Have found a couple of websites that throw more light on the subject:
http://www.cascoscoleccion.com/portugal/por16.htm concentrates on the fluted helmet. It explains a photo I was wondering about the other day - a British artillery officer who has borrowed a Portuguese helmet.
Sadly, the Portuguese were not noted for their hygiene and were alleged on several occasions to have left "solid evidence" of their presence for others to clean up. The English writer A.P. Herbert was in a unit ordered to remove the material concerned and wrote a very amusing and uncomplimentary poem about the officer who issued the order, whose name was Major-General C.D. Shute.
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Great! Thanks for finding these fine links. I will post them on the site, as a sort of stop-gap measure until we can get a proper page on Portugese uniforms and equipment started.
No, I can't get that link at the moment, but I think it must be a temporary problem - it's a very big site I'll persevere.
I should have thought that Portuguese tropical kit would have been very like the German, Belgian, etc. Some digging required.
Hang on - there's an Osprey Book called Armies in East Africa 1914-18, which has a section on the Portuguese. Also very promising is a website called The King's Carbines, all about Portugese military involvement in Africa. It's very much under construction at the mo, but does list sections on WWI in East Africa, including separate bits on uniforms of infantry, cavalry, artillery, etc. One for the future.
P.S. That first link is OK now.
-- Edited by James H at 18:02, 2007-01-04
-- Edited by James H at 00:52, 2007-01-05
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"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.