Brazilian Troops in Italy

In reading Command of Honor, I was surprised to learn that there was a Brazilian Division under the command of Lucian Truscott when he was fighting in Northern Italy at the end of the War. I had not known that Brazil had contributed so many troops to the Allied war effort. If anyone can point me to a good resource that will describe Brazilian (and other South American) involvement in the War, I shall appreciate it. I had always thought that South and Latin America stayed on the sidelines until the last weeks of the conflict.

 

Lou -- Thanks much for this!

 

Here is some usefull information David.
http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/brazil_proj/lessons/his/wwii/wwii_full.pdf

 

The Brazilian troops were trained in the US, and equipped with US weapons and uniforms as to easily facilitate supply. They used the "Smoking Snake" logo (a snake smoking a cigar) on their aircraft and vehicles. In WW1, Brazil declared war on Germany, but did not directly participate, other than a few naval coastal patrols. The joke in Brazil then was something along the lines of "Brazil will fight when the snake smokes," sort of like "when the pigs fly" thing here. So in WW2, "The Snake smoked!" I forgot where I read this, so don't pin me down on this one.

Mexico was the only other Latin American country to contribute troops to combat overseas. The Mexican Air Force sent a fighter group the Philippines to operate with the USAAF in 1945. I believe they flew P-47s. The Mexican Army did not furnish any units to the Allied cause. The US Army allowed Mexican citizens to enlist directly in it's ranks during the war, and Mexican civilians flooded into the war industries and to work the fields of agriculture. So, in a way, Mexico contributed a great deal.

 

Right on the dot A-58

The FEB (Brazilian Expeditionary Force) called themselves Cobras Fumantes (literally, Smoking Snakes) and wore a
divisional shoulder patch which showed a snake smoking a pipe. According to
popular belief, this was because someone supposedly said "snakes will start smoking
pipes before Brazil joins the Allies.

http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/brazil_proj/lessons/his/wwii/wwii_full.pdf

 

A decent article on the whys of Brazil's involvement:

EIAL VI2 - Brazil and World War II: The Forgotten Ally.What did you do in the war, Zé Carioca?

 

David;
My late Uncle Frank lived down there at the time and everybody said he was a spook. Uncle Frank; The WWII Era. pictures from south america photos on webshots I wrote the CIA asking about him but they said they would need his signature-kind of hard since he passed away in 1991.
JeffinMNUSA