of British , French and Belgian units on the territory of the colony until the beginning of 1916 . The remnants of the German armed forces and civil administration eventually took refuge in the neighboring neutral Spanish Equatorial Guinea . Cameroon was divided between France and Great Britain.
Starting position
The German colony included what is now Cameroon and parts of what is now Gabon , Nigeria , Chad , the Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic . It bordered British, French and Belgian colonies and could be attacked by three different opponents from the north, west and south. In addition, she received no reinforcements and no ammunition supplies. The 3200 poorly educated locals and their 200 or so white guides had a bad starting position. They were completely inferior to the Entente .
The Germans could not expect any support from the Duala people . On August 9, 1914, the Duala king Rudolf Manga Bell was executed on German orders , as he was active against the abuses of colonial rule and the expulsion of his people. Consequently, the Duala stood on the side of the Entente and welcomed them as liberators. The peoples in the interior of Cameroon, who had suffered a little less under German colonial rule, were more willing to volunteer.
The twelve companies of the imperial protection force were spread over the entire colony. The parent company was stationed in Duala . The 4th company , also known as the expedition company , was also near the coast at the command in Soppo . The 2nd Company was on the border with Nigeria , while the 3rd and 7th Companies were in the far north. The 8th and 9th Companies were on duty in the center. The 5th, 6th and 12th companies were in the east, which had only been ceded by French Equatorial Africa in 1911 ( New Cameroon ). The 10th and 11th Companies were on the southern border.
strategy
Karl Ebermaier , as governor of the colony, formally commander of the protection force , left the leadership largely to the commander, Major Carl Heinrich Zimmermann . Zimmermann distributed the soldiers under his command to all border sections of the colony. Later he wanted to gather the protection troops into the hilly interior of the country in order to continue fighting with combined forces. In addition, in a few cases they used the " scorched earth policy " to paralyze the adversary advance. Compared with the situation in Togo , the Germans in Cameroon had the advantage that the colony offered enough alternative options to prolong the resistance. In this way they hoped to avoid capitulating in Europe until the end of the war.
There was disagreement among the allies of the other side over the coordination of their attack strategy. Initially, there was pronounced mistrust between the British and French leaders in particular. Therefore the operations were often isolated from each other.
course
Start of war in 1914
In August 1914, the first waves of attack by the Entente were successfully repulsed, although they attacked from all sides. The fighting began on August 24, 1914 with the gunboat Surprise bombarding the coast of Cameroon . The French armored cruiser Bruix also shelled the coastal towns of Kampo and Kribi . In return, the German side put the Nachtigal , Duchess Elisabeth and Soden into service as auxiliary warships. Together with smaller ships, the fleet was commissioned to delay the landing of enemy forces on the Cameroon River for as long as possible.
On August 25, 1914, a British-Nigerian unit occupied the border town of Tepe in North Cameroon after a brief battle. At the end of August 1914, the Schutztruppe near Garoua won an early victory over British units. A British incursion from southern Nigeria was also repulsed at Nsanakang . In September 1914, however, the British conquered the coast of Cameroon from the water. A fleet of the Entente, consisting of 24 war and transport ships as well as river boats, gathered on September 11, 1914 in the estuary of the Cameroon River. Four outdated field guns could delay the occupation of the port of Duala , but not prevent it. As a last defense measure, the German government steamer Nachtigal rammed the British gunboat Dwarf , whereupon the Nachtigal sank. Smaller ships, such as the Prinz Udo , were sunk by the Germans themselves. So the important coastal cities of Duala, Limbe (Victoria), Buea and Jabassi could be captured. When they landed in Victoria, the British partially set fire to the West African Planting Society . The coast radio station Duala was destroyed by the Germans themselves on September 27, 1914 before it was captured. The British soldiers took some prisoners who had run out of ammunition. Then they moved along the railroad tracks to Yaoundé , the country's capital. The German Schutztruppe began to strengthen their defense there. Zimmermann decided to launch an offensive against the British, which was unsuccessful. However, this delayed the British troops for some time as they first had to reorganize their troops. The French captured Edéa , Nola and Sanaga in October. In the district of Molundu (southeast Cameroon) there was heavy fighting from October 26 to 29, 1914 near the village of Putu on the Sangha River . The unequal battle between the 9th Company of the Schutztruppe and the Belgian-French units, which had armed river steamers, ended with the withdrawal of the German company. Shortly before Christmas 1914, the French succeeded in capturing the Molundu station .
As a replacement for the destroyed radio station in Duala, the Germans set up a provisional radio station on a hill at kilometer 203 of the Cameroonian Mittellandbahn near Éséka . Due to technical deficiencies, however, the system could not be used for sending, but only for receiving radio signals.
