Small and neutral Portugal tries to resist the pressure applied by a cheerful Great Britain to join the Entente Allied cause. British warships encourage Portuguese acquiescence, as the shadow of German militarism threatens. After German submarines sank Portuguese vessels, Portugal seized German ships in its ports. Germany responded by declaring war on Portugal on March 10, 1916. One of a series of 1916 postcards on neutral nations by Em. Dupuis.

Je voudrais bien . . . mais je suis si petit.



I would like to but I am so small.



Portugal



Signed:

Em. Dupuis 1916



Reverse:

Visé Paris. No. 117

Logo: Paris Color 152 Quai de Jemmapes

Carte Postale

Other views: Larger

Sunday, April 7, 1918

"On April 2nd, Sir Henry Horne decided that the Portuguese must be relieved, so the 50th Northumbrian Division was instructed to begin moving up immediately in order to carry out the relief of the Portuguese 2nd Division on April 9th. On April 5th, the Portuguese 1st Division had been withdrawn, but as no one was ordered forward to occupy the vacated trenches, their compatriots extended themselves northwards to do so for the remaining four days.

But on April 7th and 8th Armentières to the north and the area around Lens to the south were deluged by mustard gas barrages . . ."

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 Ludendorff's Operation Georgette. General H. S. Horne commanded the British First Army.

Source

1918, the Last Act by Barrie Pitt, page 117, copyright © 1962 by Barrie Pitt, publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc., publication date: 1963

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, Dupuis Portugal