My Granddad James Gow of Dalnaspidal, Perthshire was a corporal in the 6th Black Watch (51st Highland Division) and he told my Dad how they had fired on their Portuguese allies by error during the Great War. My Dad told me years later but only when I studied history did I find the event my Granddad was talking about.

Following the end of the first phase of Operation Michael, the second phase commenced on 9th April 1918. The resulting Battle of the Lys saw the heavy involvement of the 51st Highland Division, who, in depleted numbers and by unfortunate coincidence, had just moved to this quiet area to recuperate after their involvement in the first phase defence.

In an unfortunate “blue on blue” event, neighbouring Portuguese troops, exhausted and hard-pressed by the German attacks, had been forced from their trenches and those who were not captured were forced to flee in all directions, including obliquely across No-Mans’ Land toward neighbouring British positions. Of course, No Mans’ Land was not a straight piece of land between two straight, opposing trench systems, the front line systems curved and changed direction in relatively short distances. The smallness of the Somme battlefield is a good example of that – it looks claustrophobic to visitors when scanned from a vantage point, yet the front-line trench systems cover some 13 miles (18 miles of actual trench) due to the curving nature of the battlefield.

Coming out of the early mists from what seemed to be the general direction of the German positions and dressed in blue/grey uniforms, the unfortunate Portuguese were fired on by British troops thinking them to be a surprise German attack. There were substantial casualties. The 51st was one of those neighbouring formations who fired on the Portuguese.