Grupos Especiais

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The Grupos Especiais (GE, Portuguese : Special Groups) were a paramilitary special unit that was used from 1966 to 1974 in the Portuguese colonial war. The GE were originally not part of the armed forces , but were led by their officers , who usually had Comando training. The GE were made up entirely of natives and were used exclusively for counterinsurgency operations in the colonies of Angola and Mozambique . Later, GE was set up for paratrooper missions , the Grupos Especiais Páraquedistas (GEP), which were only used in Mozambique.

history

The GE / GEP consisted of defectors from the liberation movements such as the MPLA or UNITA , local volunteers and members of the liberation movements captured by the Portuguese who were willing to cooperate. You weren't part of the army or the air force. The background to the establishment of these groups was the "Africanization" of the colonial war, as the Portuguese armed forces suffered from a considerable shortage of personnel. The GE were usually composed of members of an ethnic group and received training in the manner of the Portuguese comandos established in 1962 . The members of the GEP were trained in the same way as the paratroopers .

Both groups usually operated in tensile strength . The GPE were combined in the Batalhão de Grupos Especiais Páraquedistas , while the GE were assigned to regular units depending on the situation. As a standard uniform, the GE wore a black combat suit with a yellow beret , but also used camouflage suits for the armed forces during operations. The GEP wore the standard combat suit of the paratroopers with a burgundy colored beret, their total strength in 1974 was 840 men.

In 1973 a general command of the GE was established. In 1974 there were 84 GE and 12 GEP in Mozambique with 7,700 members and 99 GE with 3,069 members in Angola. The originally purely European NCOs and officers were gradually replaced by Africans.

See also

literature

  • Peter Abbott / Manuel Rodrigues: Modern African Wars 2: Angola and Mozambique 1961-74 , London 1998. ISBN 0-85045-843-9
  • John P. Cann: Counterinsurgency in Africa. The Portuguese Way of War, 1961-1974 , Westport, CT 1997. ISBN 0-313-30189-1
  • Aniceto Afonso / Carlos de Matos Gomes: Guerra Colonial , Lisbon 2000. ISBN 972-46-1192-2

Web links