Portuguese reinforcements sail for Angola

The British chronology of the war records under 4 December 1914 the departure from Lisbon of a Portuguese expeditionary force for Angola. It was the second, larger wave of reinforcements for the colony. Portuguese sources give different dates. According to the history of the navy, the passenger ships Ambaca and Peninsular left Lisbon with troops for Angola as early as 1 December, escorted by the cruiser Vasco da Gama, which off the Canary Islands handed them over to the cruiser São Gabriel. Another study speaks of two transports, dispatched on 3 and 11 December. What is certain is that the reinforcements set out at the beginning of December.

Roçadas’s request

Since October Lieutenant-Colonel José Augusto Alves Roçadas’s expedition, numbering about 1,400 men, had been stationed in Angola. It had been sent to guard the border with German South West Africa, although Roçadas himself did not expect a German invasion. The situation changed after the incident at Naulila, where the Portuguese shot three Germans, and after the German attack on the post at Cuangar. Roçadas concluded that the Germans would want revenge. Through the Ministry of the Colonies he asked Lisbon for substantial reinforcements.

Part of the help had already reached him. On 5 November a battalion of marine infantry, about 550 strong, sailed from Lisbon on the ship Beira. On 23 November it landed at the port of Moçâmedes. At the same time the Portuguese parliament authorised the government to take part in the war at the side of Great Britain whenever it considered this necessary. Portugal, however, was not at war with Germany, and its army in Africa was above all to defend the colony.

Who sailed

The December transports carried two infantry battalions, from the 16th Regiment of Lisbon and the 17th Regiment of Beja, a cavalry squadron from the 11th Regiment of Braga, two mountain artillery batteries from Évora and machine-gun batteries. Their commander was Major João Pires Viegas. The weekly “Ilustração Portuguesa” reported on 21 December that a total of 2,803 army soldiers and 563 sailors had been sent to Angola. Among the sailors it probably counted the marine infantry battalion that had sailed in November.

The transports sailed to Moçâmedes, from where the road led up to the Huíla plateau and further south to the border river, the Kunene. Here the difficulties began. There was a shortage of roads, wagons and draught animals, and supplies for Roçadas’s troops had already been reaching the border region only with difficulty. According to Portuguese researchers, a large part of the new units therefore stood for a long time in camps at Moçâmedes and Lubango instead of strengthening the troops on the border.

This was not the end of the dispatch of troops. At the beginning of 1915 further transports sailed for Angola, and command of all the forces in the southern part of the colony was taken over by General António Júlio da Costa Pereira de Eça, previously Minister of War in Bernardino Machado’s government.