Portugal was both the first and the last of the great European colonial powers. For 500 years Portugal had colonies in Africa. In 1960, as liberation movements swept across colonial Africa, the Portuguese flag still flew over vast expanses of territory across the continent. The spread of decolonization and the establishment of independent states whose governments were sympathetic to the cause of African nationalism led, in the early 1960s, to a series of wars in Angola, Guiné and Mozambique. This book details each of these liberation movements, focusing on the equipment, uniforms and organization of the Portuguese forces.

Peter Abbott is a retired university lecturer. He has written or co-authored a number of Men-at-Arms titles for Osprey, including Men-at-Arms 379: Armies in East Africa 1914-18. He is particularly interested in 19th and 20th century armies that are less well known to the English speaking reader, and he has been collecting material on the various Ukrainian forces for many years.