I was reading on wikipedia about the portugese in ww1 but a few things seemed unclear, such as how effective they were in africa or on the western front, and what weapons they were armed with, and the general perception of portugal in the war. I was just wondering if people could expand on their role since it seems overlooked by mainstream sources.
In order to provide a better perspective, it’s necessary to say that Portugal was in no way prepared to enter in a major battle as the World War 1.
The change in the political regime in 1910 lead to an unstable social climate that aggravated an already bad economic situation of the Portuguese economy. This added to a reorganization of the military structure by the republicans made the Portuguese army being one of most unprepared and most likely to have internal problems between their ranks.
In that way, Great Britain originally didn’t want any kind of Portuguese force in combat, only supplies and weapons in order to support the war effort (and also the German boats in Portuguese harbours), but with the combats taking more time than originally planned, they accepted the manpower.
Regarding the war in Africa, the situation was slightly better, but also not near the ideal. Although the long sovereignty of Portugal, only the coast suffer a process of modernization and development, while the interior remain “natural” (the only contact made were the pacifications expeditions sent to settle internal revolts).
Therefore, with the war, the lack of railroads and bad organization of the army in the region made the process very expensive and inefficient, basically remaining in strategic points in order to protect the territory.
About their equipment in Europe, they were supplied by the British army with a Lee-Enfield, Lewis machine gun and British helmets.
Sources (only in Portuguese, sorry, I tried to look but I couldn’t find any good source online in english)
http://www.rtp.pt/noticias/portugal-na-1-grande-guerra/centenario-portugueses-nas-primeira-grande-guerra_i893139 - Collection of reports, historian’s reports and images regarding the Portuguese perspective
“Grande Guerra – A campanha portuguesa em Africa” – Paper presented in the comemoration of the great war (2014) - http://www.portugalgrandeguerra.defesa.pt/SiteCollectionDocuments/Noticia%20Atas%20Academia%20Militar/10_Aniceto%20Afonso.pdf
http://www.portugalgrandeguerra.defesa.pt/Paginas/A%20Comiss%c3%a3o.aspx - Military website regarding the Portuguese participation