Attack on Mount Banyo

At dawn on 4 November 1915 four infantry companies of the Nigeria Regiment began to climb Mount Banyo in the north-west of German Kamerun. On its summit and slopes a German garrison had dug in, intending to hold out there until the end of the war. The attack was led by General Frederick Cunliffe, commander of the British troops from Nigeria, who a few weeks earlier had stormed the mountain above Mora in vain. This time he had prepared carefully and was reckoning on a fight lasting several days.

The Nigerians had entered the town of Banyo without a fight as early as 24 October. The Germans did not defend it; instead the whole garrison, about 23 Europeans and 200 African soldiers under Captain Adolf Schipper, took refuge on an isolated mountain a few kilometres to the east. It rose some 370 metres above the surrounding country, and its steep slopes were covered with huge boulders. According to the British official history, the Germans linked them with some three hundred stone walls, built small redoubts on every projecting point and stored grain, cattle and water in cement tanks on the summit. Cunliffe decided that if he wanted to go on south towards Jaunde, he had to risk an assault.

By 2 November he had surrounded the mountain: four and a half companies with ten machine guns took up positions on the lower heights, and the mounted infantry deployed in a wide ring on the plain. The order of 3 November provided for a converging attack by four companies from the north-east, west, south-west and south, supported by three mountain guns. The soldiers were to advance slowly and methodically, from cover to cover, and the company commanders were themselves responsible for supplying their men.

In the morning the mountain was shrouded in thick fog. It hampered communication between the companies, but allowed them to climb high before the defenders spotted them. H Company of the 3rd Battalion got almost to the summit when it suddenly came under crossfire at close range. Its commander, Captain Bowyer-Smijth, whom the British official history calls one of Cunliffe’s bravest officers, was killed, and the company was driven far down the slope. By noon the other companies had reached roughly halfway up and in many places lay about 30 metres from the German walls. Until dark they could only cling to the ground they had won behind the boulders.

After nightfall the defenders began to throw dynamite bombs down the slope. The Nigerians were meeting this weapon for the first time, and for a while, as Moberly admits, the situation was very critical. Once the soldiers found that the noise of the explosions was worse than their effect, they re-formed and in the darkness pushed a little further up. Captain Schipper was probably also killed that day. The British official history lists him only among the dead, but German biographical studies give 4 November as the date of his death.