Two German planes that had arrived by ship shortly before the outbreak of war were not used. After arriving in Duala, the original box with the individual parts of the aircraft was brought to Nkongsamba via the 150 km long Cameroon Northern Railway and from there to the Bare post. The northern runway was conquered by British units from December 9, 1914. Before that, she had been defended for a good 2 months by a small troop under Captain von Engelbrecht. When the British occupied Bare on December 11, 1914, they found the box with the German aircraft and brought it to South Africa.
War year 1915
In 1915 the fighting continued in the mountainous center of Cameroon. The 3rd Company of the Schutztruppe had holed up in the Northern Province . It held a mountain position near the place Mora in the Mandara Mountains occupied, but was largely cut off. British units attacked from the north and west. French colonial troops marched in from the east. In addition to Mora, Garoua formed another nest of resistance in North Cameroon, which was held for a long time by the 7th, 8th and 12th companies of the protection force. The German earth and clay entrenchments around Garoua were besieged and shelled for months, but the numerical and technical superiority of the Entente became more and more overwhelming. An attempt to retreat in early June 1915 failed due to the Benue's unusually high water level for this time of year . On June 10, 1915, Garoua was finally occupied by the British and French. The town of Ngaundere , a little further south, was also lost to the German side. The German units now increasingly lacked ammunition. The lack of modern artillery also made itself increasingly detrimental. In South Cameroon, the Schutztruppe succeeded in briefly bringing the French to a standstill at Lomié in March 1915 , but during the course of the year Belgian and French colonial troops advanced further from the east. The Germans and their African Askaris only defended Mora in the far north, the center and a small part of the southern province of Cameroon.
The receiving station at Eseka was dismantled on April 18, 1915. Instead, a provisional receiving system could be operated again at Ebolowa in August and September 1915, but this did not deliver satisfactory results.
Withdrawal and surrender 1916
At the beginning of 1916, the Entente's land gains increased. Now the Germans also suffered from an acute shortage of medicines and salt. Zimmermann feared that the French and British might surround his troops by occupying the south of the country. He decided to move with most of the troops south to the neutral colony of Spanish Guinea ( Rio Muñi ). He also wanted to ensure that the German residents of Cameroon could flee to Rio Muñi. A small rearguard continued to stand in Yaoundé to buy them time. In the meantime, the protection force reached Rio Muñi with around 550 German and around 5000 African soldiers as well as civilian refugees. There they were disarmed. This brought the Germans to Spain. The locals were resettled on the island of Fernando Póo off Cameroon .
As one of the last fighting units, the 3rd Company surrendered in mid-February 1916 in the Mora position under Captain Ernst von Raben .
internment
To escape captivity , the Schutztruppe withdrew to Rio Muni in southern Cameroon in 1916 ; the Spanish colony in what is now Equatorial Guinea was a neutral territory. The troops initially made their quarters near Bata . Since the soil there was too bad for self-sufficiency, it was decided very soon to move the majority of the protection force to the island of Fernando Poo (today Bioko ). Most Germans and the Cameroonian leaders like Karl Atangana , however, were interned in Spain . Other Cameroonians from the German entourage were sent back to Cameroon, some stayed in Bata.
In Fernando Poo, the protection force was housed on the coast south of San Carlos (today Luba ) and on the eastern and (the main part) on the western outskirts of Santa Isabel (today Malabo ) on the grounds of the Moritz Farm.
The 6,000 soldiers and 12,000 family members did pioneering work, but lost hundreds of Cameroonians and eight Germans to tropical diseases and emaciation. Due to the war, no direct aid could be given from Germany. However, the submarine U 35 under the commandant of Arnauld de la Perière brought medicines for the internees to Cartagena , Spain - combined with a letter of thanks to the Spanish king. Two obelisks that have been preserved to this day stand on the former cemetery of the protection force in Yaoundé . They were rediscovered and cleared a few years ago. On the day of national mourning in 2009, the German embassy called for a memorial service there.
Result / consequences
The Colony of Germany was denied by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and Cameroon officially became the property of the League of Nations , which in turn gave the area to the British and French as an international legal mandate for administration. Subsequently, Cameroon was divided into British Cameroon and French Cameroon . The country only became independent in 1960.
See also
Web links
- Far from home - The fighting in Cameroon 1914–16
- Loss list of the German protection force in Cameroon 1914–1916
- Commemorative book for the Colonial Memorial Bremen, part of Cameroon
literature
- The great chronicle of world history: The First World War and its consequences: 1914–1932 , Chronik Verlag, 2008
- E. Howard Gorges : The Great War in West Africa , Hutchinson & Co, London 1923
- Gisela Graichen; Horst Founder: German Colonies: Dream and Trauma , Berlin: Ullstein, 2005, ISBN 3-550-07637-1 .
