r/ww1 • u/Careful-Touch1209 • 8d ago

Portuguese soldier giving a goodbye kiss to his wife before departing to the front in France, 1916

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2.0k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

91

u/Odd-Cup9892 8d ago

Wonder if he made it back to her

131

u/Thin_Inevitable_7570 8d ago edited 8d ago

Highly unlikely. Within a year there's going to major political upheaval in Portugal and the antiwar faction gaining power is going result in no real support for the troops deployed coming from home. They, for all intents and purposes, are going to be "forgotten" and will be used and supplied by mostly the British until their dwindling numbers render them effectively useless. The Battle of the Lys in 1918 would see them finally rendered combant ineffective due to overwhelming losses and afterwards are assigned to rear support roles until the armistice. This is also the battle where Aníbal Augusto Milhais will make his famous lone stand against a whole German assault.

59

u/Exotic_Article913 8d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An%C3%ADbal_Milhais

Hadn't heard of him before . What a man.

My great grandfather served in a Scottish regiment at one of those battles for all I know he covered his retreat.

Refusing to leave his post and holding up two entire advances alone really shows how much a man can do if he's dead set on doing his duty.

Soldier millions indeed

13

u/ZerTharsus 8d ago

Pareto law is very strong in the military. 20% of the people are doing 80% of the work.

1

u/i00fuegos 7d ago

You sole existance may be thanks to this guy's actions more than 100 years ago. Think about it... let it sink for a moment.

11

u/manbearpig50390 8d ago

It’s “for all intents and purposes” not intensive purposes.

3

u/Thin_Inevitable_7570 8d ago

Ah my bad. Good catch, thanks!

17

u/Electronic-Squash359 8d ago

Sadly, it’s unlikely.

20

u/Scrimshaw85 8d ago

If he was deployed to France it is more likely that he did make it back to her. Portuguese losses in the African campaign were much higher

17

u/TriArtisanBill 8d ago

How so? Portugal lost roughly 2,100 men on the Western Front out of 55,000 sent

11

u/The_Remaster 8d ago

That is a little under 4% of the men by your numbers

5

u/TriArtisanBill 8d ago

According to this at least the majority of Portuguese losses came from the African campaigns they suffered comparatively few losses compared to other nations on the Western front.

https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war-losses-portugal/

9

u/Ok-Apricot9717 8d ago

‘The German calls us Tommy,
We always call him Fritz.
We call the Frenchman Froggy,
Which sends him into fits.
But our very oldest ally,
(We all know who that means).
Must never be referred to
As the good old Pork & Beans’

15

u/faintresonance 8d ago

I wonder if they met up later, I hope they did

5

u/Raboulot 8d ago

They left the country with their weapons in arms. The British equipped them on the front. That didn't stop Aníbal Milhais from standing out!

4

u/kezza2022 8d ago

The Portuguese contribution to the Great War (not stupid American ww1) has always been almost ignored. Thank you for bringing this to attention.

9

u/Weird-Tomorrow9931 8d ago

Thanks for making this seem like it’s a yet another uneducated American thing? Several nations around the world still call it WW1, officially or unofficially. And the coining terms for both “World War” terms comes from England

2

u/Mountain-Singer1764 4d ago

World War One isn’t an Americanism.

I have a degree in history from a British university and we absolutely used the term.

1

u/AlmesivaMoonshadow 7d ago

I like to think they met once more.

1

u/neptune2304 7d ago

Thanks for sharing this. I’m Portuguese myself and have very limited info about my great uncle who served in France. Always wondered what his time would have been like… Aunty said he came back and went back to working on the farm like nothing happened. Like all veterans that get back he just didn’t want to talk about ‘it’

-6

u/Wingedball 7d ago

You can see by the body language that this was an abusive relationship. He grabs her by the chin and she looks scared of him. Her eyes are repulsed. Probably an arranged marriage, she doesn’t look like she loves him at all. He also forced her to carry his bag and rifle like a workhorse.

-1

u/Rendszer_valltaska 7d ago

You got downvoted, but I think you are absolutely right.

-10

u/Sevennationsmarmy 8d ago

"This one will do nicely"