Ghana in Two World Wars

Ghana in Two World Wars. . , Ghana in the two World Wars , Well before the First World War Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone had raised local infantry units. Ghana and Nigeria also had artillery batteries. Whilst their individual identities and recruitment areas were preserved, the four formations were, for command and administrative purposes, grouped together in what was to become the Royal West African Frontier Force a title made famous in two world wars., Units of the Royal West African Frontier Force served in the brief operations in August 1914 which led to the surrender of the German Forces in Togoland, in the eighteen-month campaign to occupy the German Cameroons and in the subsequent garrisoning of both territories. An enlarged infantry brigade, and the Carrier Corps, played a distinguished part in the later stages of the campaign in East Africa., In the Second World War the Royal West African Frontier Force was expanded to many times its peace-time stength and supporting arms and services were raised so that the West African brigades and divisions which subsequently took the field were complete and self-supporting., Two West African brigades took part in the successful campaign in Italian East Africa and two divisions made their contribution to victory in Burma. Their feats of arms are remembered equally with those of the forces of other Commonwealth countries at whose sides they fought. All were volunteers and many came from Ghana., In both wars Ghana was an important training ground for troops destined for service abroad, and in the Second World War her ports were of great value as bases for the protection of the sea routes to the Middle East, India and Australasia while her airfields were essential staging posts in the ferrying of aircraft across Africa for the campaign in the Western Desert., Many of those who fell in battle are buried in the war cemeteries or commemorated on memorials in the campaign areas; others are remembered by memorials in their home countries., Christiansborg War Cemetery , The Christiansborg Memorial , This cemetery contains 419 burials of the Second World War. By forces they comprise 357 West African, 50 British, 8 Canadian, 1 Australian, 1 Polish and 2 Italian., The memorial in the entrance feature of the cemetery commemorates 452 soldiers from Ghana who died elsewhere in the country, in places where their graves cannot be properly maintained., In the adjoining civil cemetery there are the graves of 6 British and 1 German war dead., The Accra Memorial , This memorial in Black Star Square commemorates 58 soldiers from Ghana who died during the First World War and whose graves were not traced., This cemetery and memorial were constructed and are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission