Picture of the day

Today is Calvary Day in the Portuguese Army.
A picture posted on one of their forums.

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Armando Santos.
Myself and the mascot of the Nampula(Mozambique) Calvary Squad 1961/62

and


Translation from Portuguese.
"Congratulations to all the horsemen. Today is our day"
 
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Now for the Portuguese paratroopers.


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This scope apparently only issued to Portuguese Paras. Wonder if the smudge was intentional to protect the source.

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And a document from 1981 suggesting to move to 5.56 for the Airborne/paratroopers from 7.62 Nato.

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Re post 19881:
Her name was Delilah, the mascot of Base Airfield #o. 5-Nampula.




Remember my father saying he took care of his unit's mascot, a monkey.
 
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I've recently read several books on the RLI, "Selous Scouts" and their battle to keep Rhodesia from falling to Communism.

They expressed nothing but contempt for the Portuguese military they encountered, particularly their officers.

The Rhodesians fought like lions with limited resources and achieved remarkable results, whereas the Portuguese took every opportunity to disengage after making a great show of their presence.

They were regarded as useless allies by the RLI/Selous scouts.
 
Sharps '74 said:
I've recently read several books on the RLI, "Selous Scouts" and their battle to keep Rhodesia from falling to Communism.

They expressed nothing but contempt for the Portuguese military they encountered, particularly their officers.

The Rhodesians fought like lions with limited resources and achieved remarkable results, whereas the Portuguese took every opportunity to disengage after making a great show of their presence.

They were regarded as useless allies by the RLI/Selous scouts.
Click to expand...

My opinion of the "Geese" is completely opposite although not in a military/battlefield sense. I had 5 or 6 recent immigrants on my crew back in the 70's...short description is "the toughest short-legged bunch of men I ever worked with". never a word of discontent from them, ever, their job was cement pargers in manhole fixtures and it didn't matter if the mixer was 400 yards from the manhole, each just filled 2 five gallon pails with concrete & headed across the site
 
Sharps '74 said:
I've recently read several books on the RLI, "Selous Scouts" and their battle to keep Rhodesia from falling to Communism.

They expressed nothing but contempt for the Portuguese military they encountered, particularly their officers.

The Rhodesians fought like lions with limited resources and achieved remarkable results, whereas the Portuguese took every opportunity to disengage after making a great show of their presence.

They were regarded as useless allies by the RLI/Selous scouts.
Click to expand...


My personal experience was different. I found them to be tough, resilient and very well disciplined.

My folks were on the receiving end of one of their sorties. We took a beating.

Of course, they were much better equipped than we were and relatively fresh, compared to our months long bout in the field. They also weren't encumbered with the well being of women and children.

They came in fast and hard and got out fast and hard once the defenses kicked in. They just didn't have the manpower to sustain a long hard conflict.

Their effort was likely to disrupt us and or move us on. The accomplished that very well and left before they had any more casualties than necessary to do the job.

That takes discipline.

One other thing to take into account, many of the Portuguese troops in Angola were conscripts. They just didn't want to be there and felt it was a lost cause.

I was gone by the time the fighting really escalated. Likely the moral of the Portuguese troops at all levels was at a low.
 
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