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Show STORY OF THE CONQUEST OF KAMERUN COLONY Ofl TRE WEST AFRICAN COAST Germans Fight Fiercely and Inflict Two Serious Defeats on the AlliesTerritory Al-liesTerritory Taken From the Germans in Africa Amounts to 730,000 Square Miles British Soldier Gives Some Interesting Details of the Campaign. "It was then our troubles cestui. For two weeks we cut throcgh the bush, forded rivers knee to waist deep, and were literally eaten by mosquitoes, flies and huge ants. It was the mostj terrible march (admitted to be by the1 most experienced of the old coasters) ever made. Well, in two days we got to Sakbyenne, which we put In a state of defense. We turned the Basel mission mis-sion into a fort, and owing to its position posi-tion twenty men could hold it against 2,000. As long as the enemy had no artillery, it was absolutely impregnable. impregna-ble. This took us two days hard work. We left a small garrison, and started off on a seven days' march to Winn Biagas, on the Nkeli river, where we expected to meet with opposition. As Winn Biagas is on the Jaunde road the main column marched against it and we were to go around It on tha left flank. "The day and night before we got there we met the Germans at a small place, but strategically important, called Muin. Here we fought an advance ad-vance guard action, and drove them out we had previously found rews of beautifully constructed trenches, which were left untenanted by the Germans, some considerable time previously and as our rearguards went through we had to stave off a rather sudden and ferocious attack. This we did without a casualty ou our side. "The last march we did after that was something appalling. We had to ford a river four feet to five feet deep, and go down the side of a mountain, with a precipice on our left which fell sheer into unknown depths, along a London.Now that the German Kamerun colony has been entirely conquered and the remnants of the Teuton forces, numbering j",000, have fled over the border into Spanish Guinea and been interned the story of this far-off campaign can be told without with-out reserve for the first time. Although the forces engaged seem small in comparison with the vast armies of Europe, in some respects the operations had magnitude. The area conquered, 465,625 square miles, is more than twice that of Germany in Europe. The Germans fought fiercely for this bit of West African coast and inflicted two severe defeats on the allied forces. They defended the town of Garoua with great valor for five months, but it was finally taken with the aid of a gun of a size the Germans had not thought it possible to transport so far into the interior. Now that the Kamerun is gone, the only German African colony remaining remain-ing even partly in German hands is East Africa, which is now being attacked at-tacked by an expedition from British South Africa, assisted by European forces. Bonar Law, British minister for, the colonies, recently announced in the house of commons that the territory terri-tory taken from the Germans in Africa amounts to 730,000 square miles. Kamerun is bounded on the north by British Nigeria, on the east by French and Belgian territory and on the south by the French Congo, while it encircles on the land side the Spanish Span-ish Guinea. Early in the war the British launched an expedition from Nigeria and the French from French Equatorial Equato-rial Africa. Both thes"e attacks from the north were beaten off by the Germans. Ger-mans. The French Colonel Largoau got as far as the town of Kousseri, which was heavily fortified and defended by a large garrison. He was defeated and, armed with two machine guns, the Germans furiously took the offensive offen-sive and drove the invaders back across the border. The British, on their part, were no more successful. They reached and occupied the important city of Garoua, and here the Germans attacked them vigorously. The British were forced to retreat, fighting all the time, until they, too, were over the border. Attack on All Sides. It was now determined to attack the colony on all sides simultaneously. No less than eight expeditions were put under way. Of these the most important im-portant took the two northern routes which before had resulted in disaster. Two columns advanced upon the Ger-. mans from the east, two from the south, and two from the seacoast. One of the latter expeditions landed in the neighborhood of the port of Douala, while the other had for its objective Coco Beach, in the narrow strip of German territory between Spanish Guinea and French Congo. The object ob-ject of the Coco Beach column and the two forces invading from the south was evidently to cut off the retreat re-treat of the Germans from Spanish territory, but, if this was the case, they failed. With increased forces the French now drove the Germans from Kousseri Kous-seri in almost a rout. Then Lieutenant Lieuten-ant Colonel Brisset, a famous French will ask the minister of war to rename re-name that place Fort Godard." Big Guns Arrive. Not much could be done to smoke the Germans out, until late in April, when two French guns, one of 95-mil-limeters, arrived. In the latter half of May the allies attacked in earnest. After a heavy bombardment the French rushed forward and secured a position 500 yards from the German advanced trenches. It was possible to dig only at night, as the sun was killing and by daylight the enemy's sharpshooters could pick off the allies' workers. On the morning of May 31, the allies took up a position for a general attack. The 95-millimeter gun opened on the defenders. It was learned later that this caused great consternation and surprise among the Germans, because they thought it was impossible to bring such a heavy piece through the jungle to Garoua. Fighting was incessant for two days. Each night the allies pushed their trenches closer to the Germans. The Germans employed the nights in strengthening their positions. By day both sides took refuge in their excavations. excava-tions. The night of June 8, Captain Car-bonueau Car-bonueau made a daring raid with thirty-two men. He penetrated to the edge of the town and set fire to 150 cases of munitions. , He also learned from natives the exact position of the houses in the center of the town where the Germans had taken refuge. The next morning the French big guns blasted these houses, setting them afire. The Germans did not hold out much longer. In the afternoon after-noon of June 10 a white flag appeared on the roof of the hut which served as a German fort. Then, for the first