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Brazilian Expeditionary Force
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The Brazilian Expeditionary Force or BEF (or FEB) was the 25,300-man force formed by the Brazilian Navy, Army and Air Force that fought alongside the Allied forces in the World War II.
The main BEF victories took place at Massarosa, Camaiore, Monte Prano, Monte Acuto, San Quirico, Gallicano, Barga, Monte Castello, La Serra, Castelnuovo, Soprassasso, Montese, Paravento, Zocca, Marano su Panaro, Collecchio and Fornovo. During eight months of the campaign, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force managed to take 20,573 Axis prisoners, including two generals, 892 officers and 19,679 other ranks, and had 443 of its men killed in action.
as by no means a foregone conclusion that Brazil would join the Allied powers in World War II.
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Encyclopedia
The Brazilian Expeditionary Force or BEF (or FEB) was the 25,300-man force formed by the Brazilian Navy, Army and Air Force that fought alongside the Allied forces in the World War II.
The main BEF victories took place at Massarosa, Camaiore, Monte Prano, Monte Acuto, San Quirico, Gallicano, Barga, Monte Castello, La Serra, Castelnuovo, Soprassasso, Montese, Paravento, Zocca, Marano su Panaro, Collecchio and Fornovo. During eight months of the campaign, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force managed to take 20,573 Axis prisoners, including two generals, 892 officers and 19,679 other ranks, and had 443 of its men killed in action.
Overview
It was by no means a foregone conclusion that Brazil would join the Allied powers in World War II. Initially Brazil maintained a position of neutrality, trading with both the Allies and the Axis Powers, while Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas's quasi-Fascist policies indicated a leaning toward the Axis powers. However, as the war progressed, trade with the Axis countries became almost impossible and the US began forceful diplomatic and economic efforts to bring Brazil onto the Allied side.
At the beginning of 1942, Brazil permitted the US to set up air bases in return for the offer by the United States to encourage the formation of an iron industry Companhia Siderurgica Nacional in Brazil. The US bases were located in the states of Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte, where the city of Natal hosted part of the U.S. Navy's VP-52 patrol squadron. In addition, US Task Force 3 established itself in Brazil; this included a squadron equipped to attack submarines and merchant vessels attempting to trade with Japan.
Although Brazil was technically neutral, this increasing cooperation with the Allies led the Brazilian Government to announce, at the Pan American States Conference in Rio on 28 January 1942, the decision to sever diplomatic relations with Germany, Japan, and Italy.
As a result, from the end of January to July 1942, German U-Boats sank around thirteen Brazilian merchant vessels. In August 1942, the U-507, sank five Brazilian vessels in two days, causing more than six hundred deaths:
- On August 15, the Baependy, traveling from Salvador to Recife, was torpedoed at 19:12. Its 215 passengers and 55 crew members were lost.
- At 21:03, the U-507 torpedoed the Araraquara, also traveling from Salvador towards the north of the country. Of the 142 people on board, 131 died.
- Seven hours after the second attack, the U-507 attacked the Aníbal Benévolo. All 83 passengers died; of a crew of 71, only four survived.
- On August 17, close to the city of Vitória, the Itagiba was hit at 10:45, with a death toll of 36.
- Another Brazilian ship, the Arará , traveling from Salvador to Santos, stopped to help the crippled Itagiba, but ended up being the fifth Brazilian victim of the German submarine, with a death toll of 20.
In all, 21 German and two Italian submarines were responsible for the sinking of 36 Brazilian merchant ships, causing 1,691 drownings and 1,079 other casualties. The sinkings were the main reason that led Brazilian Government to declare war against the Axis.
Berlin Radio pronouncements led to increasing nervousness among the Brazilian population. So unlike 1917, in 1942 it seemed that the Brazilian government did not want war. However, in the then capital, Rio de Janeiro, the people started to attack German businesses, such as restaurants. The passive position of the Vargas government was untenable in the face of public opinion. Ultimately, the government found itself with no alternative but to declare war on Germany and Italy on August 22, 1942.
Command
The Brazilian 1st Division of the BEF fought with the 15th Army Group under Field Marshal Harold Alexander (later succeeded by General Mark Clark), via the U.S. Fifth Army of Lieutenant General Mark Clark (later succeeded by Lieutenant General Lucian Truscott) and the U.S. IV Corps of Major General Willis D. Crittenberger. The overall organization of the Allied and German armies in Italy at the time can be found on the Gothic Line order of battle entry.
