Can snakes smoke? In the old days, the old soldiers of the Brazilian army would have answered in the affirmative. The soldiers of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, who had the difficult task of fighting against the Nazis in Italy, in the Apennines, was nicknamed "Smoking Snakes". Brazil was the only country in Latin America that not only declared war on Nazi Germany "for the sake of form", moreover, on August 22, 1942, but also sent a contingent of its armed forces to Europe. The soldiers and officers of this distant tropical country, who had not previously had the experience of such large-scale wars, with honor endured the ordeals that fell to their lot.
As soon as World War II broke out, Brazil chose to declare its neutrality. Many Latin American states, and Brazil was no exception among them, by this time had developed a special relationship with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. The dictators of Latin America were impressed by the Fuhrer and the Duce, their anti-communism, an authoritarian model of governing their states. In addition, developed economic ties existed between the countries of Latin America and Germany. In the same Brazil lived numerous Italian and German diasporas with great political influence. However, even more strongly than with Germany, Brazil was tied to the United States of America, which was the country's main trading partner. Therefore, on September 26, 1940, Brazilian President Getuliu Vargas announced that if Germany showed aggression against the United States, Brazil would take the American side.
Meanwhile, the American leadership continued to put pressure on Vargas and, finally, in January 1942, Brazil broke off diplomatic relations with the Axis countries. However, President Vargas was driven not so much by ideological as by more prosaic considerations. He believed that participation in the war would allow Brazil, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, to claim participation in the redistribution of colonies. Most of all, Brazil was interested in Netherlands Guiana, in the occupation of which it took part together with the United States. President Vargas also had another task - he hoped that Brazil's participation in the war on the side of the United States would provide the country with American assistance in industrialization and further development of the economy, as well as strengthening the armed forces. Demonstrating loyalty to the United States, Vargas even launched some offensive against the positions of the Italian and German diasporas in Brazil.
On August 22, 1942, Brazil declared war on the Axis countries, and on January 28, 1943, a meeting between US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Brazilian President Getulio Vargas took place in the Brazilian city of Natal. At this meeting, Getuliu Vargas proposed to use the Brazilian army in hostilities in Europe, to which Franklin Roosevelt agreed. He also pursued his goals, knowing full well that the joint participation of the Brazilian corps and the American army in hostilities in Europe would strengthen the influence of the United States in the Brazilian military circles.
The command of the Brazilian army planned to form three to four divisions with a total strength of 100 thousand people to send to the front,but soon faced a number of serious problems - from a lack of weapons and difficulties in transportation to difficulties in manning the divisions. As a result, Vargas stopped at the formation of only one infantry division of 25 thousand people. In addition, an aviation detachment was included in the expeditionary corps.
The Brazilian Expeditionary Force was headed by the Minister of War of Brazil, Marshal Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1883-1974). The formation of the corps was significantly delayed, so a saying was even born in Brazil - "The snake is more likely to smoke a pipe than the BEC goes to the front" (port. Mais fácil à uma cobra um cachimbo fumar, do que à FEB (para a Frente) embarcar). However, in June 1944, the dispatch of corps units to Europe began.
The command of the allied forces decided to use the Brazilian units in Italy, where at that time the most fierce battles with the Nazi troops were fought. On June 30, 1944, the first BEC detachment landed in Naples.
Brazilian soldiers were to replace the Americans and French who were being transferred from Italy to the south of France. The actual command of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force was carried out by General João Batista Mascareñas de Morais (1883-1968), who back in 1943 was appointed commander of the 1st Expeditionary Infantry Division, and after the command had to abandon plans to create two other divisions, led and the entire corps as a whole, replacing Marshal Dutra in this post. Prior to his appointment as Expeditionary Division Commander, General Mascareñas commanded the 7th Military Region of the Brazilian Armed Forces in São Paulo.
After the corps went to war, the saying "The snake is more likely to smoke a pipe than the BEC goes to the front" has ceased to be relevant. But Brazilian soldiers received the nickname "Smoking Snakes" in honor of her and began to wear a patch that depicted a snake smoking a pipe. In addition, the Brazilians wrote on their mortars the slogan "The snake smokes" "(port. A cobra está fumando). The Brazilian Expeditionary Infantry Division became part of the 4th corps of the 5th US Army and took part in a number of important operations in Italy, including battles on the Gothic line and the North Italian operation.
From the very beginning of hostilities in Italy, the Brazilian division faced a number of difficulties that significantly overshadowed the day-to-day service. Firstly, being part of the American corps and being forced to regularly interact with American units, Brazilian soldiers and officers did not understand or did not understand well what was required of them. Only a few members of the corps spoke English, especially when it comes to privates and non-commissioned officers.
Secondly, the uniform of the Brazilian army immediately showed its complete unsuitability for use in European conditions. The uniforms of the Brazilian soldiers were so thin that even in the Italian climate it was almost impossible to serve in them. Especially when you consider that the natives of Brazil, which has no winter, were completely unadapted to the European cold. In the Apennines, the air temperature sometimes dropped to -20.
