and the operational
deployment of the West African Regiment
Introduction
On the outbreak
of war in August 1914 the Allies quickly moved against German possessions in West Africa.
Togoland was seized (see: http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/300143.html
) and the large colony of Kamerun was attacked.
In Kamerun initial British attacks across the Nigerian border were
repulsed by the Germans, but an amphibious assault on Douala seized that port on 27th September 1914. The allied commander, Brigadier General Sir
C.M. Dobell CMG, DSO, then ordered two columns to move north and attack Susa and Yabasi (sometimes
spelt as Jabassi.) Yabasi lay 50 miles (80
kilometres) up the Wuri
River which was
navigable. The Royal Navy was tasked
with transporting the column to Yabasi.
The Yabasi
Column Commander was Brevet Colonel E.H. Gorges DSO, the Commandant of the West
African Regiment. Colonel Gorges force
consisted of a land party under Lieutenant Colonel E. Vaughan (Manchester
Regiment and West African Regiment) who commanded:
2 sections of
mountain artillery, one section each coming from the Sierra Leone Battery and the Gold
Coast Battery, West African Frontier Force (WAFF).
6 companies
plus 2 machine guns from the West
African Regiment 2 companies
from the 1st Nigeria
Regiment, WAFF.
Half of the
Pioneer Company of the Gold Coast
Regiment, WAFF.
Telephone and
medical detachments and 688 porters.
Support from
the Royal Navy, under Commander the Honourable B.T.C.O. Freeman-Mitford, was a
flotilla comprised of:
Mole a dredger armed with a 6-inch gun.
Dreadnought a lighter also mounting a 6-inch gun.
Balbus a steam tug that towed the Dreadnought and carried three 1-pounder guns.
The picquet
boat from HMS Cumberland, armed with
one 3-pounder gun and a machine gun.
The steam launches
Sokoto, Crocodile and Alligator,
each armed with one machine gun.
One 12-pounder
gun and detachment for employment on land.
(The 6-inch
guns and crews came from HMS Challenger at
Douala).
The West African Regiment (WAR)
Freetown
in Sierra Leone
was one of the Royal Navy’s most important harbours and bases, and it needed an
effective garrison. White troops sent
there were decimated by fever and had to be replaced by battalions of the West
India Regiment from the Caribbean. Internal unrest in Sierra Leone caused the British to
raise a local infantry regiment in the colony in 1896 titled the West African
Regiment.
The WAR was an
Imperial unit; that meant that its cost was born by the British War Office and
not by colonial revenues raised in Sierra Leone. The regiment’s primary role was to defend the
colony’s capital Freetown,
but it was also available for operations anywhere in the world. The regiment raised twelve companies of
infantrymen from tribes in the Sierra
Leone interior. The unit strength was: 60 British seconded officers,
25 British seconded Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and 1,500 African rank and
file. The regimental march was Rule Britannia.
In the early
days the regiment was dressed in a blue single-breasted tunic with five gilt
buttons and standing collar, knee-length baggy blue breeches, a low red fez for
headdress and a brown belt with two pouches.
Boots and gaiters were not issued or used. The soldiers were armed with the .303-inch
Lee Metford magazine rifle.
By 1914 the
soldiers were wearing a khaki flannel smock and calf-length breeches, but the
men still fought in bare feet. The rifle
in use was the Short Magazine Lee Enfield, and two machine guns had been issued
to the regiment. In Kamerun the red fez
was replaced by a green Kilmarnock hat and the
belt and pouches were replaced with M08 web equipment.
In pre-war days
the WAR had deployed five companies into the interior of Sierra Leone, and had stationed the regimental
headquarters and seven companies at Wilberforce, outside Freetown.
The West African Regiment should not be confused with the Sierra Leone
Battalion of the West African Frontier Force, which was a colonially-funded,
directed and administered unit.
The approach up the Wuri River
The journey
up-river started on 7th October and was enlivened by canoe-loads of
villagers trying to cling on to the vessels to get a free ride. Some of the canoe men climbed aboard the
Royal Navy craft to search for removable objects, and they had to be
ejected. As the long snake of vessels,
led by the flagship Mole, passed
Bosida the ‘King’ (head chief) of the region came aboard for a visit. He had been hiding in the bush for three days
as the withdrawing Germans were hanging anyone in authority who was thought to
favour the Allies.
