Troops from Portugal's colonies

[Keith_history_buff]

I will start with a slight digression, but this does set the scene for my question.

If my memory serves me right, about 10+ years ago on the Overvalwagen forum, there was a colour photo of an obscure artillery piece manned by soldiers of the time of the Estado Novo regime, dressed in vertical lizard camouflage fatigues. What stuck out was that I believe the photo was taken in Africa, and the gunners were from East Timor.

I have seen that during WW1, there were troops from Indochina that took part in the fighting in Salonika and elsewhere. Among these there was a small cadre from Pondichery in India, too.

Would there have been Forças Militares Coloniais soldiers from Macao, Goa & East Timor that participated in WW1 in Africa, or on the Western Front for that matter? Or would it only have been locally recruited men that faced Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck's forces?

[bushfighter]

Greetings Keith.

From what we know so far the Portuguese forces in Africa were heavily European plus locally recruited Askari who had been used, as elsewhere. for internal security duties.

 

Harry

[James A Pratt III]

The book "Colonial Armies in Africa 1850-1918" by Peter Abbot does deal with the Portuguese forces in Africa during WW I. Lets just say they weren't very good.

[bushfighter]

It might be fairer to say that they were suitable for what they had been prepared for - Internal Security duties against lightly-armed local inhabitants.

 

But that description could have been applied to most colonial armies in Africa.  The Germans faced quite tough opposition in some of their territories, and those experiences led to more effective Schutztruppen and, most importantly, a large increase in the number of machine guns and field artillery weapons sent to the colonies.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

[Holger Kotthaus]

Are there any Portuguese online sources known about the events?

It would certainly be interesting to read their perspective on the events of that time.

 

Cheers Holger

[Holger Kotthaus]

By the way, I saved long time ago an interesting link, but more about the naval activities, also on Logo de Niassa.

(Don´t be astonished about the first picture; - Scroll down, then a lot of rare photos become apparent)

 

Cheers Holger

[Holger Kotthaus]

Sorry; - would make sense to attach also the link: http://riodosbonssinais.blogspot.com/2014/06/