If you were to ask the average American today about World War II and the part, if any, Brazil played in it, they would very likely respond, "didn't they hide Nazis?" and, then, further assume that Brazil must have actively sided with Hitler and his Nazi war machine. Nothing could be further from the truth. While another large South American country (we'll let you guess which one), in fact, openly sympathized with Nazi Germany until a mere two months before the end of the war—their goose-stepping army troops emulating their Nazi Fascist heroes as they regularly paraded through the capitol in their German style helmets—Brazil was was actively aiding the Allied cause by providing both critical air and naval bases as well as deploying the only Latin American ground forces to engage, fight and die in combat against the Axis powers.

Most information about Brazil's efforts on behalf of the Allied cause during World War II as well as the story of the FEB (Força Expedicionária Brasileira) —the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, the Smoking Cobras —is understandably, in Portuguese, however, the following links in English provide a good overview:

http://www.tau.ac.il/eial/VI_2/mccann.htm—Frank McCann's excellent overview

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/3351/campaigns/brzedit.html

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Brazilian-Expeditionary-Force

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/st/~johnw/BrazilanExped.htm