Brazilian Expeditionary Force WW2

#ww2 #navalwarfare #battleoftheatlantic

The Brazilian Expeditionary Force (Portuguese: Força Expedicionária Brasileira, FEB), nicknamed Cobras Fumantes (literally "the Smoking Snakes"),[1] was a military division of the Brazilian Army and Air Force that fought with Allied forces in the Mediterranean Theatre of World War II. It numbered around 51,600 men, including a full infantry division, liaison flight, and fighter squadron.[2]

Placed under United States command, Brazilian troops fought primarily in the liberation of Italy from September 1944 to May 1945, while the Brazilian Navy and Air Force participated in the Battle of the Atlantic from mid-1942 until the end of the war.[1] The FEB operated mostly at the platoon level,[3] seeing heavy combat at the arduous Gothic Line and during the 1945 final offensive. By the end of the war, it took 20,573 Axis prisoners, including two generals and close to 900 officers. The division lost 948 men killed in action across all three services.[4][2]

Brazil was the only independent South American country to send combat troops overseas during the war.[1] Known for its tenacity and bravery, the FEB was well regarded by both allies and adversaries; it served with distinction in several battles, most notably at Collecchio, Camaiore, Monte Prano, and Serchio Valley.[1] Likewise, Brazil's navy and air force played important roles in protecting Allied shipping and crippling Axis maritime power, inflicting disproportionately high losses on enemy munitions, supplies, and infrastructure.

Brazil's participation in World War II on the Allied side was not a foregone conclusion. Although it had supported the Triple Entente in World War I—as had now-Axis-aligned Japan and Romania—the country's contribution to the war took place in its waning years and was primarily naval, although it also sent a small military mission to the Western Front. In the years leading up to World War II, Brazil was the biggest non-European consumer of German products and ranked ninth among Germany's trading partners overall. It also hosted a large and influential German community that engendered closer ties to Germany.

As in 1914, Brazil in 1939 maintained a position of neutrality, initially trading with both Allied and Axis countries. As the war progressed, trade with the Axis became subject to British and U.S. diplomatic and economic pressure. These efforts included the creation of the Joint Brazil-U.S. Defense Commission, chaired by U.S. Army Major General James Garesche Ord, which was broadly aimed at strengthening military ties between the countries; however, its central goal was to reduce the likelihood of Axis attacks on U.S. shipping across the Atlantic and minimize Axis influence in South America.[5]

Although Brazil was officially neutral, it increasingly cooperated with the Allies, particularly the U.S., shortly after the latter entered World War II in December 1941. The Pan American States Conference, which took place in Rio de Janeiro from 15–28 January 1942, was convened in the wake of the U.S. declaration of war against the Axis powers. The meeting centered on U.S. offers of economic assistance to Latin America countries in return for security cooperation and the severing of diplomatic ties with Axis members; Brazil consequently ended diplomatic relations with Germany, Japan, and Italy by the end of January.[6]

Pursuant to the conference, Brazil permitted the U.S. to set up air bases on its territory in return for assistance in developing a domestic steel industry, Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, which would serve the American war effort and afterwards benefit the Brazilian economy. The bases were located in the north-central states of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Rio Grande do Norte, where the city of Natal hosted part of the U.S. Navy's VP-52 bombing squadron, later becoming the largest overseas U.S. airbase. Brazil also hosted U.S. Task Force 3, which included a squadron equipped to attack submarines and merchant vessels attempting to trade with Japan.

Nevertheless, unlike in 1917, the Brazilian government sought to avoid war and instead maintain economically beneficial ties with both sides.[7] Notwithstanding its formal neutrality and reticence to declare war, Brazil's cooperation with the U.S. and break in diplomatic relations prompted immediate German reprisals. From the end of January to August 1942, German U-boats sank 18 Brazilian merchant vessels; the spate of attacks was especially severe after June 16, when Hitler personally called for a "submarine blitz" against Brazil, having considered its closer ties with the U.S. to be tantamount to an act of war.[8] By mid-August, the Germans were targeting shipping closer to Brazil's coast; U-507 alone sank five Brazilian vessels in two days, causing more than 600 deaths:[9]