Left: The Wuri River at Yabasi
As Nsake Fort
was reached, 10 miles (16 kilometres) south of Yabasi, the flotilla came under enemy
rifle fire. Machine gun and 3-pounder
fire sprayed and bombarded the fort in reply.
A company of WAR disembarked and seized the fort which was found to be
empty. Local villagers advised that the
enemy had quickly withdrawn up-river to Yabasi.
Deployment into action at Yabasi
The German
defenders of Yabasi were the 1st (Depot) Company of the Schutztruppe
supported by local policemen and local Europeans. Knowing that the British flotilla was on its
way towards them they had planned a sound defence, and they wanted to fight.
Yabasi came
into the flotilla’s sight at 0800 hours on 7th October, and shortly
afterwards the effects of the hot tropical sun began to be felt by the entire British
column. The Mole and the Dreadnought
bombarded Yabasi town whilst the troops disembarked on the west side of the
river. The east side was thought to be
too swampy and no British troops landed there.
This was a big mistake.
Colonel Gorges
ordered Lieutenant Colonel Vaughan to advance with a main body of 4 companies
and the machine gun section WAR, the Gold Coast pioneers and the Gold Coast
mountain artillery. The remaining sub-units
and the naval 12-pounder gun were held in reserve.
At this time
the flotilla noticed enemy movement on the east bank. A message was despatched to Colonel Gorges
but it either did not arrive or was ignored.
Lieutenant Colonel Vaughan
was now ordered to seize a mound south of the town whilst Captain E. S. Brand (Royal
Fusiliers and WAR) led a left-flanking attack (see sketch map). The mound was evacuated by the enemy and the
British occupied it.
Suddenly enemy
machine gunners on both sides of the river opened fire on the flotilla and on the
British troops on the mound. Enemy rounds
hit the gun mountings on the vessels, forcing Commander Freeman-Mitford to
withdraw his flotilla down-river out of range.
This denied Colonel Gorges the naval gun fire support that he had been
counting on. The tug Balbus had disobeyed orders and pushed
her way too far upstream, and as she withdrew she ran aground on an island and
had to be abandoned. The navy was now pre-occupied
with emptying Balbus of her guns and
other loose items. Things were going
badly wrong.
Disaster on the British left flank
Colonel Gorges
ordered the naval 12-pounder to be dragged onto the mound by the naval gun
detachment and some accompanying Royal Marines.
He then went to inspect his left flank attack, as it appeared to be
experiencing difficulties.
The troops on
the left flank were in disarray. They
had advanced through a swamp to a river which could only be crossed by one
bridge. German machine gunners had a
clear field of fire from Yabasi and were knocking down anyone approaching the
bridge. Captain Brand was dead along
with Staff Sergeant (Armourer) Frederick C. Wade (Royal Army Ordnance Corps and
WAR) and Colour Sergeant Hector McGuirk (King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
and WAR). Lieutenant R.D. Bennett
(Middlesex Regiment), the WAR Machine Gun Officer, was severely wounded. Twelve African soldiers had also been killed
and 19 others wounded; many of these casualties were WAR machine gunners. On the river five British sailors had been
wounded.
Left: Captain Ernest Stanley Brand
The companies
on the left flank were now either thrashing around in tall elephant grass or
were unwilling to face the German machine guns.
Tactical unity had been lost. A
company of the 1st Nigeria Regiment was ordered to mount another
flanking attack with the intention of going further to the west and getting
onto ground beyond the bridge. But direction
was lost in the thick, swampy bush and the Nigerians emerged behind the WAR
instead of in front and to the left.
Colonel Gorges now
turned to what he perceived to be his trump card, the naval detachment on the
mound; here he found the men prostrated with exhaustion. Having no real idea of the physical demands
made by bush warfare, the naval detachment had thought that it could haul the
12-pounder gun and ammunition without the assistance of local porters. To compound this situation the detachment had
been ordered into action wearing heavy marching order. The result was that although the 12-pounder
was on the mound, the gunners were too exhausted to man it efficiently and the
marines were too exhausted to fight forward.
As dusk was now
approaching a British retirement was ordered.
The men re-embarked and the flotilla, less Balbus, sailed back down-river to Nsake for the night. It then returned to Douala.
