British

[paul guthrie]

In Silhouettes of the Great War John Becker, Canadian , says he heard reports of Britsh shooting retreating Portuguese, Lys 1918, as well as other Canadians evicting them from shelters prepared for civilians, does not claim direct knowledge but seems not to question this.

Any knowledge?

[Greenwoodman]

Hi Paul, I'm studying the Portuguese effort at the moment as part of the Battle of the Lys. Out of some fifteen memoirs that mention the Portuguese, only Crozier in "A Brass Hat in No Man's Land" reports "The uniforms of the Germans and Portuguese were not dissimilar. Hundreds of Portuguese were mown down by our machine guns, and rifle fire." I've a feeling that some of the unit histories mention it, but they've not been noted yet.

"See how they run" by Moore records Cayley of 29th Division noticing Portuguese soldiers being attacked by French women.

And Carstairs in "A Generation Missing" reports "In the Battle of Armentieres, when the Portuguese broke and ran (it is said they killed motor-cyclists to get away the quicker)......."

Interesting though, because so far have not found any Canadian unit involved in the Lys.

Found another ref:-"The Welch Regiment, 1914-1918". "....and on the way met a couple of hundred men in grey uniforms whom I took to be the enemy. It was not until after we had dispersed them that we discovered they were Portuguese who had apparently lost their way."

[Simon R]

The Portuguese did not seem to be very popular with the units I'm interested in (from West Yorks.) - I have records of huge brawls in estaminets with people going through windows, knives being drawn etc.

Mind you, they were fighting with the Jocks earlier in the war, throwing boots at each other (believe it or not), so perhaps it was simply familiarity breeding contempt...

[Thomas]

In the 'Mad Major' by Major Christopher Draper DSC who was 208th Squadron's CO reported of the Portugese that 'had they stood fast they would have been overwhelmed. His aerodrome was La Gorgue and he says of unfortunate incidents with the Portugese being mistaken for Germans by the 50th and 51st Division's.

Hope this is of help.

From,

Thomas McCall