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Contents 1 Overview 2 Command 3 The Campaign 4 The Air Force 5 The Outcome 6 The Nickname 7 Bibliography 8 Photo Gallery 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

The Brazilian Expeditionary Force or BEF (Portuguese: Força Expedicionária Brasileira, 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 Italian Campaign of World War II.

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It was not at all obvious that Brazil would join the Allied powers in World War II. Initially Brazil maintained neutrality, trading with both the Allies and the Axis, while Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas's quasi-Fascist policies indicated a leaning toward the Axis powers. However, with the "increasing of": first, the impossibility to trade with Axis countries and after beyond the trade increment with, a very persuasive diplomatic efforts by the United States, in the 1942 beginning 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.

From then to July 1942 around thirteen Brazilian merchant vessels were sunk by German U-Boats. Hundreds people died as a result of these attacks.

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 organisation 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 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 popular mobilization to create an expeditionary force to fight in Europe. This was a giant effort to public convey the Brazilian government. It took almost two years to began send about 25,000 men( from a initial preview of 100,000 )to join the Allied war effort on Italian Campaign (World War II).

In early July 1944, the first five thousand FEB/BEF 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 three more following in September, November(1944) and February 1945. The first weeks of the Brazilians in Italy were dedicated to acquiring with american command proper equipment and training to face the war on italian terrain. The troops moved to Tarquinia, 350 km north of Naples, where Clark's army was based. The BEF would be in November 1944 integrated into General Crittenberger's U.S. IV Corps.

On 1944, Italian Front resemble in one sense much like what French Front had been on 1918. It was region that men of many nationalities: Americans(including their segregated troops of Afro and japaneses descendents ), British and French not just from UK and France but also from all parts of theirs colonial empires( New Zealands, Canadians, Indians, Gurkhas, Black Africans, Morrocans, Algerians, Jews and Palestinians, SouthAfricans)as well as Brazilians, Greeks, Czechs, nonfascist Italians made one of their main contributions to the war effort.

The Germans gave political importance to the presence of a Brazilian force in Italy since they bothered made a Propagand not just focused on pamphlets directed to Brazilians on the front and to Italian population but Stands also inside of a Dayly programming grate of Berlin Radio a Hour broadcast in Portuguese called "Radio AuriVerde" (GoldenGreen Hour).The first missions of the Brazilians involved reconnaissance operations end of August. The 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 BEF occupied Massarosa. Two days later it also occupied Camaiore and other small towns on the way north. By then the BEF had already conquered Monte Prano, controlled the Serchio valley 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.

After the Brazilians & Americans took thoose positions on Apennines from February 18 to March 5,1945 the German mass retreat had became unavoidable with the Spring offensive on April. Bologna was entered on 21 April by the Polish 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division from Eighth Army and U.S. 34th Infantry Division from Fifth Army, on 25 a General partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement burnst at the same time as Brazilians arrive at Parma and Americans at Modena and Genova, Forces of British VIII Army advanced toward to 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 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 20 thousand men including the entire 148th Infantry Division, elements of the 90th Light Infantry Division (Germany) & the Last former Division of Italian Fascist Army 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.

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Formed on 18 December 1943, the 1ºGAVCA (1st Fighter Group)( in contrast of the Army expeditionary forces) was composed by professional military, experienced Brazilian Air Force (Portuguese: Força Aérea Brasileira, or FAB) pilots. One of them, for example was Alberto M. Torres, the pilot of the PBY-5A Catalina that had sunk U-199, a German U-Boat operating on Brazilian coast. The 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 &mdash. 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. On June 22the Group was sent to the U.S. to convert to the Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, on 19 September 1944 it was departed to Italy arriving at Livorno on 6 October. There it became part of the 350th Fighter Group USAAF, that unit was subordinated to the 62nd Fighter Wing, XXII Tactical Air Command, 12th Air Force USAAF.

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, Red, Yellow, Blue and Green. Each flight had a complement of roughly 12 pilots, these having been flying together. The CO of the Group and some officers were not attached to any specific flight.

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 22 April, 1945, 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 tanks, trucks and vehicles were destroyed beyond fortified German positions, and barges. By the end of the day, the Group had flown 44 individual missions, having destroyed more hundreds vehicles as well as barges. This was the day when more sorties than ever were made by the Group( it 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 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 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).

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.

A popular saying at the time of the war was that "snakes will start smoking before the FEB boards (for Europe)" ("Mais fácil uma cobra fumar do que a FEB embarcar")^[1] As a result of this tale, the Brazilian Expeditionaries called themselves Cobras Fumantes (literally, Smoking Snakes) and wore a divisional shoulder patch which showed a snake smoking a pipe.

To this day, the expression "a cobra vai fumar" (Portuguese for "the snake is going to smoke") is often used in Brazil in a context similar to "pigs will fly".

• Clark, Mark [1950] (2007). Calculated Risk. New York: Enigma Books. ISBN 978-1929631599. 
• Moraes, Mascarenhas (1966). The Brazilian Expeditionary Force By Its Commander. US Government Printing Office. ASIN: B000PIBXCG. 
• R.Brooks, Thomas (2003). The War North of Rome (June 1944-May 1945). Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306812569. 

FEB Desembarque.jpg FEB Soldiers arriving in Italy in 1944.

FEB Blindado Montese.jpg Infantry with an M-10 tank destroyer resting on the region of Montese in 1945.

FEB Engenharia.jpg Engineering battalion build a bridge in the north of Italy in 1945.

FEB Artilharia MonteCastelo.jpg Artillery position near Monte Castelo in 1945.

• Brazil at War American Propaganda film about Brazilian contribution
• Max Wolff Brazilian sergeant, an iconic figure of Brazilian army in WWII
• Gothic Line
• Gothic Line order of battle

• http://cliente.enersulnet.com.br/victorbarone/br/htm/feb.htm
• http://www.battlefront.co.nz/Article.asp?ArticleID=251
• http://www.worldwariihistory.info/in/Brazil.html
• http://www.sentandoapua.com.br

• An article about the formation and the contribution of the FEB by A Frank D. MacCann, "Brazil and World War II: The Forgotten Ally: What did you do in the war, Zé Carioca?", 'Estudios Interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Caribe', vol. 6, No. 2, 1995 (English)
• WW2 propaganda leaflets: A website about airdropped, shelled or rocket fired propaganda leaflets. BEF propaganda in Italy / Po Valley.
• Pictures of the German unconditional surrender to the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (Portuguese)
• Pictures of the Brazilian Monuments and Memorials in Italy (Portuguese)
• The Conquer of Montese (Portuguese)
• Picyotures of the mausoleum in Rio de Janeiro
• More pictures and information about the mausoleum in Rio de Janeiro (Portuguese)
• History of the Brazilian Air Force in World War II (Portuguese)