Failed assault on Mora

On 8 September 1915 the Nigerian soldiers of General Frederick Cunliffe, supported by the French, attacked the German garrison holding out on the mountain above Mora in the northern part of German Kamerun. The assault broke down a few dozen metres from the German sangars, and on the morning of 9 September Cunliffe withdrew his men. It was at least the fourth attack on Mora: after the first attack of August 1914 the Allies had twice more, at the end of October and the beginning of November 1914, tried in vain to break onto the mountain.

A year of blockade

Since then Captain Ernst von Raben, commander of the German company, had held out on the steep, rocky ridge rising above the town. The Allies made no further attempts to take it by storm, but surrounded the mountain with posts. The blockade was directed by the French Captain Rémond, and alongside his company stood detachments of the Nigeria Regiment. Even so, Raben’s runners sometimes slipped through the besiegers’ lines, so the Germans knew more or less what was happening in the colony.

In the summer of 1915 the situation changed. After the capture of the German fortress of Garua in June, Cunliffe, commander of the British troops in northern Kamerun, decided that he could at last finish with Mora. On 9 August he set out from Yola in Nigeria with two mountain guns and two infantry companies, and brought in from Garua a further Nigerian company and a French 95 mm gun. By 23 August he was in the besiegers’ camp at Sava. Over the following days he rode round the mountain and examined the German positions. According to the British official history they proved even stronger than he had expected: only a few paths led to the summit, up which men had to climb with their rifles slung on their backs, using their hands. The Germans had covered each of them with stone sangars, and great boulders protected the defenders from artillery fire.

Night approaches

Cunliffe decided to attack by night the advanced German position of Dabaskum from the neighbouring peak of Wacheke, separated from it by a deep ravine. On 1 September the guns began shelling the mountain. On the night of 2–3 September two Nigerian companies were to approach Dabaskum quietly and take it before dawn, while other units, including the French company of Captain Popp, were to distract the defenders. In the darkness and on the steep slope, however, the soldiers lost their way and at dawn were stuck in the ravine. The second attempt, on the night of 3–4 September, had the same result. Raben’s diary shows that the Germans did not even notice either of these attempts.

The next attack was postponed because of the weather to the night of 7–8 September. This time some of the Nigerians managed before dawn to gain a hold on the northern edge of the Dabaskum ridge. At about 7.30 a.m., covered by the fire of guns and machine guns, several groups went in to the assault, but the defenders, well hidden behind the rocks, stopped them with fire about 55 metres from the sangars and forced them back. H Company of the 1st Battalion of the Nigeria Regiment distinguished itself. One of its platoons held on all day a few dozen metres from the German post. Captain Pike, the intelligence officer on Cunliffe’s staff, who led the attackers, was killed. Raben recorded in his diary words of appreciation for the courage of the attackers.

After dark Cunliffe tried to reorganise his units and consolidate the places they had taken, but it proved impossible to get water or food to the soldiers. On the morning of 9 September he therefore ordered a withdrawal to more favourable positions lower down. According to the British official history, the British lost 38 men in the fighting of those days, including Captain Pike and 16 African soldiers killed and two wounded officers. According to Raben, the post was defended by only two Germans and 38 askaris, and the defenders’ losses amounted to five men.

Mora is left alone

Cunliffe decided to go on wearing the mountain down slowly with artillery, but he lacked ammunition for the French gun. On 15 September he received a telegram from Lagos: the French and General Charles Dobell, who was preparing a new advance on Jaunde, asked for his troops to move south, towards Banyo and Tibati. Cunliffe agreed with the French officers that this was more important than further attacks on Mora, and on 17–18 September left with most of his force for Yola. Only part of the besiegers remained at the mountain, continuing the blockade. Raben held out until February 1916.