- Paul Schreckenbach: The German colonies from the beginning of the war to the end of 1917, in: ders .; Der Weltbrand - Illustrated history from a great time , Vol. 3, Leipzig: Weber, 1920, pp. 864–876.
- Chapter The Cameroons , in: Hew Strachan: The First World War in Africa , Oxford 2004, pp. 19-60, ISBN 0-19-925728-0 .
- Heinrich Mentzel: The fighting in Cameroon 1914–1916. Preparation and course , Berlin (Junker & Dünnhaupt) 1936 (Phil. Diss.).
- Herbert Pürschel: The imperial protection force for Cameroon. Structure and task , Berlin (Junker & Dünnhaupt) 1936.
- Erich Student: Cameroon's fight 1914/16 , Berlin (Bernard & Graefe) 1937.
- Joseph Gauderique Aymérich: La Conquête du Cameroun. 1er août 1914 - 20 février 1916 , Paris (Payot) 1933.
- Frederick James Moberly: Military operations. Togoland and the Cameroons, 1914–1916 , London 1931.
- Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: War in Cameroon. The German colony in the First World War , Berlin (Chr. Links Verlag) 2011. ISBN 3-86153-655-2 .
- Hans Surén : Battle for Cameroon - Garua. Berlin (Scherl) 1934.
- Chapter Cameroon. In: Wolfgang Foerster (ed.): Fighters on forgotten fronts. Campaign Letters, Diaries and Reports. Colonial war, sea war, air war, espionage. German book distributor. Department for publications from official archives, Berlin 1931, pp. 155–199.
Footnotes
- ↑ Timelines: Conquest of the German Kameruns (English) ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2013 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ German Historical Museum: The German Colony of Cameroon
- ↑ Gerhard Hirschfeld, Gerd Krumeich, Irina Renz (eds.): Encyclopedia First World War. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76578-9 , pp. 618, 824.
- ^ Karlheinz Graudenz: The German colonies - history of the German protected areas in words, pictures and maps. 3rd edition, Weltbild, Augsburg 1988, ISBN 3-926187-49-2 , p. 254.
- ^ A b Golf Dornseif: British-French rivalries in the Cameroon campaign . (pdf; 2.6 MB) ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Wilfried Westphal: History of the German colonies . Bindlach: Gondrom, 1991, p. 305 f. ISBN 3-8112-0905-1
- ↑ Wilfried Westphal: A world empire for the emperor - history of the German colonies . Cologne: Parkland, 2001, p. 305, ISBN 3-88059-997-1
- ^ Albert Röhr: German marine chronicle. Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg / Hamburg 1974, ISBN 3-7979-1845-3 , p. 200.
- ↑ Surén: Battle for Cameroon. P. 58ff.
- ↑ Surén: Battle for Cameroon. P. 107ff.
- ↑ Gisela Graichen, Horst Founder: German Colonies - Dream and Trauma . 4th edition, Berlin: Ullstein, 2005, p. 342, ISBN 3-550-07637-1
- ↑ Reinhard Klein-Arendt: “Kamina calls Nauen!” - The radio stations in the German colonies 1904-1918 . Cologne: Wilhelm Herbst Verlag, 1995, p. 274. ISBN 3-923925-58-1
- ^ Hermann Harttmann: Putu, in: Battle for colonies . Vol. 7 of the series “Under fluttering flags”, 3rd edition, Berlin: DW-Verlag, pp. 66–90.
- ↑ a b Golf Dornseif: Kamerun im Spiegel der deutschen Schutztruppe , p. 10 (pdf; 2.5 MB) ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Karl-Dieter Seifert: German aviators over the colonies . Zweibrücken: VDM, 2007, p. 110 ff. ISBN 978-3-86619-019-1
- ↑ Golf Dornseif: Cameroonian final battle for the Moraberg fortress . (pdf; 718 kB) ( Memento of the original dated November 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Surén: Battle for Cameroon. P. 264ff.
- ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: Colonial War , in: Gerhard Hirschfeld, Gerd Krumeich, Irina Renz (eds.): Encyclopedia First World War. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76578-9 , p. 617.
- ↑ Jacqueline de Vries: Cameroonian Schutztruppe Soldiers in Spanish-Ruled Fernando Po during the First World War: A 'Menace to the Peace'? In: War & Society. Vol. 37 (2018), Issue 4: New research on the First World War, pp. 280–301 ( online version ).
- ↑ Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière: “U 35” hunting. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1938. ( Republished as Meine Kriegsfahrten mit U-35. EBook, Sketec-Verlag, Passau 2012.)
- ↑ http://www.jaunde.diplo.de/Vertretung/jaunde/de/GNQ__2009-11-15__Kranzniederlassung.html ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Embassy Yaoundé
- ↑ See also: Anónimo: Una obra de colonizacion alemana en Fernando Poo . Blass y Cia Imprenta, Madrid 1919, pp. 14-19.
