Naval operations of the Kamerun Campaign

Naval operations of the Kamerun Campaign
	Part of the Kamerun Campaign in World War I
	; Map of the Wouri estuary
Date	24 August - 28 September 1914
Location	Coast of German Kamerun, Wouri estuary
Result	Allied victory
Belligerents
British Empire British Nigeria ; France French Equatorial Africa ;	German Empire German Kamerun ;
Commanders and leaders
Major General Charles Dobell	Governor Karl Ebermaier Major Carl Zimmermann
Casualties and losses
light	2 gunboats sunk; 1 merchant vessel sunk; 1 gunboat captured; 8 merchant vessels captured; 36 dead [1]

Last updated April 27, 2019

The Naval operations of the Kamerun Campaign were carried out by German and Allied forces during the Kamerun Campaign of the First World War from August to September 1914. Naval activity occurred all along the coast of German Kamerun in the Bight of Bonny but most of the action took place in the Wouri estuary. The main event of the campaign were the successful British and French amphibious landings at Duala. The operations carried out by British and French naval forces concluded in securing control over the German colony's entire coastline and the destruction of any German naval vessels that were capable of offering resistance. Allied occupation of the coastline forced the Germans to retreat into the interior of Kamerun where they would meet their defeat in 1916.

The German Empire, also known as Imperial Germany, was the German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918.

The Allies of World War I or Entente Powers is the term commonly used for the coalition that opposed the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria during the First World War (1914–1918).

Kamerun Campaign theatre of WWI that involved the British, French and Belgian invasion of the German colony of Kamerun from August 1914 to March 1916

The Kamerun Campaign took place in the German colony of Kamerun in the African theatre of the First World War when the British, French and Belgians invaded the German colony from August 1914 to March 1916. Most of the campaign took place in Kamerun but skirmishes also broke out in British Nigeria. By the Spring of 1916, following Allied victories, the majority of German troops and the civil administration fled to the neighbouring neutral colony of Spanish Guinea. The campaign ended in a defeat for Germany and the partition of its former colony between France and Britain.

Early Allied movements

On 24 August 1914, the French gunboat Surprise bombarded the coast of Kamerun. Later, the French armored cruiser Bruix, based in Libreville shelled and severely damaged the coastal towns of Kampo and Kribi further to the south.^[2]

A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.

The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast enough to outrun any battleship it encountered. Varying in size, it was distinguished from other types of cruiser by its belt armor—thick iron plating on much of the hull to protect the ship from shellfire much like that on battleships. The first armored cruiser, the Imperial Russian Navy's General-Admiral, was launched in 1873 and combined sail and steam propulsion. By the 1890s cruisers had abandoned sail and took on a modern appearance.

Libreville Place in Estuaire Province, Gabon

Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon, in western central Africa. The city is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea, and a trade center for a timber region. As of 2013, its census population was 703,904. The area was originally inhabited by the Mpongwé tribe before the French acquired the land in 1839. In 1846, a Brazilian slave ship was captured by the French navy assisting the British Blockade of Africa, and fifty-two of the freed slaves were resettled on the site. It became the chief port of French Equatorial Africa from 1934 to 1946, and was the central focus of the Battle of Gabon in 1940. Libreville was named in imitation of Freetown, and grew slowly as a trading post and a minor administrative centre, reaching a population of 32,000 on independence in 1960. Since independence, the city has grown rapidly and now houses nearly half the national population. It is home to a shipbuilding industry, brewing industry, and sawmills, and exports raw materials such as wood, rubber and cocoa.

The original British plan had been to land a force at Victoria and move to Duala from there. British vessels were sent to the Bight of Bonny in preparation for these landings, including the armoured cruiser Cumberland. On the way to Kamerun's coast, the Cumberland made port in Lagos, Nigeria to allow the exiled King of Duala aboard along with other officials of the tribe who wished to take part in the landings. The king's uncle was hung for treason by the Germans on 8 August.^[3] On 4 September, naval vessels had anchored themselves in Ambas Bay, just off Victoria.^[4] However, heavy rains rendered waterways the Allies had planned to use impassable. The landing force then congregated at the Wouri estuary where the Germans had been given time to prepare their marine defenses.

Limbe, Cameroon Place in South-West, Cameroon

Limbe is a seaside city in the South-West Region of Cameroon. Limbe was founded in 1858 on the southern slopes of Mount Cameroon by the British missionary Alfred Saker. At the 2005 Census, the population was 84,223.

HMS Cumberland was one of 10 Monmouth-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She was assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet upon completion in 1903. After a refit in 1907–08 she became a training ship in the Home Fleet. She was sent to West Africa after the beginning of World War I in August 1914 and captured 10 German merchant ships in September. Cumberland spent the rest of the war on convoy escort duties and patrolling for German commerce raiders. She was sold for scrap in 1921 and broken up two years later.

Lagos s a city in the Nigerian state of Lagos. The city, with its adjoining conurbation, is the most populous in Nigeria and on the African continent. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and one of the most populous urban agglomerations. Lagos is a major financial centre in Africa; the megacity has the fourth-highest GDP in Africa and houses one of the largest and busiest seaports on the continent.

