Military History of Brazil - World War II

World War II

Main article: World War II

During the Second World War, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, with about 25,300 soldiers, fought in the Allied campaigns in Italy. This participation with the Allies was a contradiction to the quasi-Fascist policies established by Getúlio Vargas's Estado Novo campaign. However, with the increasing trade with and diplomatic efforts by the United States and United Kingdom, in 1941 Brazil permitted the US to set up air bases in the states of Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte, where the city of Natal received part of the U.S. Navy's VP-52 patrol squadron. Also, the U.S. Task Force 3 established itself in Brazil, including a squad equipped to attack submarines and merchant vessels which tried to exchange goods with Japan. Besides being technically neutral, the increasing cooperation with the Allies led the Brazilian government to announce, on 28 January 1942 the decision to sever diplomatic relations with Germany, Japan and Italy. In July 1942, around thirteen Brazilian merchant vessels were sunk by German U-Boats. About one hundred people died as a result of these attacks, most being crew members. At the time, Vargas decided not to take further measures against the Axis in an attempt to avoid an escalation of the conflict involving Brazil. However, in August 1942, one single German submarine, the U-507, sank five Brazilian vessels in two days, causing more than six hundred deaths:

• On August 15, the Baependy, travelling 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 going 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, and had a death toll of 36.
• Another Brazilian ship, the Arará, travelling from Salvador to Santos, stopped to help the crippled Itagiba, but end up being the fifth Brazilian victim of the German ship, with a death toll of 20.

The Brazilian population was restless. In the capital Rio de Janeiro, the people started to retaliate against German businesses, such as restaurants. The passive position of the Getúlio Vargas government was not enough to calm public opinion. Ultimately, the government found itself with no other choice but to declare war on the Axis on August 22, 1942.

The Brazilian 1st Division of the FEB was under the command of 15th Army Group of 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 arnies in Italy at the time can be found on the Gothic Line order of battle entry.

The Brazilian Air Force component was under the command of XXII Tactical Air Command, which was itself under the Mediterranean Allied Tactical Air Force.

The FEB 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 FEB with General Zenóbio da Costa as commander of the division's three infantry regiments and General Cordeiro de Farias as commander of the divisional artillery.

The FEB was 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 Infantry Regiments of the Brazilian Army. Each regiment had three battalions, each composed of four companies.

Soon after Brazil declared war, it began the mobilization to create an expeditionary force to fight in Europe. This was a giant US-sponsored effort to convert an obsolete army into a modern fighting force. It took two years to properly train the 25,300 troops to join the Allied war effort.

In early July 1944, the first five thousand FEB soldiers left Brazil to Europe aboard the USNS General Mann, and disembarked in Naples, where they waited for the US Task Force 45, which they later joined. On late July, two more transports with Brazilian troops reached Italy, with two more following in November and February 1945.

The first weeks of the Brazilians in Italy were dedicated to acquiring and training with the new American uniforms, since the Brazilian ones would not suit the Italian climate. The troops moved to Tarquinia, 350 km north of Naples, where Clark's army was based. The FEB was in November 1944 integrated into General Crittenberger's U.S. IV Corps. The first missions of the Brazilians involved reconnaissance operations.

The Brazilian troops helped to fill the gap left by several divisions of the Fifth Army and French Expeditionary Corps that left Italy for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. On November 16, the FEB occupied Massarosa. Two days later it also occupied Camaiore and other small towns on the way north.

By then the FEB had already conquered Monte Prano, controlled the Serchio valley and the region of Castelnuovo, without any major casualties. The Brazilian soldiers, after that, were directed to the base of the Apennines, where they would spend the next months, facing the harsh winter and the resistance of the Gothic Line.

It was in that region that the Brazilian soldiers, together with men of many other nationalities, made one of their main contributions to the war: the Battle of Monte Castello. The combined forces of the FEB and the American 10th Mountain Division were assigned the task of clearing Monte Belvedere of Germans and minefields. The Brazilians suffered from ambushes, machine gun nests, and heavy barrages of mortar fire.

On late February, while the battle for Monte Castello was still taking place, elements of the FEB conquered the city of Castelnuovo Rangone and, on March 5, Montese. The German mass retreat had started. In just a few days, Parma and Bologna were taken. After that, the main concern of the Allied forces in Italy was pursuing the enemy. After capturing a large number of Germans in the Battle of Collecchio, the Brazilian forces were preparing to face fierce resistance at the Taro region from what was left of the retreating German army. The German troops were surrounded near Fornovo and forced to surrender. More than sixteen thousand men, including the entire 148th Infantry Division, elements of the 90th Light Infantry Division (Germany), several Italian units and more than a thousand vehicles, surrendered to the Brazilian Forces on April 28.

