Allied – when the cobra began to smoke

Brazil’s President Getúlio Vargas had never made a secret of his sympathy for Mussolini and Italian fascism: when in September 1937 he overruled the constitution of his country in order to be able to remain in the highest state office, and began to create his Estado Novo, the new state in November 1937, he was based in many aspects on the Italian model. When the Second World War broke out, however, he initially maintained a waiting position and tried to behave neutrally compared to the worldwide -war parties. Only massive political pressure and economic offers on the part of the United States caused a gradual correction of this position from summer 1941.

On October 1, 1941, American and Brazilian government officials signed an agreement that granted the U.S. Navy rights of use for the Atlantic ports in the Brazilian states of Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte and on the island of Fernando de Noronha upstream of the Brazilian mainland. In addition, several squadrons of the US maritime forces were stationed in the northeast of Brazil. In return, the United States committed to financing and building a metallurgical complex in Volta Redonda in the state of Rio de Janeiro, which was of importance for Brazilian steel production until its decommission in the early 1990s.

In January 1942, Brazil broke the diplomatic relations with Germany and its allies. However, President Getúlio Vargas still refused to agree to a greater commitment of Brazil within the anti-Hitler coalition. In the Brazilian public, the word circulated: “Rather, a cobra will smoke than that Brazilian troops march.”

Between January and July 1942, German submarines sank a total of 13 Brazilian cargo ships as a direct reaction to the demolition of diplomatic relationships. But President Getúlio Vargas continued to hesitate. Only after the loss of a further five cargo ships in the South Atlantic and the death of more than 650 seafarers within just two days did Brazil declared war on August 22, 1942, Italy and its allies. Brazil started with active military acts, for example with participation in the Allied submarine defense in the South Atlantic. The decision to use Brazilian troops on the European theater of war was made in November 1943.

On July 2, 1944, the first units of the Força Expedicionária Brasileira (FEB), the Brazilian expedition forces, as the official name was, landed in Italian Naples, which had been occupied by US troops since October 1943. Now Brazilian troops were finally marching, smoking the cobra, and the Brazilian soldiers made it clear with an emblem that they wore on the left upper arm of their uniforms: a snake that smokes a pipe.

25 334 officers and teams of the Brazilian agricultural and air forces under the command of the later marshal João Baptista Mascarenhas de Morais fought in Italy until the capitulation of Hitler Germany on May 8, 1945 in Italy. The FEB soldiers experienced their baptism of fire on September 14, 1944 in the Serchio River, north of the city of Lucca in Toscana. They were able to celebrate their first big victory when they freed the city of Massarosa with almost 20,000 inhabitants a few days later. In the following weeks and months and months, Brazilian troops were involved in the operations in the PO level (September and October 1944), the conquest of Monte Castello (November 1944 to February 1945) and Montese (April 1945) and the Battle of Collechio (April 1945). On April 28, 1945, the 148th German Infantry Division resulted in the Feb troops. Two generals, almost 900 officers and almost 20,000 soldiers went to Brazilian captivity.

The Força Expedicionária Brasileira not only included men who were to play an important role in the history of their country as a high -ranking military in later years, such as Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco, who was President of the military in the years between 1964 and 1967, or Albuquerque Lima, from 1967 to 1969 Minister of the Interior. The Brazilian soldiers at the European War Place also included Celso Furtado, who later considered one of the most important Latin American economists and intellectuals, and Salomão Malina, who was chairman of the Brazilian Communist Party between 1987 and 1991.

More than 450 Brazilians lost their lives in the fights for the liberation of Italy. Her remains were transferred to Brazil in 1960 after they had initially been buried in the cemetery of the Italian city of Pistoia and buried in Rio de Janeiro, where on this occasion in the FlameGo district, a monument to the dead of the Second World War was built.

Dr. Ronald Friedmann is a member of the speaker council of the Left Party’s Historical Commission, who passed a statement on the 80th anniversary of the liberation: A historical opportunity: the left historical commission