German defense of the Wouri Estuary

In preparation for the coming Allied landings, the Germans mined the Wouri estuary. They sunk 10 or 12 steamships and mine planters in the rivermouth of the Wouri, to prevent landings at Douala.^[1] On 11 September the 710-ton gunboat HMS Dwarf attempted to enter the rivermouth but was damaged by German artillery fire and retreated. On 15 September an attempt was made to blow up the Dwarf with a launch full of explosives, but failed. On 16 September, the German customs cutter Nachtigal rammed the Dwarf; an ensuing explosion sank the Nachtigal, killing 36 of her crew.^[1] Another attempt to sink the Dwarf took place when two German launches used spar torpedoes to sink the ship but failed.^[5] Other encounters between British and German light craft occurred throughout mid-September.

The Wouri estuary, or Cameroon estuary is a large tidal estuary in Cameroon where several rivers come together, emptying into the Bight of Biafra. Douala, the largest city in Cameroon, is at the mouth of the Wouri River where it enters the estuary. The estuary contains extensive mangrove forests, which are being damaged by pollution and population pressures.

Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. Home to Central Africa's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport (DLA), it is the commercial and economic capital of Cameroon and the entire CEMAC region comprising Gabon, Congo, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic and Cameroon. Consequently, it handles most of the country's major exports, such as oil, cocoa and coffee, timber, metals and fruits. As from 2018, the city and its surrounding area had an estimated population of 2,768,400. The city sits on the estuary of Wouri River and its climate is tropical.

A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at the end, so it would stick to wooden hulls. A fuse could then be used to detonate it.

Allied landings

After clearing a three-mile-wide belt of mines and other obstructions, the cruisers HMS Challenger and HMS Cumberland , the Dwarf, and five troopships moved up the Wouri to Douala. The Allied commander of the landing force, Major General Charles Dobell, sent an ultimatum to the German garrison at Douala demanding surrender. Receiving no answer, the British bombarded the town on 26 September.^[1] The German garrison stationed in the town promptly withdrew. On 27 September, around 1,000 British and French soldiers landed at Douala, occupying the port without resistance. They found the wireless station there had been destroyed by the retreating Germans, and captured a number of merchant vessels, as well as a German gunboat, the Soden.^[5]

HMS Challenger was a second-class protected cruiser of the Challenger-class of the Royal Navy.

At around the same time, Allied forces landed at Bonaberi, a town across the Wouri river from Douala that the Germans had not yet given up.^[5] After some fighting the town was surrendered and the German force retreated into the interior of the colony.

Shortly after the Allied landings at Douala, the French vessel Surprise shelled the southern coastal town of Ukoko; two German armed vessels, the Khios and Itolo, were sunk. French infantry landed at Ukoko and took the town shortly after fighting the German garrison there.^[2]^[6] This battle meant that Germany had effectively no control over the portion of Kamerun to the south of the Spanish colony of Rio Muni

Aftermath

The naval operations of the Kamerun Campaign resulted in Allied naval domination of the Wouri estuary and Bight of Bonny, as well as the capture of the main port of Douala and much of the colony's coast. It forced the Germans to withdraw from the populated coast to the mountainous jungle interior of Kamerun. Small German forces attempted to hold onto rivers vital for transportation near Douala, but were pushed further into the interior by British forces in the Battle of Jabassi in early October. On October 3, a French Senegalese force pushed German defenders out of their positions on the Japona river.^[1] On 26 October, British and French troops traveling by river threatened Edea, a village some German detachments had fallen back to after the capture of Douala. However, they withdrew and surrendered the town without a fight.^[7]

Notes

1 2 3 4 5 Reynolds, Churchill, Miller 1916.
1 2 "Verteidigung Ukokos"
↑ Cato 1919, p. 61.
↑ Strachan 2001, p. 522.
1 2 3 Buchan 1922, p. 423.
↑ D'Almeida, 2008.
↑ Strachan 2001, p. 524.

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References

Buchan, John. A History of the Great War. Vol. I. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1922
Cato, Conrad. The Navy Everywhere: Royal Navy Overseas Operations in World War I. New York: E. P. Dutton &, 1919. Archive.org. Web.
D'Almeida, Alain. Cocobeach: La Stele Aux Heros De La Guerre Renovee. Croissance Saine: Le Journal, 11 Nov. 2008. Web.
Der Raubzug Gegen Unsere Kolonien-Verteidigung Ukokos. Der Täglichen Rundschau (Berlin) 1915 Web.
Reynolds, Francis J., Churchill, Allen L., and Miller, Francis T. "Chapter 77 - The Cameroons." The Story of the Great War. Vol. III (of VIII). 1916.
Strachan, Hew. The First World War. Vol. I: To Arms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Coordinates: 2°50′N8°0′E / 2.833°N 8.000°E / 2.833; 8.000

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[RCM-1] 1 2 3 4 5 Reynolds, Churchill, Miller 1916.

[VU-2] 1 2 "Verteidigung Ukokos"

[C61-3] Cato 1919, p. 61.

[HS522-4] Strachan 2001, p. 522.

[JB-5] 1 2 3 Buchan 1922, p. 423.

[AD-6] D'Almeida, 2008.

[7] Strachan 2001, p. 524.