fire and eventually force the Germans to withdraw. December 26: The French government asks Portugal to send artillery crews to France to operate 20 to 30 heavy artillery batteries. 1917 A few Portuguese troops are sent to the New Forest in Britain, to help with a timber shortage in collaboration with the Canadian Forestry Corps. The stone chimney of their cookhouse is retained as a monument to them, known as the Portuguese Fireplace. January 3: A convention with Britain regulates Portuguese participation in the Western Front. Portuguese troops of the CEP to be integrated in the BEF (British Expeditionary Force). January 7: The Independent Heavy Artillery Corps (Corpo de Artilharia Pesada Independente, CAPI) is created to respond to the French request for artillery crews. Under the Portuguese Superior Command, this unit is to operate 25 heavy artillery batteries. February 2: The first Portuguese troops arrive at the port of Brest in Brittany, France. February 23: The second contingent of the CEP leaves for France. April 4: The Portuguese troops arrive at the front. The first Portuguese casualty is Private António Gonçalves Curado, killed in action. May 30: The First Infantry Brigade of the CEP First Division occupies a sector at the battle front. June 4: Germans attack the sector defended by the First Brigade. June 16: Second Infantry Brigade occupies another sector on the battle front. July 4: SM U-155 bombards Ponta Delgada, Azores and kills four people. United States Navy coal collier USS Orion responds with 3-inch gunfire, causing U-155 to withdraw. July 10: CEP First Division assumes responsibility of its part of the Portuguese sector on the battle front. It is subordinated to the XI Corps of the British Army under the command of General Richard Haking. CEP Third Infantry Brigade occupies a sector on the front. September 23: The Fourth Brigade, known as the Brigade of Minho (Brigada do Minho), part of the Second Division, reaches the front. October 17: The first Portuguese CAPI artillery soldiers, representing Portugal's direct support to the French war effort, arrive in France. They are designated by the French as the Corps d'artillerie lourde portugais (CALP). November 5: Portuguese command assumes responsibility for its sector in the front. Until then, it had been under the command of General Henry Horne's British First Army. Late 1917: In Portuguese Mozambique, German officer Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck enters the colony from nearby German East Africa after