Allies advance on Garua

The British chronology of the war records under 17 April 1915 the start of the Allied operations intended to capture Garua (today Garoua), a German fortress on the Benue river in the north of German Kamerun. In these days Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Cunliffe was marching on Garua from Nigeria with reinforcements and a heavy gun. According to the British official history of the campaign, he set out from Yola on 12 April and reached the camp before Garua on 18 April.

A fortress that could not be taken

From the start of the war Garua was the main obstacle for the Allies in the north of the colony. In August 1914 the British were defeated beneath its forts. From January 1915 the fortress was watched by French troops from Chad under Colonel Brisset, quartered in a camp at Nassarao, and by British troops under Major Webb-Bowen in a camp at Bogole, on the other side of the Benue. Together they numbered about 900 soldiers with four guns. According to British estimates, Garua was defended by about 40 Germans and more than 500 African soldiers with four guns and ten machine guns, in several forts on the hills surrounded by ditches and barbed wire. The Allies were too weak to storm it, and their light mountain guns had a shorter range than the German ones. Moreover, they did not seal the fortress off completely, guarding only some of the exit routes.

The Governor of Nigeria, Sir Frederick Lugard, was worried by the situation, because German detachments from Garua and from the south were raiding the Nigerian border districts. In March the commander of the Nigeria Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Cunliffe, arrived at Yola and, as the senior officer, took command of all the Allied forces in the north of Kamerun. A 12-pounder gun from the cruiser HMS Challenger was also delivered there, brought with difficulty up the Benue, which was shallow at that time of year. Cunliffe drew reinforcements to Yola from other columns on the border. He was convinced that by taking Garua he would help most General Charles Dobell, the commander of the whole expedition, because it would free troops needed in the south.

Tightening the ring

On 12 April Cunliffe set out from Yola with the naval gun and three companies of infantry. On arrival at Bogole he had three mountain guns, the naval gun, a company of mounted infantry and six and a half companies of infantry. After consulting Brisset, on 20 April he began moving troops to the south-west of Garua to close the Germans’ lines of retreat to Koncha and Ngaoundéré. He set up his headquarters on a hill near Bilonde, from which the fortress could best be seen.

The haste proved justified. During the night of 21–22 April part of the Garua garrison, led according to British reports by the commandant himself, Captain von Crailsheim, crossed the Benue and slipped away to the south. On 29 April about 300 Germans and African soldiers attacked the British post at Gurin, already on Nigerian territory. Its garrison, little more than 40 soldiers and policemen, beat off the attack, although its commander, Lieutenant Pawle, was killed. Crailsheim then returned to Garua, evading pursuit.

The fall of Garua

In May further reinforcements reached the besiegers, including a French 95 mm gun from Dakar. At the end of May the Allies began a bombardment and pushed their trenches ever closer to the forts. The fire of the heavy guns demoralised the African soldiers of the garrison. During the night of 9–10 June the Germans tried to break out of the fortress, but could not get across the swollen river. On 10 June Crailsheim surrendered unconditionally. Thirty-seven Germans and more than 200 African soldiers were taken prisoner, and the Allies captured four guns and ten machine guns. The fall of Garua freed the Nigerian border from danger and opened the way for the Allies to the Adamawa plateau and further south, towards Jaunde.