Steven’s Armour for the Portuguese Colonial War

Armour didn’t feature hugely in the Portuguese Colonial War. The Portuguese used armoured cars a lot for convoy escort duty. So I’ve got enough armoured vehicles for a single convoy.

Portuguese reconnaissance units undertook convoy escort duties. A reconnaissance troop within a reconnaissance squadron had 2 armoured cars, a scout car, and seven small 4×4 vehicles such as Jeeps or the Unimog (Abbott & Rodrigues, 1998; also see my Portuguese Order of Battle).

Reconnaissance Troop 1963-74

  • 1 x CO Section: 1 x Scout Car; 1 x Small 4×4 vehicle
  • 1 x Jeep Section: 4 x Small 4×4 vehicle
  • 1 x Armoured Car Section: 2 x Armoured Car
  • 1 x Mechanised Section: 1 x APC
  • 1 x Mortar Section: 2 x Small 4×4 vehicle

For the armoured element of this formation I’ve got two Panhard AML-60s, a Ferret 2, and a US Commando.

Portuguese-290 Portuguese Armour
Portuguese-290 Portuguese Armour

In the mid-1960s the Portuguese acquired a batch of Panhard AML-60 Armoured Car for their reconnaissance squadrons. The only manufacturer I know of in 15mm are Peter Pig.

Portuguese-291 Panhard AML-60
Portuguese-291 Panhard AML-60

Certain makes and models of armoured cars and APCs were used in combination. From 1967 units combined the Panhard AML-60 Armoured Car with the Chaimite APC (Carlos Marighela on the Lead Adventure Forum: 28mm African Wars Portuguese).The Portuguese Chaimite APC was a license built variant of the US Commando. I didn’t have the courage to do the conversion so I just used a standard US Commando model. I got mine from QRF.

Portuguese-292 US Commando
Portuguese-292 US Commando

The French used Ferret scout cars in conjunction with Panhard AML-60 armoured cars so I assume the Portuguese used them in the same way. Another model I got from QRF.

Portuguese-293 Ferret 2
Portuguese-293 Ferret 2

The models were:

  • Peter Pig 17-35 Panhard MG/Mortar turret
  • QRF PBC03 Ferret Mk 2/3
  • QRF PAC03 Commando APC

2 thoughts on “Steven’s Armour for the Portuguese Colonial War”

  1. Excellent,

    Just a small note. No Ferret’s in Africa, as most of them only arrived post 25th April 1974 and were marked for the Portugal NATO QRF.

    The common small scout car will be a Daimler SC Dingo, some of them with a small MG turret on top – based on the ETT (the failed EBR-75 based APC which only Portugal used operationally).

    Hope this was of some help

    Reply

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