Describing the daily life of the Portuguese troops on campaign during the Great War raises several issues of a historical nature, for they acted on three theatres of war, each one with different geographical and tactical characteristics.

In southern Angola military operations took place before war had been declared on Portugal...

The inventory of all the Portuguese soldiers who died in the Great War (1914-1918) was not an easy task and is not complete. The dispersion of the documentary sources in various archives, the contradictions sometimes found in the data collected or even the absence of relevant particulars about the soldiers who fell in defence of the Fatherland made this task very difficult. So, in military cemeteries throughout the different theatres of operations many remain buried anonymously, bearing in their gravestone the word “Unknown” instead of their name. As for others, the location of their grave remains unknown. Look here those on record.

During the war, Portugal mobilized about 105.000 men. Of these it is estimated that a little more than 7.700 died. Most of them died in Angola, Mozambique and France but also in the sea or even in Portugal where the military were repatriated victims of illness or serious injuries as a result of which a part of them succumbed. The coldness and accuracy of the statistical data reveal the causes of deaths and the locations where they mostly occurred. As such, we perceive that during the war combat was not always responsible for death nor was the primary cause in some theatres of operations.