First advance on Jaunde

The British chronology of the war records under 12 April 1915 the start of the first Allied advance on Jaunde, a town in the interior of German Kamerun to which the German colonial authorities had moved after the loss of Duala. According to the British official history of the campaign, a French and a British column left Edea on 10 and 11 April, and on 14 April they fought their way across the Kele river. The real advance on Jaunde, however, was postponed until 1 May.

A plan from Brazzaville

The initiative came from the French. In March 1915 a mission from French Equatorial Africa arrived in Duala and proposed to General Charles Dobell, commander of the Anglo-French expedition, a joint attack on Jaunde. The French gave assurances that their columns under General Joseph Aymerich, advancing from the south-east and east, would soon take Lomié and Dume and move on Jaunde from there. From Dobell they expected an attack from the west that would pin down the Germans and prevent them from shifting troops against Aymerich.

Dobell had doubts. Dispatches from Aymerich’s columns took as long as a month to reach Edea, so precise coordination of movements was out of the question. The rainy season was approaching, and his troops were exhausted by the climate and disease. He agreed, however, when reinforcements from Dakar were promised for Colonel Mayer’s French contingent. It was settled that the advance from the line of the Kele would begin on 20 April, with preparations starting a dozen or so days earlier.

Crossing the Kele

About 1,000 French Senegalese tirailleurs and 600 British African soldiers from Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Gambia, with 1,000 carriers, were assigned to the expedition. The whole force was commanded by Colonel Mayer, the same officer whose garrison had repulsed the German attack on Edea in January. The French were to advance along the railway towards Eséka, and Lieutenant-Colonel Haywood’s column along the road from Edea to Jaunde, on their left flank.

On 10 April Major Mathieu’s French column set out from Edea, followed a day later by the British. Haywood advanced slowly through dense forest, meeting constant German resistance. At dawn on 14 April, under cover of fog, he attacked a fortified position on the Ngwe river guarding an intact bridge. When his two guns shelled the German redoubt and one company worked round to its rear, the defenders withdrew and the Nigerians took the position with the bayonet. The British lost 13 men. The same day the French, losing about 15 men, forced the Kele at So Dibanga.

Delay

Meanwhile, on 12 April, Dobell received a dispatch from Brazzaville saying that Aymerich’s columns would not reach Lomié before the end of the month, together with a request to postpone the advance. He agreed to put it back to 1 May. Until the end of April the British and French gathered supplies at their new bases on the Kele, and on 18 April the promised reinforcements arrived from Dakar.

The advance resumed on 1 May. On 4 May the British took a strong position at Wum Biagas, suffering heavy losses among their officers, and on 11 May the French occupied Eséka, the railway terminus. Beyond that, however, the columns advanced only a few kilometres a day through the forest, in torrential rain, decimated by dysentery. The Germans resisted on successive positions and attacked the supply line. Aymerich’s columns were still far away. In June Mayer judged a further advance impracticable, and the troops withdrew to the Kele. The Allies took Jaunde only in January 1916, in a second, much better prepared offensive.