Hello everyone, this is a great forum and I'm glad I finally registered instead of only reading it as a guest. I have a question about Angolan infantry equipment that hopefully somebody here can answer. In the photos I've seen of FAPLA infantry in the 1980s none of them appear to have an entrenching tool. I was wondering is this because 1.) they have attached their entrenching shovels to their rucksacks and then slung their rucks in a pile to lighten their load for the advance to contact or 2.) they were not issued entrenching tools in the first place? I can't imagine they would be totally unable to dig in upon consolidating an objective and would have to wait for someone to borrow regular long-handled shovels and picks from the engineers.
And if they were issued entrenching tools would they have been the Soviet model or maybe some old Portuguese ones from stocks of equipment left behind from colonial days? Thanks very much to whomever can answer this.
And if they were issued entrenching tools would they have been the Soviet model or maybe some old Portuguese ones from stocks of equipment left behind from colonial days? Thanks very much to whomever can answer this.