The second British attack on Yabasi
General Dobell
ordered an immediate second assault on Yabasi.
The WAR was rested and Colonel Gorges was given another column
consisting of:
The Nigerian Mountain Artillery Battery
(less one section) WAFF.
One section
from the Gold Coast Mountain Artillery
Battery WAFF.
1st
Battalion The Nigeria
Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel J.B. Cockburn (Royal Welch Fusiliers and Nigeria
Regiment, WAFF).
A Composite Battalion consisting of 2
companies of the Sierra Leone Battalion WAFF and 2 companies of the Gold Coast
Regiment WAFF, under Lieutenant Colonel R.A. de B. Rose (Worcester Regiment and
Gold Coast Regiment, WAFF).
A detachment
from the Pioneer Company of the Gold
Coast Regiment,WAFF.
Telephone and
Medical detachments and 450 porters.
The naval
flotilla, again under Commander Mitford, was similar to the previous one but
this time 100 porters accompanied the 12-pounder gun.
On 13th
October the Composite Battalion was landed on both banks of the river at Nsake
and advanced. Officers’ patrols located
the enemy near Yabasi also on both banks of the river, as before. The following morning 1st Nigeria
Regiment (less one company), one section of Gold Coast Pioneers, the Nigerian
mountain gunners and the naval 12-pounder detachment were landed on the west
side of the river south of Yabasi. Lieutenant Colonel Cockburn was tasked with
getting behind and to the north of Yabasi by making a wide left flanking
approach. The remainder of the column
was held afloat by Colonel Gorges so that he could reinforce either bank of the
river.
By 1300 hours
the British troops on both banks were in contact with the enemy who was fighting
a withdrawing action. The flotilla
provided fire support and by 1500 hours Yabasi was encircled. One hour later
the British held all the enemy trenches.
Ten enemy prisoners were taken by 1st Nigeria Regiment. The British had lost 2 men wounded and one
British NCO who died from the effects of the sun.
On the 15th
October British patrols ascertained that the Germans were retreating towards
Nyamtam, and there was some inconclusive skirmishing. The flotilla successfully salved the Balbus, although it had to be sent to Nigeria
for a refit. The 1st Bn The Nigeria
Regiment was left to garrison the Yabasi area and the remainder of the column
returned to Douala. The British dead from the first attack were
buried in Douala Cemetery.
Conclusion
At Yabasi the
British troops learned to respect German machine gunnery. Experience acquired the hard way during the
failed first attack helped the second attack to succeed.
The West
African Regiment continued operating in Kamerun and was a useful unit. After the conquest of the territory the WAR
provided garrison troops for Kamerun, Togo and Gambia,
and internal security troops for northern Nigeria. During the Great War 7 British officers and
Non Commissioned Officers were killed in action and 4 others were wounded or
injured; 27 African soldiers were killed, 17 died of disease and 41 were
wounded.
Colonel Gorges was
appointed to be a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB) and a
Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE). Two
officers in the WAR were awarded Military Crosses. Five British officers and eight Sierra
Leonian soldiers were Mentioned in Despatches.
Being Imperial troops the soldiers in the WAR were unfortunately not
eligible to receive the African Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) which was awarded to WAFF soldiers, and none
were considered for the Imperial DCM.
Battle
honours awarded to the regiment were: Sierra Leone 1897-98; Ashanti 1900; Cameroons 1914-16; and Duala. In 1928
the regiment was disbanded as a cost-cutting measure. At the time of disbandment the Prince of
Wales was the Colonel-in-Chief. This was
sad end to a colonial Imperial unit that had served Britain well.
SOURCES:
The Great War in West Africa
by Brigadier General E.
Howard Gorges CB, CBE, DSO.
Official History. Military Operations Togoland and
the Cameroons by Brigadier General F.J. Moberly CB, CSI, DSO.
The History of the Royal West African Frontier
Force by Colonel A.
Haywood CMG, CBE, DSO and
Brigadier F.A.S. Clarke DSO.
The Naval Review 1915. Imperial Sunset.
Frontier Soldiering in the 20th Century by James Lunt.
Colonial Armies. Africa
1850 to 1918 by Peter
Abbott.
The Empire at War by Sir Charles Lucas KCB, KCMG.
The West African Regiment (WAR)
The approach up the Wuri River
Left: Captain Ernest Stanley Brand 
