The Smoking Cobras

It is still a very strange experience living in a country that does not mark Remembrance Day. I was surprised to find that not only did 25,000 Brazilians fight in Italy but that their Navy and Air Force fought in the Battle of the Atlantic from the middle of 1942 until the end of the war. However this contribution is rarely acknowledged outside Brazil and is largely forgotten internally.

Brazil was the only independent South American country to send ground troops to fight overseas, losing 948 men killed in action across all three services during the Second World War. 

The Brazilian Navy and Air Force fought in the Battle of the Atlantic.  German and Italian submarines sank 36 Brazilian merchant ships, causing over 2,700 casualties.

The Força Expedicionária Brasileira was made up of about 25,000 men who fought in Italy. They took 20,573 Axis prisoners, including two generals.

Due to the Brazilian regime’s initial reluctance to get more deeply involved in the Allied war effort, by early 1943 a popular saying was: “It’s more likely for a snake to smoke a pipe than for the FEB to go the front and fight.” (“Mais fácil uma cobra fumar um cachimbo, do que a FEB embarcar para o combate.”). As a result, the soldiers of the FEB called themselves Cobras Fumantes (literally, Smoking Snakes) and wore a divisional shoulder patch that showed a snake smoking a pipe. It was also common for Brazilian soldiers to write on their mortars, “The Snake is smoking …”

The FEB achieved battlefield successes at Massarosa, Camaiore, Mount Prano, Monte Acuto, San Quirico, Gallicano, Barga, Monte Castello, La Serra, Castelnuovo di Vergato, Soprassasso, Montese, Paravento, Zocca, Marano sul Panaro, Collecchio and Fornovo di Taro.