four forts of the town had been greatly
strengthened and every preparation was now made for a stout
resistance. The British and French having intrenched themselves, the
British guns began a vigorous bombardment of the forts. During the
night sapping and mining went on steadily, enabling the British to
move their trenches gradually nearer their objective.

The siege lasted from May 31 to June 10, 1915, when the forts
surrendered. The allied troops entered Garua on June 11, taking over
thirty-seven German, and 270 native prisoners, while great quantities
of arms, ammunition and stores became their prizes. It was said that
the garrisons of the forts might have held out much longer if they had
not lost their nerve and become panic-stricken, which caused many
desertions. It was a remarkable feature of this spirited struggle that
the Allies did not lose a man.

Leaving Garua, the British and French troops now moved on Ngaundere,
capital of the Adamawa District, which was taken with insignificant
losses to the Allies on July 29, 1915. The retiring Germans were
closely pursued to Tangere, which stands on a plateau nearly 4,000
feet high. This place was captured by the allied forces July 12, and
attempts made by the Germans to regain it eleven days later were
repulsed.

Early in August, 1915, the British captured Gaschaka and Koncha, when
the heavy rains suspended for the time any further military
operations. Meanwhile the French force had been working its way toward
Yaunde, occupying the station of Dume on the way. The arrival of
French troops at this town seems to have surprised and dismayed the
Germans, who hastily abandoned several fortified places and destroyed
their transport. They continued, however, to hold the hill above Dume
for some time, but were driven out by a French detachment after a
short struggle. From Dume a French column was dispatched against
Abong-Mbong.

At the beginning of the fall of 1915, the Germans still held Yaunde,
and a district in the center of the country, but the Cameroons could
no longer be considered a German possession.

CHAPTER LXXVIII

BRITISH CONQUEST OF SOUTHWEST AFRICA

Our attention is now drawn to Southwest Africa. In the first week of
February, 1915, the Germans made a determined effort to break through
the encircling armies that were closing in on them. Kakamas on the
Orange, where a British garrison was stationed to protect Schuit
Drift, was fiercely attacked on F