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The Portuguese Expeditionary Force in France. The first battalion heading to the trenches.
Text:
Os Portugueses em França; Primeiro batalhão a caminho da frente.
Les Portugais en France; Le premier balaillon en route vers les tranchees.
The Portuguese in France; The first batallion on their way to the trenches.
Reverse:
Serv. Phot. do C. E P. - Phot. Garcez
Lévy Fils & Cie. Paris

The Portuguese Expeditionary Force in France. The first battalion heading to the trenches.

Image text

Os Portugueses em França; Primeiro batalhão a caminho da frente.



Les Portugais en France; Le premier balaillon en route vers les tranchees.



The Portuguese in France; The first batallion on their way to the trenches.



Reverse:

Serv. Phot. do C. E P. - Phot. Garcez

Lévy Fils & Cie. Paris

Other views: Larger

Monday, April 8, 1918

"General Foch's superb strategy had enabled the wearied armies of Britain and France, though outnumbered two to one, to halt the first German drive toward the Channel Ports in the vital sector between Montdidier and the Luce River on April 5, 1918.

The Germans paused two days to catch their breath and spy out a more vulnerable point of attack in the Allied line. They found it further north in the 20-mile sector lying between La Bassee and Ypres, which had been depleted by the withdrawal of 100,000 men to assist in checking the German drive south of the Somme.

Of the remaining nine divisions defending this sector, eight were at the point of exhaustion from the strain of the retreat from St. Quentin. In truth, one of the Portuguese divisions already had been sent to the rear to recuperate and the other was preparing to leave for the rear when the Germans made their new thrust in the Valley of the Lys."

Quotation Context

German commander Erich Ludendorff launched his great offensive of 1918, Operation Michael, on March 21. Although it drove the British forces from hundreds of square miles of territory, it did not achieve the breakthrough and splitting of the Allied armies Ludendorff sought. Trying again, he turned to a previously rejected plan, to attack on the Lys River along the Franco-Belgian border. Portugal joined the Entente Allies in 1916, and its troops, the Portuguese Expeditionary Force, took up positions in 1917. They would be the first victims of Operation Georgette.

Source

King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 415, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922

Tags

1918-04-07, 1918, April, Portugal, Portuguese Army, gas, poison gas, mustard gas, preliminary bombardment, Battle of the Lys, Portuguese Expeditionary Force, Operation Georgette, Portugal butterfly