All that has fallen away; all that
is actually in the hands of the Allies.
The conquest was difficult; it was finished only in 1916. An order of
the day of General Aymerich, commander-in-chief of the troops which
conquered Kameroon, points with brief eloquence to some of the
difficulties which have been overcome:
Officers, Europeans and troops who are natives of Africa and
Belgian Congo.
At the cost of hardship and unheard-of efforts, you have
just wrenched from the Germans one of their best and richest
colonies.
Followed without a minute's respite from possession to
possession, the enemy has been obliged to abandon the last
bit of Kameroon. For eighteen months you have experienced
the torrid heat of the days and the cold dampness of the
nights without a change, you have been under the torrential
equatorial rains, you have traversed impassable forests and
fetid marshes, you have without a rest taken the enemy's
positions one after another, leaving dead in each one a
number of your comrades. Lacking food and often without
munitions, with your clothing in tatters, you have continued
your glorious march without complaint or murmur, until you
have attained the end for which you set out.
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