Damned great post Pzjgr !!!!

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No Rest for the Wicked!

Agreed!

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Thank you sirs. Once in awhile I get the smart burp.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

Yes, I agree. That was a very informative post. We do learn something new everyday.

In March 1942 the USN conducted a corps size amhibious landing exercise. The 1st Marine & 9th Army divsions participated. It been claimed the exercise was organized as if it were aimed at the NE Brazilian Coast, with the objective of capturing hostile airfields along the coast. The Carolinas coast was susposedly chosen for a resemblance to the area of interest in Brazil. Adm King who took a close interest in this exercise firmly belived the installation of German reconissance aircraft and airbourne battalions for airfield security were a distinct possiblity on the NE coast of Brazil.

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I forgot my password, can I use yours?

As said earlier in this post about a few years ago, it was not.
Still, this gives me an opportunity to show how Mexico historically reacted to the Nazi attempt at subversion.

News report from June 24, 1940 (Time Mag)

Hitler's sweep through France did more to make Mexico see eye to eye with Washington than years of diplomatic talk. Last week as Nazis goose-stepped in Paris, the Mexican Govt. informed Hitler's slick director of Nazi intrigue, Arthur Dietrich, that he was no longer persona grata in Mexicco, that his activities , pursued with arrogant disregard for the laws and privileges of his host country, were "prejudicial to Mexican interests." An investigation of Dietrich had revealed that his office served as a relay point for instructions from Berlin to Nazi agents in the US, as well as elsewhere in the Americas, including plenty of boring from within in Mexico.

Mexican commitment to the Allied cause rather than the Axis powers, had its origins in internal Mexican politics. In the late 1930's, President Lazaro Cardenas had declared Mexican neutrality, but even before the 1940 presidential election campaign between conservative candidate Juan Almazan and P.R.I. designate Avila Camacho, tensions between pro-fascist and pro-communist groups that had simmered since the middle 1930's began to erupt into violence.

Alarmed by the possibilities of an unstable pro-fascist or pro-communist government below the Rio Grande, the U.S. began to offer both overt and clandestine aid to the established government. A financial crisis in Mexico had brought some economic co-operation as the U.S. Government had come to the aid of the Cardenas regime by purchasing silver and granting U.S. government backed loans. Attempting to solve the economic problems, in 1938 the Cardenas-led government had nationalized the Mexican oil industry.

They were still being wooed by both by Germany and Fascist Spain. Large Italian minorities also exerted pressure on the government. The treaty between Stalin and Hitler had cooled the anti-fascist fervor of the Mexican Communist Party and had indeed made some of them pro-German. Thus the Mexican Government was caught between its own left and right wing partisans and was frozen into inaction.


Now, a miscalculation by Germany provided the impetus to break the stalemate. Numerous submarine attacks on Mexican ships, coupled with a massive propaganda campaign launched by the U.S., British and French began to turn the tide of public opinion. Although not an attack on Mexican territory, the sinking of the Mexican tanker Faja de Oro by the German U-boat, U-160, on May 21, 1942 off Key West, prompted the entry of Mexico into World War II. Mexico and Brazil were the only Latin American countries to send troops to fight overseas against Germany and Japan.

Only the already modernized Mexican Air Force was to actually engage in combat. Mexican pilots received additional training in the United States and in 1945 fought valiantly in the air war in the Phillipines. Only one squadron, Number 201, actually saw combat. Nicknamed "The Aztec Eagles," they flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighters and offered close ground support for U.S. and Philipino ground forces as they struggled to liberate the islands from the Japanese. Decorated by the United States, Mexico and the Phillipines, its 31 pilots and approximately 150 ground support personnel were the only Mexican military force to serve outside of Mexico. Of the squadron's 31 pilots, 5 were killed in action.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

Thank you, PzJgr for the information on both the Brazilian and Mexican forces active participation on the Allied side. I was ignorant of both until your posts. I appreciate learning about this.

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Regards, Michelle

Oliver Goldsmith, "I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines."

Those positions culminated in a strongly fortified hill called Monte Castello. It was conquered on Feb 21th. The capture of Monte Castello is celebrated every year here in Brazil.

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"The Duce will have Ethiopia. With or without the ethiopians." Rodolfo Graziani

www.saladeguerra.net

I remember reading, perhaps in The Proceedings of the Naval Institute or Naval History that prior to Brazil alowing the US to build airbases the US had an active plan for invading Brazil.
I can't get to their search page right now but you might try at:
Search the Archives - U.S. Naval Institute