Picture of the day

Another army mascot. Unit BCAÇ 237, Tite, Guinea-Bissau 1964.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/T...cc0d6593190c97!8m2!3d11.7804788!4d-15.3980224

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My father really missed his unit's monkey mascot. Memories on his face every visit to a zoo.
 
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diopter said:
Mounted Dragoons in Angola
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Makes me wonder how long it took to train the horses with G3 gunfire.
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Horses were quite effective in several areas of Africa around that time. The Rhodesians had their Selous Scouts which only used a few horses and Grey's Scouts which were mostly horse mounted.

They very seldom used their firearms in the field from horseback. They depended on the fear factor of facing a 650 KG horse charging an adrenaline driven opponent at full gallop. Very initmidating when it gets close up an personal in the deep grass. Especially against an enemy that wasn't well trained or disciplined.

I'm not saying they didn't shoot from a mounted position, it just wasn't recommended. More out of consideration for the horse than anything else.

Training horses for armed conflicts takes valuable time and the personal ties between the trooper and the animal can get extreme. They weren't about to deafen or flash blind the precious animals they became so close to and depended on.

I spoke with a few Grey's Scouts and they felt they could easily cover 35-40 kliks per day, with full battle kit and still be in good shape to fight at any given point.

Their enemies absolutely hated the horse mounted scouts.

The Grey's scouts included both White and Black troops in their make up.

I don't know if that was the case with the Portuguese cavalry. Many of the land owners fielded horses and gave a good account of themselves in their skirmishes.
 
WAR FROM THE ULTRAMAR, ANGOLA History
.
THE DRAGONS OF ANGOLA - THE Cavalry in the East
.
Angola & War of Overseas - A great report by photojournalist Fernando Flour who followed the operations of the Dragons of Angola, Silva Porto, in fighting pursuit of the MPLA and United guerrillas
'NEW' magazine, n. 549 of 19 June 1970. 'A WAR ON THE CAV' Luanda 1970
86 page magazine, very illustrated and in very good condition. Excellent.
From very, very difficult location
VERY, VERY RARE
Featured themes:
Angola
- 'A WAR ON CAV'
A report by Fernando Flour, with 14 pages and very illustrated









































 
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Just another day at the office.
Erik Bonde, a Swedish Major fighting in the Congo Crisis, smokes a cigarette after being shot twice in the chest following an ambush. Jan 1961


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80 years ago this week ...

Atlantic-Charter.jpg


President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill on the deck of HMS Prince of Wales during church services during the Atlantic Charter conference, in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
 
Grizzly Adams said:
Everything I've read and heard says horses don't do well in Africa ?

Grizz
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Then the writers weren't on the receiving end of horse mounted scouts.

If the horses were used to charge dug in positions, they got shot up.

If the people directing the scouts, didn't know how to use them properly, or for their intended role, they got shot up.

Sounds like a few people in charge that didn't know what they were doing passing the buck to duck out of their negligence.
 
The tsetse fly transmits animal trypanosomiasis a variant of sleeping sickness that is fatal in horses. It was prevalent enough to prevent horses being used by either side in large areas of Africa, mostly east Africa during WWI. Obviously in other areas of Africa horses did well as evidenced by the Boer Wars.
 
CV32 said:
80 years ago this week ...

Atlantic-Charter.jpg


President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill on the deck of HMS Prince of Wales during church services during the Atlantic Charter conference, in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
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Prince of Wales along with the Repulse sunk by Japanese aircraft
off the coast of Malaya , 3 days after the Pearl Harbour attack, 840 men killed ,
 
CV32 said:
80 years ago this week ...

Atlantic-Charter.jpg


President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill on the deck of HMS Prince of Wales during church services during the Atlantic Charter conference, in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
Click to expand...

Placentia Bay is the St. Johns end of the Sydney, Nova Scotia ferry. I was on the hill, looking down at Placentia Bay from the old US Navy airbase a couple weeks ago. My buddy mentioned that this is where the two ships met up.

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