Portuguese Army Commandos - Organisation and Evolution

Organisation and Evolution

In its first phase, the commandos organised into independent groups composed of volunteers from infantry battalions, forming their intervention units. The success of these groups meant that they rapidly started to be used under the commander-in-chief's and military commanders' orders, to conduct special operations. The groups' organisation (example):

• one command team (one officer, one signaller, one medic, two soldiers)
• three manoeuvre teams (one NCO, four soldiers)
• one back-up team (one NCO, one RPG soldier, one ammunition soldier, two soldiers)

This organisation of a group with five teams and each team with five men suffered adaptations, but the base-cell, the five-men team, remained throughout the war.

The war's evolution revealed the necessity of more commando soldiers and independent units, capable of operating during longer periods and being self-sustained: reasons that led to the creation of commando companies. The first company was formed in Angola and its instruction started in September 1964. Its commander, Captain Albuquerque Gonçalves, received the unit's banner on February 5, 1965. The second company had as its destination Mozambique, commanded by Captain Jaime Neves.

The organisation and organisational principles of the Portuguese commandos, inspired by the French Foreign Legion and the Belgian Para-Commandos, are established in great mobility and creativity and in counter-guerrilla combat techniques, very well defined and able to support permanent innovation.

The composition and organisation of the commando companies were always adapted to the circumstances and situations, although throughout the war it was possible to verify two main models, that originated what we can call light companies and heavy companies. The former were composed of four commando groups, each one with four sub-groups, constituting 80 men and with few back-up components. These companies had little capability to maintain themselves, independently, during long periods of time, because they were meant as temporary reinforcements to units in quadrillage, like intervention forces, and received from those units the necessary support. In these companies, the mobility and flexibility were privileged, and were initially used in Guinea and Mozambique. The heavy companies had five, five-team commando groups, in a total of 125 men, together with a formation of service personnel, of about 80 men, with medics, signallers, transport soldiers and cooks. Another type of organisation was adapted to the companies of African commandos, formed in Guinea and composed of metropolitan soldiers when needed, a bit like the American special forces did in Vietnam with the "advisers".

The war's evolution, the necessity that started to exist of fighting in large units in Guinea and Mozambique and to, sometimes simultaneously, conduct special and irregular actions, led to the creation of commando battalions in those two theatres. This function of mother-unit was, in Angola and since its foundation, performed by the Centro de Instrução de Comandos (Commando Instruction Centre), that also needed to adapt, separating the instruction activity and gathering the operational units in a base in Campo Militar de Grafanil (Grafanil Military Camp), near Luanda, although it was never completely independent of the operational use under a specific command. As larger commando units the Centro de Instrução de Comandos (Commando Instruction Center), in Angola, the Batalhão de Comandos da Guiné (Guinea Commando Battalion) and the Batalhão de Comandos de Moçambique (Mozambique Commando Battalion) were formed.

Although Angola's Commando Instruction Centre was the home and it was in that centre that the main core of doctrine of use and mystique of the commandos were formed, all battalions gave instruction to their staff and formed units to intervene in the operations theatre. Beyond this centre, that prepared units meant for Angola and Mozambique and the first commandos of Guinea, in Portugal a commando centre was also created in CIOE – Centro de Instrução de Operações Especiais (Special Operations Instruction Centre), in Lamego, that instructed units mobilised to Guinea and Mozambique.

In its history, the commandos were formed in Zemba, Angola, after June 25, 1962, in Quibala, Angola, since June 30, 1963, in Namaacha, Mozambique, since February 13, 1964, in Bra, Guinea, since July 23, 1964, in Luanda, Angola, after June 29, 1965, in Lamego, Portugal, since April 12, 1966 and in Montepuez, Mozambique, after October 1, 1969. After the Colonial War, Portugal gave independence to all of its colonies and all the commandos started to be instructed in Amadora, Portugal, since July 1, 1974.