Occupation and Liberation - Lives of the Portugese Resistance

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Pedro Mendez was born in 1780 in a small town near Lisbon. He grew up there before he moved to the big city to become a trader.
By 1803 he had failed and was living on the streets of Lisbon. Ashamed of himself he decided to get away from Portugal and listed himself in the army. He served in Brazil until 1805 when he transferred back home to marry. In 1807 Napoleon invaded Portugal and Pedro joined the underground movement to expell the French from Portugal. In this time he kept a diary . After the Napoleonic Wars he left Portugal serving in Western Africa before returning home to become a member of the kings government. He retired in 1840 to a small estate in the Algarve. In 1842 , 5 years before he died he published The first edition of "A ocupação e Liberação - Vive da Resistência de Portugese" his diarys. in the middle of writing the second edition he died of a heart attack.

Part 1:June 1807
Dear Diary
I sit here in my room in Lisbon wondering what has happened to me in the last couple of days. A week ago i was a newly wed. today i buried my wife. Shot by a French Officer because she refused him sex. All i want to know is when is this going to end?

From what i can understand Napoleon and the Filthy Spaniards have carved up the country. The Royal Family has fled and rumour has it they are heading for Brazil. There are 35,000 French troops in Portugal but contacts have told me that most are here in Lisbon. Which is why i am going into hiding. Being in the army ,they are recruiting for the French forces in Africa and The East. I for one am not going to fight for the side who have just killed my wife. I am heading for Gibraltar. Risky you say? well its either that or die fighting the Prussians. The British will help me. I should be safe there. So i am only going to write to you once every 2 weeks as i shall be on the move virtually all the time. and the risk of you being found is too great. Me and my 2 brothers Fabio and Jao will make the trip. Fabio speeks Spanish.

I hate it here. Theres an awful feeling of depression in Lisbon , Children crying and Refugees heading for the ports. So the next you will here of me i will be on the run as it were....

 

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Interesting.

 

[Lord Durham]

Another fine start, pds. I'm wondering how many AARs you're planning to run concurrently?

 

[Eochaid]

Looks interesting, even If id didn't quite understand what the settings are.... But anyway, quick some French butts! We so deserve it!

 

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Originally posted by Lord Durham
Another fine start, pds. I'm wondering how many AARs you're planning to run concurrently?

Hehe....you beat me to it..

 

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Yeah, weren´t you working on a very Swedish Revolution as well?
Or am I mixing you up with someone?

 

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hehe yup a lot of aar's but none got much response and i wasnt really happy with any of them. this is set on a rebel leader in portugal which was occupied by the french and liberated by the british and iberian partisans in 1814. the first part is about his escape to Gibraltar

 

[Apebe]

response will come, you just have to be patient.

 

[Storey]

Looks like your getting a pretty good response to me. On with the story.

Joe

 

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Part II

Dear Diary.
We left early the next morning. A bright sunny morning greeted us . as we approached the checkpoint we were interrogated by 4 french soldiers. Actually they were pro napoleonic Austrians. It was suprising that not one of them spoke Portugese or Spanish and we were allowed through without much of a struggle. On the open roads however it was going to be a lot harder. Our main target was Gibraltar. We hoped to bypass Madrid at any cost. We had no maps and were relying on instinct and the principal of heading south and heading towards the sea. After a week we arrived in a small village . I went into the local bar and in Spanish i asked " i am a merchant from Andaslusia and i seem to have got lost. Could you tell me the name of the nearest city?"

The man turned round to me and told me i was in a town about 90 miles from the Spanish frontier with Gibraltar. I thanked the man and told him my life story. "I have horses" the man said. As long as you take my son with you i will provide them"

"Why do you want your son to come?" i asked. "The French" he replied. They are coming for us. We callaborated with those warmongers and now they want to make a puppet government in Madrid" I swore to the man i would take care of his son. and we drank to the liberation of Spain and Portugal. Then he showed me and my 2 brothers headed for his estate. There we met his son Fernando. A 23 year old who had been in the Chilean Regiment until a suspension a year ago meant he fled to Spain. We had lunch before setting off again towards the liberty of England.

 

[Apebe]

Re: Part II

Originally posted by pds
... pro napoleonic Austrians ...

There was some sort of admiration among german people for Napoleon, because at start he was symbolizing some sort of freedom and shutdown of passed establishments. But Austrians were very Patriotic and even Beethoven who lived in Vienna became furious when he heard that Napoleon had crown himself Emperor.

 

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Part III

Dear Diary
Sorry i havent wrote recently although you will never believe what happened to me

About a month or two ago we were passing through a small village in the sierra nevada when we were stopped by about 10 French Troops. This time they searched us and found some Portugese books. Thrown into a Prison . That is where we met Pablo. A young Spaniard who was in the Spanish army before joining the rebels and was thrown in prison. Up to that point we didnt even know there was civil strife in Spain. Somehow we had kept well clear of anything. Pablo though was a born leader and was avidly planning an escape. There were 250 prisoners in "The Hellpit" as we called it. On Christmas eve we made our escape firearms smuggled in by British spies working in the prison enabled us to shoot our way through the exits and assualt the main wall. Although this was my first true combat even since the army i was up for it.

By 0300 hours we had escaped. At that point we all split up my party plus Pedro , William a British spy who was caught , Frank a Austrian who had refused a French Major sex (yes i found that strange as well). We were according to William 35 miles away from the rock. and we passed by the morning into a rebel controlled zone and slept .....

 

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This looks very promising, and certainly the idea of presenting an AAR from the point of view of the Portuguese rebel factions is a unique and novel approach. I'll be very interested to see where you take this...

(...and for goodness sake, keep on writing it so I'll get to find out! )

 

[Bismarck]

PDS,

I agree... see it through... come on, see it through....

M

 

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and i most definately will. im aiming for at least one completed aar before hoi comes out

 

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Originally posted by pds
and i most definately will. im aiming for at least one completed aar before hoi comes out

That´s great, man. Bet yer arse I´ll be checking it out.

 

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part IV

Dear Diary
early a week ago we set off aided by Spanish Rebels for Gibraltar. When we saw the border i nearly wept. Free from war and ruin (for now) It shone in the sky. We arrived at midday in the British HQ. After a brief explanation to the General we were sent away and given shelter in local housing. The next day a messanger came in to us. We were sent to the General's office where we were told we were to be enlisted into the 1st Free Division. This would be a multi national force consisting of Portugese , Spanish , Royalist French , Volunteers from nuetral nations and Canadians. Because of my millitary experience I was to be in Charge of the entire unit. I was told to expect frontline action after a couple of months of training at a British camp in the Delta. The next week we set off for Egypt.

Now i find myself in the harsh world of Millitary training. Although i know it will be worth it to be able to liberate Lisbon....

 

[Duque de Bragança]

Having an eye on this AAR. Go on

 

[Lord Durham]

Good work. Any chance you can attach dates to your diary headings?

 

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yeah sorry will be done