Kamerun campaign

Kamerun campaign
Part of the African theatre of World War I

British QF 12-pounder 8 cwt firing at Fort Dachang in 1915
Date6 August 1914 – 10 March 1916
(1 year, 7 months and 4 days)
Location03°52′N 11°31′E / 3.867°N 11.517°E / 3.867; 11.517
Result Allied victory
Territorial
changes
Kamerun divided into League of Nations mandates under British and French rule (1919)
Belligerents

British Empire

 France

Belgium

 Germany

Commanders and leaders
Charles Dobell
Frederick Cunliffe
Joseph Aymerich
Félix Fuchs
Karl Ebermaier
Carl Zimmermann
Ernst Raben 
Units involved
WAFF
WIR
Force Publique
Schutztruppe
Strength
September 1914:
2,695 soldiers
2,267 soldiers
4,563 carriers
16 guns
January 1916:
6,400 soldiers
8,000 soldiers
500 soldiers
34 guns

Total:
8,000 soldiers
10,000 soldiers
600 soldiers
40,000 carriers

1914:
3,380

  • 1,850 soldiers
  • 1,530 armed police
12 obsolete guns
February 1916:
6,575 soldiers
Casualties and losses
1,590
316+ dead
587+ wounded
34+ missing

2,608
1,004 dead
1,567 wounded
37 missing

Carriers:
102+ killed or wounded
472+ died of disease

Total:
4,600 killed, wounded, and died of disease
10,035+ 'invalided'
1,137
Hundreds to thousands of Duala civilians killed

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 (Río Muni). The campaign ended in a defeat for Germany and the partition of its former colony between France and Britain.