The Navy
Having the Suez Canal blocked and the necessity to go beyond to the far east, Germany used the Atlantic Ocean to maintain its supply of material necessities.
The Axis tried to block the transport of material logistics to the United States and the supply of Great Britain, initiating a policy of sinking commercial ships in the Atlantic.
As a result of the Axis attacks Brazil suffered nearly 1600 dead, including nearly 500 civilians and more than 1,000 of Brazil's 7,000 sailors involved in the conflict. The navy losses included 470 sailors of the merchant navy and 570 sailors of the military navy, a total of 36 ships sunk by the Germans, and more than 350 dead in 3 accidental sinkings.
The main task of the Brazilian Navy was, together with the Allies, to ensure the safety of ships sailing between the Center and South Atlantic to Gibraltar. The Brazilian navy conducted 574 operations that protected 3,164 merchant ships; German submarines U-boats were only able to sink three ships. In the fight against German submarines, Brazilian frigates and submarines used sea mines and depth charges. According to German documents, the Brazilian Navy attacked German submarines U-boats a total of 66 times.
A total of nine U-boats known German submarines were destroyed along the Brazilian coast. Those were: U-164, U-128, U-590, U-513, U-662, U-598, U-199, U-591, and U-161.
Read more about this topic: Brazilian Expeditionary Force
Famous quotes containing the word navy:
“I call to mind the navy great
That the Greeks brought to Troye town,
And how the boistous winds did beat
Their ships, and rent their sails adown;
Till Agamemnon’s daughter’s blood
Appeased the gods that them withstood.”
—Henry Howard, Earl Of Surrey (1517?–1547)
“We all know the Navy is never wrong, but in this case it was a little weak on being right.”
—Wendell Mayes, U.S. screenwriter. Otto Preminger. CINCPAC II (Henry Fonda)