On May 2, the Brazilians reached Turin and met French troops at the border. Meanwhile, on the Alps, the FEB was on the heels of German forces still on the run. On that very day, the news that Hitler was dead put an end to the fighting in Italy, and all German troops surrendered to the Allies in the following hours.

Formed on 18 December 1943, the 1ºGAVCA (1st Fighter Group) was composed of volunteer Brazilian Air Force (Portuguese: Força Aérea Brasileira, or FAB) pilots. Its Commanding Officer was Ten.-Cel.-Av. (Lt. Col. Pilot) Nero Moura. The Group had 350 men, including 43 pilots, and was sent to Panama for combat training, since the pilots already had flying experience — one of its pilots, 2º Ten.-Av. (2nd Lt.) Alberto M. Torres, was the pilot of the PBY-5A Catalina that had sunk U-199, a German U-Boat operating off the coast of Brazil. There 2º Ten.-Av. Dante 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. The Group was then sent to the U.S. on June 22 to convert to the Republic P-47D Thunderbolt.

The Group departed to Italy on 19 September 1944, arriving at Livorno on 6 October. There it became part of the 350th Fighter Group USAAF, a unit which had been formed on 1 October 1942 in Britain. Several of its first pilots had served previously with the Royal Air Force or the Royal Canadian Air Force. After the Allied landings in Northern Africa (Operation Torch), the 350th FG was transferred to that region and followed the Allied invasion of Italy. Until the arrival of the 1ºGAVCA, the 350th FG was made up of three squadrons: 345th Fighter Squadron ("Devil Hawk Squadron"), 346th FS ("Checker Board Squadron") and 347th FS ("Screaming Red Ass Squadron"). When the 1ºGAVCA — or, rather, the 1st Brazilian Fighter Squadron, 1st BFS — was incorporated to the 350th FG, that unit was subordinated to the 62nd Fighter Wing, XXII Tactical Air Command, 12th Air Force USAAF. The call-signs for each of the Groups component squadrons were: 345th FS, "Lifetime"; 346th FS, "Minefield"; 347th FS, "Midwood"; and 1st BFS, "Jambock"

The badge of 1ºGAVCA was designed while the Squadron was travelling to Italy aboard the transport ship UST Colombie by a group of its pilots, Ten.-Av. Rui Moreira Lima, Ten.-Av. José Rebelo Meira de Vasconcelos, Ten.-Av. Lima Mendes and Cap.-Av. Fortunato C. de Oliveira. Drawn by the latter, it can be described as follows, according to its author:

The green-yellow surrounding represents Brazil;

The red field behind the fighting ostrich represents the war skies;

The bottom field — white clouds — represents the ground to a pilot;

The blue shield charged with the Southern Cross is the common symbol for the Brazilian Armed Forces;

The ostrich represents the Brazilian fighter pilot, whose face is inspired by that of Ten.-Av. Lima Mendes;

The white cap was part of the FAB uniform at the time and distinguished the Brazilian pilots from the other Allied pilots;

The gun being held by the ostrich represents the firepower of the P-47, with its eight .50in machine-guns;

The motto "Senta a Pua!" is the war cry of 1ºGAVCA;

The white streak, at the right, ending on a flak burst, was added later, and represents the danger brought by the German anti-aircraft artillery to the pilots (this device appeared only on replacement aircraft).

The use of an ostrich to represent the Brazilian fighter pilots comes from the fact that, during the early Forties, several Brazilian aircrews went to the USA to fly back to Brazil the aircraft then being bought in large numbers by the Brazilian authorities, not only training but also combat aircraft. During their stay in that country, they got acquainted to American food: baked beans, powdered eggs and powdered milk, among other items. The then Cel.-Av. Geraldo Guia de Aquino dubbed the pilots "Ostriches" and the nickname caught.

The war cry "Senta a Pua!" was a suggestion from Ten.-Av. Rui who had heard it several times from Cap.-Av. Firmino Alves de Araujo while serving at Salvador Air Base; it was used by the latter on his subordinates, inviting them to do their tasks at once and quickly. It became the Brazilian equivalent of the British "Tally-Ho" and the French "À la Chasse!". It roughly translates to something like "Drill it Deep".

