More than 7,000 Portuguese were killed, wounded or captured in April 1918. On Monday morning, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, will participate in the centenary of the revolution in Richebourg, in Pas-de-Calais, accompanied by his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Declaration of war in 1916
Since 1914, Portuguese soldiers had been engaged in the African colonies of Angola and Mozambique, which Germany had long coveted. But in March 1916, Portugal and Germany declared war, especially after German ships boarded Portuguese ports. Thus, unlike Spain, Portugal, which declared the First Republic in 1910, broke its neutrality.
However, the unit did not reach the front in northern France and Belgian Flanders until January 1917. The Portuguese Expeditionary Force (CEP) was made up of over 55,000 men.
Bloody attack
On 9 April 1918, German forces surprised the Portuguese, in complete relief, and launched a bloody attack on Neuve Chapelle, Richbourg and Laventy, between Béthune and Lille.
During the “Battle of Lys” (9–29 April 1918), sometimes compared to the “Portuguese Battle of Verdun”, Portuguese forces lost approximately 7,400 men.
In their honor, a cemetery was built in Richbourg between 1924 and 1938, containing the graves of 1,831 soldiers, including 238 unknowns.
