page_title: Brazilian Navy
section_title: Second World War (1942–1945)
hierarchical_section_title: Brazilian Navy / History / World Wars (1917–1945) / Second World War (1942–1945)
caption_attribution_description: Português: Destróier D24 Greenhalgh em 1944
context_page_description: The Brazilian Navy is the naval service branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces, responsible for conducting naval operations. The Brazilian Navy is the largest navy in South America and in Latin America, and the second largest navy in the Americas, after the United States Navy.
  The navy was involved in Brazil's war of independence from Portugal. Most of Portugal's naval forces and bases in South America were transferred to the newly independent country. In the initial decades following independence, the country maintained a large naval force and the navy was later involved in the Cisplatine War, the River Plate conflicts, the Paraguayan War as well as other sporadic rebellions that marked Brazilian history.
  By the 1880s the Brazilian Imperial Navy was the most powerful in South America. After the 1893 naval rebellion, there was a hiatus in the development of the navy until 1905, when Brazil acquired two of the most powerful and advanced dreadnoughts of the day which sparked a dreadnought race with Brazil's South American neighbours. The Brazilian Navy participated in both World War I and World War II, engaging in anti-submarine patrols in the Atlantic.
context_section_description: Despite U-boat operations in the region (centred in the Atlantic Narrows between Brazil and West Africa) beginning autumn 1940, only in the following year did these start to raise serious concern in Washington. This perceived threat caused the US to decide that the introduction of US forces along Brazil's coast would be valuable. After negotiations with Brazilian Foreign Minister Osvaldo Aranha (on behalf of dictator Getúlio Vargas), these were introduced in second half of 1941.
  Germany and Italy subsequently extended their submarine attacks to include Brazilian ships wherever they were, and from April 1942 were found in Brazilian waters. On 22 May 1942, the first Brazilian attack (although unsuccessful) was carried out by Brazilian Air Force aircraft on the Italian submarine Barbarigo. After a series of attacks on merchant vessels off the Brazilian coast by U-507, Brazil officially entered the war on 22 August 1942, offering an important addition to the Allied strategic position in the South Atlantic.
  Having the Suez Canal blocked and the necessity to go beyond to the far East, Germany used the Atlantic Ocean to maintain its supply of material necessities.
  In World War II, Brazil's navy was obsolete. In early 1942, German submarines aimed to interdict supplies from reaching Britain and the Soviet Union. Between 1942 and 1944, Brazil's navy was supported by the United States Navy. During this period several naval bases were established in the North and Northeast of Brazil, becoming the headquarters of the Allied Command Atlantic South.
  Within their limitations and with the refitting and reorganization promoted with American resources, the Brazilian Navy participated actively in the fight against U-boats in the South, Central Atlantic and also the Caribbean. They guarded Allied convoys bound for North Africa and the Mediterranean. Between 1942 and 1945 the navy was responsible for conducting 574 convoy operations protecting 3,164 merchant ships of various nationalities. Enemy submarines managed to sink only three vessels. According to German documentation the Brazilian Navy made over sixty-six attacks against German submarines.
  A total of nine U-boats known German submarines were destroyed along the Brazilian coast. Those were: U-164, U-128, U-590, U-513, U-662, U-598, U-199, U-591, and U-161
  About 1,100 Brazilians died during the Battle of the Atlantic as a result of the sinking of 32 Brazilian merchant vessels and a naval warship. Among the 972 dead from the merchant vessels, 470 were crew and 502 were civilian passengers. Besides these, 99 sailors died in the sinking of Vital de Oliveira when she was attacked by German submarines, in addition to some 350 deaths in accidents that resulted in the sinking of the corvette Camaquã on 21 July 1944. The cruiser Bahia was sunk by an explosion on 4 July 1945 which resulted in the deaths of over 300 men.
caption: Destroyer Greenhalgh in escort mission in South Atlantic, 1944.
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