The Brazilian Air Force component was itself under the Mediterranean Allied Tactical Air Force.
The BEF headquarters functioned as an administrative headquarters and link to the Brazilian high command and War Minister General Eurico Gaspar Dutra in Rio de Janeiro. General Mascarenhas de Moraes (later Marshal) was the commander of the BEF with General Zenóbio da Costa as commander of the division's three regimental Combat Teams ("RCT") and General Cordeiro de Farias as commander of the Artillery.
The BEF was (theoretically) organized as a standard American infantry division, complete in all aspects, down to its logistical tail, including postal and banking services. It comprised the 1st, 6th and 11th RCTs, each of about 5,000 men in three battalions plus supporting units, with each battalion consisting of four companies each.
The campaign
Soon after Brazil declared war, it began popular mobilization to create an expeditionary force to fight in Europe It took almost two years to send about 25,000 men (down from an initial plan to send 100,000) to join the Allied war effort in the Italian Campaign.
Due to the Brazilian dictatorship's unwillingness to get more deeply involved in the Allied war effort, by 1942 a popular saying was that "it's more likely for snakes to start to smoke now than for the BEF to set out." ("Mais fácil uma cobra fumar do que a FEB embarcar") As a result, the soldiers of the BEF called themselves Cobras Fumantes (literally, Smoking Snakes) and wore a divisional shoulder patch that showed a snake smoking a pipe.
On July 02, 1944 the first five thousand BEF soldiers, the 6th Regimental Combat team, left Brazil for Europe aboard the USNS General Mann, and arrived in Italy on July 16. They disembarked in Naples, where they waited to join the US Task Force 45. They disembarked without weapons, and as no one had arranged barracks, the troops stood around on the docks. At the time this caused controversy in the Brazilian media. In late July, two more transports with Brazilian troops reached Italy, with three more following in September, November, and February 1945.
The BEF dedicated its first weeks in Italy to acquiring the proper equipment to fight on Italian terrain, and to training under American command. The troops moved to Tarquinia, 350 km north of Naples, where Clark's army was based. In November 1944, the BEF joined General Crittenberger's U.S. IV Corps.
In 1944, the Italian Front resembled the multi-national force make up of the French Front in 1918. The forces fighting were constituted by: Americans (including segregated African- and Japanese-Americans troops ), British, French, members of the British Commonwealth and French and British colonies (New Zealanders, Canadians, Indians, Gurkhas, black Africans, Moroccans, Algerians, Jews and Arabs from the British Mandate in Palestine, South Africans), as well as the Brazilians, exiled Poles, Greeks, Czechs and anti-fascist Italians who made one of their main contributions to the Allied war effort.
The Germans made much of the political aspect of the presence of the Brazilian force in Italy since they made specific propaganda, not just in pamphlets , directed at the fighting Brazilians, but also an hour-long daily radio broadcast in Portuguese from Berlin Radio called "Radio AuriVerde" (GoldenGreen Hour).
The first missions of the Brazilians were reconnaissance operations to the end of August; Brazilian troops helped to fill the gap left by divisions of the Fifth Army and French Expeditionary Corps that left Italy for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France.
On September 16, the 6th RCT took Massarosa. Two days later it also took Camaiore and other small towns on the way north. By then, the BEF had already conquered Monte Prano, and taken control of the Serchio valley without any major casualties. After have suffered its first reverses around Barga city, and after the arrival of the 1st RCT at the end of October, the BEF was directed to the base of the Apennines where it would spend the next months facing the harsh winter and the resistance of the Gothic Line.. Allied forces failed consistently to break the Gothic Line over the winter and an offensive by German and Italian divisions on the right sector of BEF led to serious losses by the troops of US 92nd Division, that they had to be assisted by the 8th Indian Infantry Division to contain it.
Just after the Brazilian Division and the U.S. 10th Mountain Division had taken important positions on the Apennines between the end of February and beginning of March 1945, depriving the Germans of high artillery points on the mountains, the breaking of the Gothic Line and the consequent Spring offensive became practicable.
On the sector under the responsibility of US 5th Army, the final offensive on the Italian Front began on April 14 after a bombardment by 2,000 heavy bombers and 2,000 artillery pieces with an attack carried out by the troops of US IV Corps commenced by the Brazilian Division, that took Montese, breaking the Germans' lines to the North. Bologna was entered on 21 April by the Polish Division from the British 8th Army and U.S. 34th Infantry Division from the US 5th Army.
