Post by trailboss on Jul 28, 2019 1:29:43 GMT -5
Brazil was the only Latin American country to send troops to Europe to fight alongside the Allies against the Germans. 25,000 soldiers were deployed in Italy in September 1944 and fought in the Apennines until the end of the war in May 1945. 400 of those soldiers lost their lives. Students from the War Studies department recently visited Italy to retrace their steps, accompanied by Dr Vinicius de Carvalho, Senior Lecturer in Brazilian Studies.
“For a long time it was believed that Brazil would never enter the European battlefield. The popular saying at that time was “it’s more likely for a snake to smoke a pipe than for the Brazilian expeditionary force to go to the front and fight”. Nevertheless, the snake did smoke after all. When we arrived in Italy, I was eagerly looking for the symbol of the snake with a pipe, used as a shoulder patch for army uniforms. I was not disappointed,” said Aleksandra Kusnierkiewicz.
“For a long time it was believed that Brazil would never enter the European battlefield. The popular saying at that time was “it’s more likely for a snake to smoke a pipe than for the Brazilian expeditionary force to go to the front and fight”. Nevertheless, the snake did smoke after all. When we arrived in Italy, I was eagerly looking for the symbol of the snake with a pipe, used as a shoulder patch for army uniforms. I was not disappointed,” said Aleksandra Kusnierkiewicz.
