page_title: Commandos (Portugal)
section_title: Origin
hierarchical_section_title: Commandos (Portugal) / History / Origin
caption_attribution_description: Guiné &gt; Brá &gt; 1966 &gt; O Alf Miliciano Comando Briote eo seu grupo, prontos a entrar em acção.
context_page_description: The Commandos are a special forces unit in the Portuguese Army. Presently, they constitute the Commando Regiment. Their motto is Audaces Fortuna Juvat and their war cry is Mama Sumae. They were created as counter-guerrilla special forces, thus responding to the need of the Army to have units specially adapted to the type of war that, in 1961, started in Portuguese Angola and later in Portuguese Guinea and Portuguese Mozambique – the Portuguese Colonial War. The Portuguese Commandos are similar to the 75th Ranger Regiment and the US Army Special Forces.
context_section_description: In 1962, the Portuguese army needed units with the ability to:
  conduct special actions in the Portuguese territory or abroad
  fight as assault infantry / shock troops
  provide the high political and military commands with a force able to conduct irregular operations
  The first objective that the army set out to achieve was that of building a force specially prepared for counter-guerrilla operations, but the Portuguese commandos also participated in irregular operations, with units specially organised for each operation, and in assault operations, with conventional warfare characteristics, especially in the last years of the war, when they operated in battalion strength, backed up by artillery and the Air Force.
  The history of the Portuguese commandos began on 25 June, 1962, when, in Zemba (Northern Angola), the first six groups of those that would be the predecessors of the commandos, were formed. For the preparation of these groups, the CI 21 – Centro de Instrução de Contraguerrilha (Counter-Guerrilla Instruction Centre) was created, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Nave, and had as instructor, the photographer and former French Foreign Legion Sergeant, the Italian Dante Vachi, with experience in the Indochina and Algerian wars.
  The six groups prepared in this center achieved excellent operational results. Nonetheless, the military command in Angola decided to re-evaluate the instruction and integration of these units into the army and, in 1963 and 64, the 16 and 25 Instruction Centres (CI 16 and CI 25) were created, in Quibala, Angola. For the first time, the term "Comandos" (Commandos) was applied to the troops instructed there.
  On 13 February, 1964, the first Mozambique Commandos Course was initiated in Namaacha (Lourenço Marques, now Maputo) and on 23 July of the same year, in Bra (Portuguese Guinea), the first Guinea Commandos Course.
caption: A commando group ready to go into action in Portuguese Mozambique, 1972.
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