On the 25 April a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement started at the same time as the Brazilians troops arrived at Parma and the Americans at Modena and Genova. By the same time forces under the British VIII Army advanced towards Venice and Trieste. After that, the main concern of the Allied forces in Italy was pursuing the enemy.
After capturing a large number of Germans at Collecchio, the Brazilian forces were preparing to face fierce resistance at the Taro river region from the retreating German-Italian forces of the region of Genoa/La Spezia that had been set free by troops of the 92nd US Division. These German troops were surrounded near Fornovo and after combat forced to surrender. More than 20 thousand men, including the entire 148th Infantry Division, elements of the 90th Panzergrenadier and the last former Division of the Italian Fascist Army, was imprisoned by Brazilian Forces on April 28. This coup took the German Command by surprise since it wanted these troops to joined forces with the German-Italian Army of Liguria to counterattack against the forces of the US 5th Army that advanced, inevitably as in these situations, in a fast but diffuse and disarranged way uncoordinated with air support, having left some gaps on its left and to the rear. Many bridges throughout the Po River had been left intact by the Nazi-Fascist forces with this intention. The German Army Command, that already was in truce negotiations in Caserta, hoped with this to obtain better conditions for surrender. The events in Fornovo had involuntarily hindered the execution of such plan, as much by the dissarray of their troops as by the delay caused. This, added to the news about Hitler's death and final taking of Berlin by the forces of Red Army, left the German Command with no option but to accept the unconditional surrender of its troops in Italy.
In their final advance, the Brazilians reached Turin and in May 2, met French troops at the border in Susa, on the same day that the announcement of the end of hostilities in Italy was announced.
The bodies of the soldiers buried in the BEFcemetery in Pistoia were later transferred to a mausoleum in Rio de Janeiro constructed for them that Marshall Mascarenhas de Moraes had proposed and promoted. The mausoleum was inaugurated on July 24, 1960, and covers an area of 6,850 square meters.
The Air Force
The 1oGAVCA (1st Fighter Group/1º Grupo de Aviação de Caça) was formed on December 18, 1943. Commanding Officer was Ten.-Cel.-Av. (Aviation Lieutenant Colonel) Nero Moura. The group was divided into four flights: Red ("A"), Yellow ("B"), Blue ("C"), and Green ("D"). Each flight consisted of roughly twelve pilots who had been flying together. The CO of the group and some officers were not attached to any specific flight.
The group had 350 men, including 43 pilots. Unlike the BEF's Army component, the 1oGAVCA had personnel who were experienced Brazilian Air Force (Portuguese: Força Aérea Brasileira, or FAB) pilots. One of them was Alberto M. Torres, who had piloted a PBY-5A Catalina that had sunk U-199, which was operating off the Brazilian coast.
The group trained for combat in Panama, where 2o Ten.-Av. Dante (Aviation Second Lieutenant) Isidoro Gastaldoni was killed in a training accident. On May 11, 1944, the group was declared operational and became active in the air defense of the Panama Canal Zone. On June 22, the 1oGAVCA was sent to the U.S. to convert to the Republic P-47D Thunderbolt.
On September 19, 1944 the 1oGAVCA left for Italy, arriving at Livorno on October 6. It became part of the 350th Fighter Group of the USAAF, which in turn was part of the 62nd Fighter Wing, XXII Tactical Air Command, of the 12th Air Force.
The Brazilian pilots initially flew from October 31, 1944, as individual elements of flights attached to 350th FG squadrons, at first in affiliation flights and progressively taking part in more dangerous missions. Less than two weeks later, on November 11, the group started its own operations flying from its base at Tarquinia, using its tactical callsign Jambock. FAB Thunderbolts were marked by Brazilian Air Force stars, replacing the white U.S. star in the roundel.
The 1oGAVCA started its fighting career as a fighter-bomber unit, its missions being armed reconnaissance and interdiction, in support of the US Fifth Army, to which the FEB was attached.
On April 16, 1945, the U.S. Fifth Army started its offensive along the Po Valley. By then, the Group was reduced to 25 pilots, some having been killed and others shot down and captured; some others had been relieved from operations on medical grounds due to combat fatigue. The Yellow flight was thus disbanded, its remaining pilots being distributed among the other flights. Each pilot flew on average two missions a day.
