In this area you can find information on the portugueses maritime and naval activity during the period of World War II.
The country had several shipping companies that connected Lisbon to the Atlantic islands - Madeira and Azores -, the colonies in the Atlantic Ocean- Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea Bissau and Angola -, and in the Indian Ocean - Mozambique. There were still territories in India - Goa, Daman and Diu -, Macau and East Timor, but these were usually served by local fleets and more rarely by ships coming from the capital.
Most of the merchant fleet was old and short for the country needs, but anyway they were able to secure supplies to the country during the war and several became the escape vessel for thousands of refugees who wanted to change Europe for a port as far as possible from Nazism.
In contrast to the merchant fleet the Navy had a set of ships - destroyers, warnings, and submarines - quite modern and comparable to those of other countries. There were no large units as cruisers and much less battleships, but the existing fleet ensured the patrolling of the Atlantic and presence in the colonies.
In this area we want to explore Portuguese naval and maritime activity during the war, but for now we will focus on the rescues made by its ships between 1939 and 1945.
Good navigations ...
Find here information on the rescues made by Portuguese ships during World War II. In each of the cases we tried to gather as much information as possible.