In addition, outwardly, the Brazilian uniform was very reminiscent of the uniform of the troops of Hitler's Germany, which also presented a big problem - the Brazilians could be hit by “their own”. In order to prevent the death of soldiers from the cold and erroneous strikes from the allies, American uniforms were allocated to the Brazilian division. The Americans armed the Brazilian division and even took it to provide food. Of course, this circumstance could not please the Brazilian soldiers and especially the officers, since it jarred on their national pride. By the way, General João Batista Mascareñas de Morais, who commanded the Brazilian division, also recalled this.
But an even more serious problem was the complete lack of combat experience among the soldiers and officers of the Brazilian division. Here in Europe, there was a real serious and modern war, not punitive operations against insurgents or border skirmishes with neighboring countries, to which Latin American armies are accustomed. “Nobody, from generals to privates, knew what a real battle was. We have learned to fight, overcoming difficulties,”- recalled seventy years after the war Julio do Valle, who served in the sanitary-evacuation unit of the Brazilian division. There is no reason to doubt the words of the Brazilian veteran - the Brazilians really learned to fight in a matter of months, and they fought quite well.
The battle of Monte Castello, which lasted from November 25, 1944 to February 21, 1945, became a landmark for the Brazilian Expeditionary Force. In this long battle, the Brazilian soldiers had to face the 232nd Wehrmacht Grenadier Division. Taking part in the capture of Belvedere-Castello, the Brazilian soldiers realized that they are capable and can fight perfectly well. Thanks to the successful actions of the Brazilian division, the allies were able to further advance. The next triumph of the BEC was the Battle of Montese on April 16, and on April 29-30, 1945, the Brazilian command accepted the surrender of the 148th German division and several Italian divisions. On May 2, 1945, Brazilian troops managed to defeat the combined German-Italian forces in Liguria and liberate Turin.
Brazilian veterans recall that what struck them most in Italy was the dire poverty of the population, which was conspicuous even in comparison with the not very prosperous life in Brazil itself. The Italians perceived the Brazilian soldiers as liberators and treated them very warmly, which was facilitated by the fact that the Brazilians were Catholics, among them there were many people of Italian origin. Units of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force not only participated in the battles, but also served as occupation forces in Barga, Zocca, Castelnuovo, Monalto, Montese. The attitude of Italians towards the Brazilian soldiers who fought on Italian soil is evidenced by a number of monuments that were erected in Italy in memory of the soldiers and officers of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force.
The story of Brazil's participation in World War II would be incomplete without recalling the participation of the Brazilian naval forces in the war. The Brazilian fleet was tasked with protecting ships plying between South and Central America and Gibraltar from attacks by German submarines. In total, during the Second World War, the Brazilian Navy conducted 574 operations, including 66 attacks by Brazilian ships on German submarines. Brazil lost three warships in the war.
A few days after the Brazilian soldiers liberated Turin, Nazi Germany surrendered. The American leadership insisted that the Brazilian Expeditionary Force remain in Europe as an occupying force. However, President Getuliu Vargas did not agree with this proposal of the American side. As soon as the units of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force returned to their homeland, they were disbanded. Meanwhile, who knows what would have been the role of Brazil in the post-war world, had it left its military units in Europe in that distant 1945. It is possible that the political weight of Brazil and its influence on world political processes in this case would be more significant.
Already in 1945, the first associations of "combatants" - veterans of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force - began to appear in the country. Many prominent later political, public, cultural figures of Brazil, including Afonso Albuquerque Lima, served in the Brazilian Expeditionary Force in 1967-1969.former Minister of Internal Affairs of Brazil, renowned economist and representative of the theory of dependence Celso Furtado, future president of the country Umberto de Alencar Castelo Branco and many others. The creator of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, Marshal Eurico Dutra in 1946-1951. served as President of Brazil, and General João Batista Mascareñas de Morais rose to the rank of Marshal and headed the General Staff of the Armed Forces.
The participation of Brazil in the Second World War, relatively poorly known in our country, for the Brazilians themselves became one of the most striking and epoch-making events of the twentieth century. In World War II, Brazil lost 1,889 troops and sailors of the military and merchant navy, 31 merchant ships, 3 warships and 22 fighters. However, there were also positive consequences for the country. First, participation in hostilities in Europe, the liberation of Italy and numerous victories over the strong Nazi army are still a reason for the national pride of the Brazilians.
Secondly, the experience of military operations in Europe was used by the Brazilian military command to modernize the country's armed forces. For the first time, Brazilian servicemen received invaluable experience of participation in a real modern war, got acquainted in the process of military cooperation with the organization of the American army - not from textbooks, but in battle. The number of the Brazilian armed forces increased, at the same time new standards were set for the combat training of troops.
However, as a result of the Second World War, Brazil did not receive the desired share of the "colonial pie". Perhaps that is why, after a few years, Brazil, an important partner and ally of the United States, refused to send its troops to the Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, Brazil's participation in World War II really contributed to the industrialization of the country, including the emergence of a new military industry for it.