The Brazilian pilots initially flew from 31 October 1944 as individual elements of flights of the 350th FG US squadrons, at first in affiliation flights and progressively taking part in more dangerous missions. Less than two weeks later, on 11 November, the Group started its own operations, flying from its base at Tarquinia, using its call-sign Jambock.

The Group was divided into four flights, Vermelha (Red), Amarela (Yellow), Azul (Blue) and Verde (Green). Each flight had a complement of roughly 12 pilots, these having been flying together since their training spell in Panama. A pilot customarily wore an echarpe in the colours of his flight. The CO of the Group and some officers were not attached to any specific flight.

Initially the P-47s were finished in standard US fighter colours, olive-drab (top surfaces) and neutral grey (undersurfaces), except the aircraft of the commanding officer, which was finished in natural metal and olive-drab anti-glare panels. Contrary to common belief, the first aircraft flown by the group's operations officer (coded "2") was also painted in the OD/NG color-scheme, being lost in action when Lt. Danilo Moura was shot down, being replaced by an overall natural metal finish (NMF) aircraft, which was later also shot down when flown by Lt. Luis Lopes Dornelles and replaced by a third NMF machine. The badge of the Group was painted just after the engine cowling, and the aircraft code (flight letter-aircraft number) was in white letters over the cowling. National insignia was in four positions, this being the US star-and-bar, with the white star replaced by the Brazilian star. Later, replacement aircraft were in natural metal, with olive-drab anti-glare panels, the codes being in black.

The Brazilian pilots had been trained in the US for fighter operations — but the Luftwaffe had by then nearly no airplanes in Italy. Thus the 1ºGAVCA started its fighting career as a fighter-bomber unit, its missions being armed reconnaissance and interdiction, in support of the US 5th Army, to which the Brazilian Expeditionary Force was attached.

On 16 April 1945, the U.S. Fifth Army started its offensive along the Po Valley. On this date, the Group was reduced to 25 pilots, some having been killed and others, having been shot down, becoming POWs. Also, some 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 19 April, the German frontline was broken, this having been first signalled to Command HQ by the Group. The Allied forces had to set up bridgehead across the River Pó, before the German forces crossed it. This was to be done on the 23 April, after a softening up of the German defences by the Air Force on the previous day.

On 22 April 1945, the day dawned cold, overcast and foggy. The three flights took off at five minute intervals starting at 8:30 AM, to attack targets in the San Benedetto region, destroying bridges, barges and motorized vehicles. At 10:00 AM, a flight took off for an armed reconnaissance mission south of Mantua — more than 80 trucks and vehicles were destroyed. Other aircraft attacked fortified German positions, tanks and barges. By the end of the day, the Group had flown 44 individual missions, having destroyed more than a hundred vehicles as well as barges, etc. Two P-47s were damaged and a third was shot down, its pilot, 2º Ten.-Av. Armando de S. Coelho, being taken prisoner. This was the day when more sorties than ever were made by the Group, and is commemorated each year as the 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 4 May 1945. The XXII Tactical Air Command acknowledged the efficiency of the Group by noting that, between 6 to 29 April 1945, it flew only 5% of the total of missions carried out by all squadrons under its control, but destroyed:

• 85% of the ammunition depots,
• 36% of the fuel depots,
• 28% of the bridges (19% damaged),
• 15% of motor vehicles (13% damaged) and
• 10% of horse-drawn vehicles (10% damaged).

The actions of the 1ºGAVCA during the Italian Campaign were even more exalted on 22 April 1986. On that day the Group received, from the Ambassador of the USA to Brazil, together with the Secretary for the USAF, the Presidential Unit Citation (Air Force), given by the US Government. The Brazilian Air Force is proud of the fact that, apart other few USAF units, only the 1ºGAVCA and two Royal Australian Air Force units — Nos. 2 and 13 Squadrons — have received this citation.

Their deeds will remain alive while men fly. Their victories in the battlefields will be in our hearts while courage and heroism are treasured by men. — E. Aldridge Jr., Secretary for the USAF, at the bestowing ceremony of the Presidential Unit Citation to the 1ºGAVCA

During eight months of the campaign, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force managed to take 20,573 Axis prisoners (two generals, 892 officers and 19,679 other ranks) and had 443 of its men killed in action.

The soldiers buried in the FEB cemetery in Pistoia were later removed to a mausoleum built in Rio de Janeiro. The mausoleum was idealised by Mascarenhas de Moraes (then a Marshal). It was inaugurated on July 24, 1960 and covers an area of 6,850 square meters.