Portuguese Rifle Company, Western Front - How was it organized?

[Doc Twilight]

Ok, this is probably a long shot, but...

Continuing with research for the WW1 project.

Can anyone provide a basic order of battle for a standard Portuguese Rifle Company during their time on the Western Front (1917-1918)? I've got lots of lovely pics of the uniforms, and some good history, but I'm wondering what the makeup would be. How many platoons, how many sections per platoon, and how many men per section?


Perhaps some of our Portuguese members would be willing to help?

Would appreciate any info you can give:)

-Doc

[meninobesta]

Hello,

I asked my father some input on the issue some time ago, and he has compiled something. I'll try to post it here during next week!

[Doc Twilight]

Thanks very much, Pedro.

-Alex

[meninobesta]

Hello,

got the info this morning, and I think it will be useful, but it's written in papper and in Portuguese, so it will take a little bit to pass it to here!

[Doc Twilight]

Looking forward to it, then, when you have the time. Thanks again.

-Alex

[meninobesta]

The following information was gathered by my father José António, and was translated by me (if you spot some error in some of the terms that are used please make note). I really don't know what were the sources, but I'll try to get them.

Portugal in the great war

Before the war was declared between Germany and the Portuguese Republic there were already some confronts between both countries, namely in the Angola southern frontier with Damaralandia (German West Africa), in northern Moçambique along the river Rovuma which was the border with German East Africa as well as some actions between Portuguese ships and German submarines.

War was declared in March 1916, and besides sending several contingents for the colonies defence, the creation of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps (Corpo Expedicionário Português - CEP) was also decided in order to fight in Europe's western Front

The Corps was composed by two infantry divisions which were subject to complementary military instruction in order to learn the new combat procedures of the ongoing war, and were transported from Lisboa to Brest by sea during 1917, starting on the January 30th.

Order of Battle:

CEP was composed by 2 divisions and their HQs
Each Division had: 3 infantry Brigades
Each Brigade was formed by 4 infantry Battalions and a light mortar battery (2.5 Stokes)
Each Battalion had 4 infantry companies

The Rifle Company
Although Rifle is the correct translation, the Portuguese name is Atirador (Atiradores for the plural form) which directly translates to "shooter", but the correct term is Rifle Company

Each Company was formed by 3 Platoons
Each Platoon had 70 men (1 officer, 1 First sergeant (sargento serrafila) and 68 men and NCOs)

one of the sources tells that each platoon was formed by 5 sections, which were:
1 Liaison Section
1 Rifle Section
1 Hand Grenade Section
1 Rifle Grenade Section
1 LMG section

another source states that there were:
4 infantry sections (with 7 to 11 men + Sergeant or Corporal)
1 LMG section (2 men - gunner and loader)
1 Grenadier section (16 men - 8 with hand grenades and 8 with rifle grenade launchers)
1 Liaison Agent

Each section was commanded by a sergeant or a corporal
The rifle in use was the Enfield, the same as the British and Lewis LMGs (counting 16 per Battalion)
The Corps had 6 Vickers HMG Batteries, totalling 96 heavy machine guns (about 16 per battery).

Artilery was organized into:
 - 6 artillery groups, with 4 batteries each (three Schneider 7,5 TR gun batteries and one Schneider 11.4 cms gun battery)
 - 1 Heavy Artillery Corps formed by 2 artillery groups, which used 23.8 cm, 20.2 cm and 15.2 cm guns

The Corps also had several special units, which we may count:
1 Corps Telegraphy Company;
2 Divisional Telegraphy companies;
1 TSF section;
1 Pigeon service group;
2 Sapper Companies;
1 Rail road Sapper Battalion (which operated with the British 1st Army);
1 Campaign Projector company (also with the British 1st Army);
1 Group with 2 Cavalry Squadrons;
1 Plane Squadron (still to find out which were the planes in use);
and some Sanitary and administrative groups

Hope that this helps, I'll try latter to confirm the values with the sources to see if we can find a conclusion about the platoon's organization

[Doc Twilight]

That information, my friend, is amazingly helpful, and far better than anything I'd found. All I can say in terms of confirmation is that the little information I was able to dig up suggested that there were four sections per platoon, which may tend to confirm the second possible organization.

Thank you -very- much. This information will be incredibly useful in my project. My thanks to you and your dad.


-Doc

[Kingscarbine]

Thank you for that info Meninobesta. Are you one of the AJSP members?

[meninobesta]

Thank you for that info Meninobesta. Are you one of the AJSP members?

thanks,

regarding the AJSP, I know who they are but I don't belong to any club! are you Portuguese?

[Kingscarbine]

Yes. I sometimes go to AJSP. No time for gaming these days.  Missed the Academia Militar this year.

[Kingscarbine]

Found some info about a battalion of the Minho Brigade. When shipped to France the battalion had 960 men, divided by 4 companies of 3 platoons each.

[Kingscarbine]

I've done some maths and there must be battalion and companies HQs missing in the TO. A battalion = 960 men; a company = 210 men; 210 x 4 = 840 men. So 120 men short. Also (1 LMG section (1 Lewis) x 3 plts) x 4 Coys = 12 Lewis. If there were 16 per battalion the TO&E is 4 short. Maybe there was one section attached to the Coy HQ.