On April 22, 1945, the three remaining flights took off at 5-minute intervals, starting at 8:30 AM, destroying bridges, barges, and motorized vehicles in the San Benedetto region. At 10:00 AM, a flight took off for an armed reconnaissance mission south of Mantua. More than 80 tanks, trucks, and vehicles were destroyed beyond fortified German positions. By the end of the day, the group had flown 44 individual missions, having destroyed hundreds of vehicles and barges. This was the day when more sorties than ever were made by the group; consequently, April 22 is commemorated in Brazil as Brazilian Fighter Arm Day.
The 1oGAVCA flew a total of 445 missions, 2,550 individual sorties, and 5,465 combat flight hours, from 11 November 1944 to 6 May 1945. The XXII Tactical Air Command acknowledged the efficiency of the Group by noting that although it flew only 5% of the total of missions carried out by all squadrons under its control, it accomplished a much higher percentage of the total destruction wreaked:
- 85% of the ammunition depots
- 36% of the fuel depots
- 28% of the bridges (19% damaged)
- 15% of motor vehicles (13% damaged)
- 10% of horse-drawn vehicles (10% damaged)
The Navy
German submarines were the biggest challenge the Brazilian navy faced. The Brazilian Navy also had the task of carrying BEF troops to Gibraltar. The main task of the Brazilian Navy was to ensure the safety of ships sailing between Trinidad in the Caribbean and Florianopolis, a city in the south of Brazil. The Brazilian navy conducted 574 operations that protected 3,164 merchant ships; German submarines were only able to sink three ships. In the war against German submarines, Brazilian frigates and submarines used sea mines and depth charges. According to German documents, the Brazilian Navy attacked German submarines a total of 66 times.
The Brazilian Navy lost 500 of its 7,000 sailors in the conflict.
Curios
- Until the BEF entered combat, the expression "a cobra vai fumar" ("snakes will smoke") was often used in Brazil in a context similar to "when pigs fly." After the war the meaning was reversed, signifying that something will definitively happen and in a furious and aggressive way.
- During the capture of Montese, three Brazilian soldiers, Arlindo Lúcio da Silva, Geraldo Baeta da Cruz, and Geraldo Rodrigues de Souza, when on a patrol, ran into German forces. Though ordered to surrender, the Brazilians refused and fought to the death. In recognition of their bravery, the Germans buried the Brazilians and wrote on their crosses “DREI BRASILIANISCHEN HELDEN” (Three Brazilian Heroes).
See also
Bibliography
- Brooks, Thomas R. The War North of Rome (June 1944-May 1945). Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0306812569.
- Buyers, John. História dos 350th fighter group da Força Aérea Americana (in Portuguese). UFAL-Universidade Federal de Alagoas, 2007. ISBN 978-8571773226.
- Castro, Celso with Vitor Izecksohn and Hendrik Kraay. Nova História Militar Brasileira (in Portuguese). FGV-Fundação Getúlio Vargas, 2004. ISBN 85-2250-496-2.* Clark, Mark Wayne. Calculated Risk. New York: Enigma Books, 1950, republished 2007. ISBN 978-1929631599.
- de Moraes, Mascarenhas. The Brazilian Expeditionary Force, By Its Commander US Government Printing Office, 1966. ASIN B000PIBXCG.* Morais, Fernando. Chatô, o Rei do Brasil (in Portuguese). Cia das Letras, 1994. ISBN 85-7164-396-2.
- Ready, J. Lee. Forgotten Allies: The European Theatre, Volume I. McFarland & Company, 1985. ISBN 978-0899501291.
- Ready, J. Lee. Forgotten Allies: The Military Contribution of the Colonies, Exiled Governments and Lesser Powers to the Allied Victory in World War II. McFarland & Company, 1985. ISBN 978-0899501178.
- Silva, Hélio. 1942 Guerra no Continente (in Portuguese). Civilização Brasileira, 1972.
- Silva, Hélio. 1944 o Brasil na Guerra (in Portuguese). Civilização Brasileira, 1974.
- The 350th Fighter Group in the Mediterranean Campaign, 2 November 1942 to 2 May 1945. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, . ISBN 0-76430-220-5.
External links
- An article about the formation and the contribution of the FEB by , 'Estudios Interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Caribe', vol. 6, No. 2, 1995
- ( in Portuguese )
- ( in Portuguese )
- WW II propaganda panflets
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