like to see .............vs Germans Poll (1 Viewer)

[Harrytheheid]

Sorry, can't vote here.
No Eskimos.

 

[Wraith]

СССР Союз Советских Социалистических Республик,

ANZACS?

 

[modernreb]

I think resistance fighters having a street battle with their SS oppressors would look good.

 

[modernreb]

I knew Brazil was an ally during WWII, but did they actually contribute troops or planes?

 

[redhugh]

I knew Brazil was an ally during WWII, but did they actually contribute troops or planes?

here's an early post on the Brazillians


1a. DIE was shipped to Europe in three separate echelons. The first unit to embark was the 6th Infantry Regiment, from the State of São Paulo, along an artillery group and other support units. They landed in Naples on July 16th, 1944. The 1st and 11th Infantry Regiments, from the states of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, respectively, along with the remaining part of the division, arrived in Italy on October 6th. Repple Depple personnel and the rest of the force kept coming until February. In November, a fighting group of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) arrived, with some 500 men, joining 357th Fighting Squadron with P-47s.

In view of its advanced training stage, the 6th IR was called upon in first place. They were a sort of spearhead, charged with the task of feeling up the ground for the remainder of the troops. Sent to the Arno and Sercchio river valleys, after a short adaptation period, they did well in the first minor actions, mainly reconnaissance and patrolling missions, having liberated a number of Tuscan villages. The first combat order was received on September 15th, it consisted of a reconnaissance action in the small city of Massarossa, but the Brazilians ended up taking the city. After Massarossa came Bozzano, Camaiore, Monte Prano and others. Due to the large amount of men of Italian extraction in the 6th Regiment, friendly contact with the Italian civilians was a positive trait of the whole campaign, and this can also be extended to the other Brazilian units.

Proceeding in its attempt to break the Gothic Line before the winter, IV Corps threw the 6th Regiment against the German positions in the vicinity of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana. On October 28th, the 6th IR took Barga and during the ensuing days it advanced and took Sommocolonia and other surrounding villages. On October 30th the 1st Battalion plus 7th company from the III Battalion (rifle companies were numbered 1 to 9) advanced against Hill 906 and held ground. They were facing the recently raised Monterosa Division. Though this unit had been trained in Germany, both the opponents’ front-line experience
was about the same. The Brazilians attacked by surprise and took about 80 Italians prisoner. "We came through the woods, from where they were not expecting us", recalled Vicente Gratagliano, from 1st company. "We took two Italians who were guarding a machine gun, and they led us to a tent where we captured a whole squad who was there playing cards, such was the surprise".

With the four companies thinly spread across the front and the rest of the regiment in reserve, peril lurked right in front of the battle weary Brazilians. They had advanced in the direction of the only German outfit in the whole area, 2nd battalion of the 284th Regiment, of the 148th Infantry Division. In the early hours of October 31st the four companies suffered a severe mortar barrage, which kept the men from receiving supplies. It didn’t take long to see the swarms of soldiers clad in filed gray advancing towards the Brazilians. With great determination, four infantry attacks were beat off, without artillery support, for the communication lines had been cut. All of the four companies were attacked subsequently, all having its ammunition extinguished to the very last round. A lieutenant from the 1st company would recall:

"One of the men came up to me and said 'Sir, I ran out of bullets'. Soon after this men asking about what to do surrounded me. I told them to let the Germans come as close as possible, and only shoot to kill. Then the Germans came again, and I could see them getting killed at no more than 5 meter from our foxholes. I clearly remember a German with a hand held machine gun and another one beside him feeding the weapon, coming towards us. After the fourth wave with all men having virtually ran out of all ammunition, we were forced to run away".

The 1st and 11th Infantry Regiments arrived at the front by early November. The whole division was then posted to the mountains to the south of Bologna, in time to get grasp of what the first blizzards would mean to them. Brazilians are not
accustomed to subzero temperatures, and snow was a true challenge to those men. Alongside Task Force 45 and Gardiner Force of the U.S. Army, they charged against Monte Castello and Monte Belvedere on three occasions under command of IV Corps, and again on November 29th and December 12th, under Brazilian commanders supervision. These last two attempts would prove catastrophic for them. FEB generals had insisted on frontal assaults against heavily guarded positions, without air support and insufficient shelling. The ranks sustained 344 casualties in the last two attacks. The generals would learn the hard
way, at the footsloggers expense, that those masses could not be taken short of diversionary actions. Though planning of operations was shameful, the men gave proof of extreme courage and valor, albeit this was useless against the devilish MG 42s in their way. Antonio Amaru, a private in the 1st Regiments 8th company commented about the December 12th attack "while advancing we started to draw machine gun fire. I threw myself into a ditch and wasn't able to raise my head for two hours, or else I would have been shot. My company, which was in the center of the attack echelon, had to close ranks to allow the other two companies in the III battalion to retreat."

By this time, soldiers of the division had adopted an arm patch depicting a green snake smoking a pipe, a pun at a pre-war joke that went by saying it was more likely to see a snake smoking than a Brazilian fighting in Europe. However, according to many Brazilian veterans, the slang "the snake is going to smoke" was created among the troops meaning that a fight was about to happen.

For the remainder of the winter, the 1st DIE, along with 5th Army, kept the pressure against the Germans. The main actions during winter months were basically patrolling, something which Brazilians quickly learned to do very well. Several of them received American, British and French decorations due to this type of action, especially in the 6th Regiment. It seems like the Germans gave importance to the presence of a Brazilian force in Italy, since they bothered to send pamphlets and broadcasts in Portuguese, through a propaganda radio station called the "Goldgreen Hour".

By January 1945 the 1st DIE was flanking the famous 10th Mountain Division, a new arrival to the front. The Brazilians would then have to support the 10th Division’s main attacks against Mounts Belvedere and Gorogolesco, and on February 21st, the 1st Regiment took Monte Castello from II Battalion of the 1043 Regiment of the 232nd German Division.

Monte Castello is more a symbolic victory than a decisive one. It served as a means for the soldiers to gain confidence in their commanders, to renew their self-esteem after a very intense period of distress, since it was the division’s first successful major operation.

After Monte Castello and other actions, the 1st DIE played an important role in the conquest of a series of mountains in the Reno Valley, until time came for the Spring Offensive and the final thrust into the Po Valley.

On April 14th, flanked by the 1st Armored Division, they attacked the city of Montese, a strong point of the last Nazi attempt to hold the Allies before the Po Valley. Montese was the bloodiest episode in which the Brazilians got involved, sustaining 426 casualties in four consecutive days until the city and neighboring hills were completely dominated, a fight that engaged almost all of the division’s infantry battalions.

A curious happening was to follow the battle for Montese: on April 29th, the 6th Regiment plus a few M-8 scout cars of the Reconnaissance Squadron captured 1 German division plus what was left of Italian divisions Monterosa and Italia that formed Kampfgruppe Fretter-Pico in the Parma area. It is interesting to observe that this battle group comprised the remains of the 90th Panzergrenadier Division and the almost intact 148th Division, the first unit to inflict a defeat on the Brazilians. One thing that makes a Brazilian veteran proud to talk about his experience in the war was the human treatment they gave to war prisioners, regardless of previous skirmishes. There is a vast array of wartime snapshots showing cheerful Brazilians side by side with their former German opponents, still in uniform. This version is sustained by German accounts.

 

[sv288]

Yeah I would have to agree with daruss.