time, the French realized that they had no white flag with them and could not reply in kind to the German signal. sig-nal. With the remark: "At this distance they may take it for white," one of the perspiring French officers took off his shirt and waved it. Captain von Crailsheim, the German commander, at first demanded a surrender sur-render with all the honors of war, but finally gave up unconditionally. The combined northern columns were now able to move south and form a junction in November with the most northern of the two columns Invading the colony from the east. The Germans were reduced to scattered scat-tered groups and the allies sent scouting scout-ing expeditions far and wide through the vast jungle to locate them. There were several fierce fights, one at Ban-yo, Ban-yo, where the British defeated the Germans. The pursuit continued, but the Germans were able to escape to friendly internment under the Spanish flag. What will happen to the German colony at the conclusion of peace cannot can-not be said now. If the allies win the war, it will probably be divided up between the British, French and Belgians, Bel-gians, with perhaps a titbit to Spain. Soldier Writes of Fighting. An officer in a British regiment from the Gold coast which -helped to clear the Kamerun of Germans writes to a friend some interesting details of this campaign under the Equator. He tells how the expedition he accompanied accom-panied reached the neighborhood of Snkhvpnnfi on the Sanaea river, after path at an angle of forty-five degrees, which was four or five inches deep in greasy mud. We succeeded in getting down this after eight hours, but we lost about twenty loads, which fell over the precipice. We then began to hear firing on our right, and pushed on in order to make our flank attack effective. We reached our objective at midday, and found ourselves in a bush path, with rising ground on our right and a steep hill on our left, both covered with thick brush. "Everything looked to be innocent ol Germans and the officers went forward to spy out the land. We found in front of us a river, fordable we afterwards after-wards discovered at one small spot only, with a steep, high bank on the opposite side. On our side of the river the ground had been made as clean as a new pin, all trees were felled and brushwood cleared away. Through the trees on the other side at a distance of not more than 450 yards we could see a blockhouse, well hidden and only discoverable dis-coverable by the loopholes, and a series of loopholes along a ridge. We stood out in the open and examined the position, po-sition, and all appeared to be quiet and innocent of men. As we had found the trenches I mentioned before untenanted unten-anted we began to think that this place, too, had been evacuated by the Germans in order to support their center, cen-ter, which was being attacked heavily by our main column. However, after a consultation it was agreed to bring up one company of men, two machine guns and a millimeter gun (mountain gun a very small thing) and have a go at the position before going on. "As soon as the movement commenced, com-menced, however, there was a perfect salvo of fire opened on us not only from the loopholes we could see but from excellently hidden trenches along the bank and on both flanks and rear. We dropped like logs and lay on our stomachs, knowing we were trapped. Such a position is only possible in a country like this, where it is a matter of utter impossibility to see or scout your flanks. After we had taken our breath we came to ourselves again and -fired like the deuce at their positions, posi-tions, which we could only distinguish by the burst of flame from their rifles. "As soon as we got their range their firing went to pieces and their shots commenced to fly high. If they had only shot straight enough to hit a haystack hay-stack I should not be here to tell the tale. However, in the first fifteen min- landing on the coast near Douala. He continues: utes our men dropped like flies and one poor devil was shot through the eye and killed as dead as a door nail only two yards away from me. Well, when their fire went high we sent out men on our flanks and cleared the beggars beg-gars out from rear and both sides, left and right. After this we commenced to get round their left flank and after a jolly good scrap lasting four and a half hours they cleared out entirely and left the place in our hands. "When we examined the ground we found that their position was practically practi-cally impregnable, and to this day no one can make out why they left. I think they must have suffered terribly to clear out like that. "Later we found many dead bodies in the river. Our millimeter was a great advantage and, as it kicks up the deuce of a noise, it puts the wind up the enemy's native soldiery, so serving serv-ing a useful purpose." Airican pioneer, set out soutn irom this place, having under his command young native recruits with only a few white officers. His objective was the town of Mora, situated on a high plateau. Several fruitless attempts were made to storm the position. Then the Germans were surrounded and, leaving a small force of besiegers, Lieutenant Colonel Brisset Bris-set continued south toward the town of Maroua. On his way he met a German force coming to the relief of Mora and a fierce fight ensued. The Germans were forced to retreat toward to-ward Maroua, which was taken by the French on December 12, 1914, but without preventing the German commander, com-mander, Captain von Duhring, from escaping with his men in the direction of Garoua. The Germans now seem to have concentrated their forces for a last stand in the stronghold of Garoua, which was besieged five months. Colonel Brisset attacked first in early January, 1915. He took up a position about four miles from the town and a few days later was re-enforced re-enforced by British soldiers under Major Webb-Bowen. The latter had seven companies of infantry, one company com-pany of mounted infantry, a 75-millimeter navaj gun, three mountain guns of the same caliber and fifteen machine ma-chine guns. Three months later further fur-ther British forces arrived. The German position was found to be immensely strong. On February 12, 1915, the famous Captain Godard, an African veteran, was killed, and Colonel Brisset wrote to his father: "We brought back the body of the captain on a stretcher in the morning of the 14th to the little village of Wango-Garoua, rendering him full military honors. When the German position is in our possession we will move your son's body to Garoua and |