Tuesday, March 5, 1974. Portugal decides to stay.

Portugese troops in Mozambique.  By Joaquim Coelho, author from Espaço Etéreo, a compilation of texts and pictures from people involved in the war. Permission is granted here, and personal e-mails between me (Nuno) and Joaquim (backed up for reference). - The copyright holder of this work allows anyone to use it for any purpose including unrestricted redistribution, commercial use, and modification.Please check the source to verify that this is correct. In particular, note that publication on the Internet, like publication by any other means, does not in itself imply permission to redistribute. Files without valid permission should be tagged with {{subst:npd}}.Usage notes:If the work requires attribution, use {{Attribution}} instead.If this is your own work, please use {{Cc-zero}} instead., Copyrighted free use, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=685173

Portuguese Prime Minister Marcello Caetano informed the Portuguese National Assembly that Portuguese Guinea, Angola and Mozambique would retain their colonial status in spite of ongoing guerilla wars.  He stated that elections "would be inappropriate for the African mentality."

Ethiopian Emperor and absolute monarch Haile Selassie pledged democratic reforms in an unprecedented national address on radio and television.

Eva Mendes was born in Miami.

Last prior:

Monday, March 4, 1974. Suez.

The Kaiserschlacht Continues. April 9, 1918. Operation Georgette

Operation Georgette

 

 Looking at the map again, now we are looking at the Second German Drive, listed here as the Lys Offensive.  Much further to the north than the first drive on the Somme, the twenty day operation in Flanders was a German drive to the sea.  It presented a desperate situation for the British and it destroyed the Portuguese Army on the Western Front.

By April 5 the Germans were aware that Operation Michael had failed, or at least would be a failure if it wasn't resumed in some other fashion.  That became Operation Georgette.  On April 9, Operation Michael was joined by Operation Georgette, somewhat of a resumption of Michael but aimed at a new location in the British sector where the front was manned by the Portuguese.

Georgette pitted the Germans, at first, against the Portuguese as they were being replaced by troops of the BEF.  Fighting was hard and desperate. The Portuguese forces were destroyed.  Field Marshall Haig issued his famous "backs to the wall" order, stating "With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end."

Here too, logistics defeated the Germans. They advanced, but not as expected, and their renewed offensive came to a halt on April 29.  The offensive had cost the Allies about 82,000 men, and the Germans about the same number.

Here too, the Germans could not stop or the entire effort resulting in over 300,000 casualties and the destruction of many elite units was all for naught.  After a brief lull, the Germans turned their attention to the French.