Landships II

eugene wrote:

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Hi all I am rather curious about the Portuguese expedition force, what kind armament did they have and in what battles did they fight? All i have is some stats and two photos of the PEF with a sidenote that they werent very effective, what got Portugal into the war anyway? thanks

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The Portugese used a lot of British equipment (S.M.L.E rifle, Stokes mortars etc). They wore webbing, packs etc based of the 1908 British pattern. Their uniforms were of a blue colour (much like that of the French) but were British in style (and manufactured in Britain). The steel helmet was distinctive being in shape like the British but with vertical ribbing all round (also made in Britain).

The reason why Portugal came into the War was I think at least in part in the hope of acquiring a big slice of the German African colonies to add to Angola and Mozambique. The war was not that popular in Portugal. As a result moral was not always at its highest amongst Portugese troops. A bit like the Italians in 1940 - 43 there were some very daring and courageous individuals but a lot just wanted to go home. One example of cold blooded (and largely unsung) sustained courage was that shown by Portugese pilots who carried out anti submarine patrols into the deep Atlantic from the Azores flying single engined Curtis flying boats of 1913 vintage. If the rotary engine failed you were almost certainly dead, if you got caught in bad weather you were dead,  if the wind changed so that you couldn't make it back to land you were dead and if you made a navigational error you were dead. However because they were not in direct contact with the enemy very little was made of this.

John Keegan describes the Portuguese force in "The Battle of the Lys" (Purnell's History of the First World War, p.2696. "Portugal's involvement in the First World War was difficult to explain, not least to the soldiers of the two Portuguese divisions which had been in France since 1917. These illiterate and ill-cared for conscripts, besides being for the most part unused to the extreme winter climate of northern Europe, had no understanding of the reason for Portugal's quarrel with Germany, and no feeling of hostility towards the German soldiers opposite them...The British were indeed very doubtful of the Portuguese divisions' fighting worth. This doubt was based in part on a judgement of their morale - which was not improved by the practice of allowing the officers home on leave but not the men.." Due to low numbers of effectives, the two Portuguese divisions were amalgamated into a single division in early April 1918, and were holding a long line around Neuve Chapelle at the onset of the "Georgette" offensive on April 9. Keegan notes that,following a hurricane bombardment, "On the Portuguese front the leading waves of the four attacking divisions found the defensive positions for the most part already evacuated."

Note that the prisoners in the photo do not seem to be wearing the distinctive corrugated Portuguese helmet.

Rhomboid wrote:

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 being for the most part unused to the extreme winter climate of northern Europe,

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Interestingly enough Brazil when looking at sending an expeditionary force (Brazil entered the war mid 1917 because of U boat sinkings of Brazilian ships - much the same reason as why they came in again in 1942) wanted to send its force to Palestine to fight the Turks - not because they'd had any problems with Turkish subs but because they thought that the climate would be more suitable. It would seem that Allenby was of the opinion that integrating them with his predominantly English speaking forces was a problem he didn't want to have and in any case he was already getting on top of the Turkish opposition pretty well all the same. So the BrEF never went  (but the Brazilian navy played an active part in anti submarine operations.)

Was the PEF organized the same as British troops? (same TO&E)

They would make a very intersting wargaming army.

 

Chris

 

osprey publishes 2 books on trench warfare the first dealing with 1914-1915 the second detailing 1916-1918 ,the second book has some information on the PEF notably a color plate featuring 3 of the uniform configurations in usual osprey style,

Mario Wens wrote:

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Rhomboid wrote:

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being for the most part unused to the extreme winter climate of northern Europe

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That would not apply to the inhabitants of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, the province that was described of having an extreme climate of 'cuatro meses de hiberno e oito meses de inferno' (four months of winter and eight months of hell). There is a curious misconception that the Iberian peninsula has a pleasant climate all year through. It can have very inclement winter weather indeed!

I believe there is a Portugese uniform on show in the Brussels Museum, a helmet I'm sure of having seen there.

Mario

-- Edited by Mario Wens at 22:16, 2006-12-14

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One has only to read accounts of some of the campaigning in the Peninsular during the Napoleonic Wars -read Oman - to realise that winter in some parts can be nasty. However Oman also points out that the Spanish and Portugese forces tended to go into winter quarters and not stick their noses out of doors leaving the war to the "athiestic French and heretic British". General (later Marshal) Beresford had some problems, when he was reorganising and retraining the Portugese Army to fight as part of Wellingtons force, to get his troops aclimatised and accustomed to fighting in the cold weather. His success in the regeneration of the Portugese Army was such that its regiments became as effective as the British units alongside whom they fought (including their riflemen) and Wellington was desperate to have them in the low countries in 1815 to meet the threat of Napoleon (had time allowed the Portugese army would have fought at Warterloo). It would seem that by 1915 the Portugese army was again not ready to deal with campaigning in the cold weather