History talk:my little country and my little hero

[Godvampire]

Venezuela.

That little country just between Colombia and Brazil, was the source of 40% of the allies oil and fuel in the whole WWII, we played a mayor role with the less suffering, and maybe we all could be speaking german at this moment if a guy with a funny cartoon kinda voice wasnt "president" here. I do personnaly recall him as a unknown "hero?" or at least another brick on the wall to the allies in this war, quoting Frank Herbert DUNE "The spice must flow", he was the man opening the pump handle:

Isaias Medina Angarita:

1897- Born in San Cristobal, Venezuela

1914- Graduated from the Military Academy School as 2nd Lieutenant.

1917- Promoted to Captain and assigned to a navy infantry regiment (aka. in some years marines).

1927- Promoted to Lieutenant Coronel assigned as proffesor in a officer training school, during this year he has been relationed with liberal and intelectual political groups

March 1 1936-1940- Assigned as Minister of Navy and War.

1941-1945. April 28 1941- Elected as president by the congress. Also during this year Venezuela broke diplomatic relationships with axis powers, produced in the relative scale more than any country to the war effort rasing it oil and rubber production 50% more in the next 2 years. Allowed for first time universal suffrage. Freed political prisoneers. Legalized comunist party. Guaranteed freedom of speech, political alliegance and movement. And other political, social and educational archievements.

1945- At 1st Q Declared war on Axis powers. In october 18, accusing him about lack of deepness in the political freedom reforms, a civic-military Coup d'état forced him to resign and exile in New York for a few years.

September 15, 1953. died in Caracas by an abdominal aneurism.

Well this guy in my personal opinion is one of the best presidents we had to this date, ive found funny that before being president some of his counterparts criticiced him as a pro-fascist... well the facts and history sometimes reveals the truth. Sadly the coup a few years after declined into a ruthless dictatorship for about 10 years more go figure who were the facists .

We have given a lot, lost a few, but won too much to handle it.

Remember whenever u sink a tanker in SH3, almost half of those contents came from here :P

If u live in a little country who have given a particular effort to the war or a "unknown hero" u would like to share your history with us, i would love to read that history

[Gizzmoe]

Moved to "General Topics".

[Godvampire]

Originally Posted by Gizzmoe

Moved to "General Topics".

sorry

[Abraham]

Interesting story, Godvampire. Welcoms to the General Topics Forum (courtesy Gizzmoe)!

[TteFAboB]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazili...itionary_Force

Wikipedia sucks alright, but I can't find the good link I had in English, anyway, that article seems to be about right except for the small introduction of Vargas, he was a very complex character afterall.

Anyway, quickly raised, poorly trained (comparatively speaking), small in numbers, joined the Americans in Italy and after the war they were disbanded and abandoned by Vargas as he feared they became an influencial political force to coup him and establish true Democracy back in Brazil too, since they fought for it in Italy, what an irony.

EDIT: Well, that link misses a curiosity, the trip to Italy was terrible, the ship was severly over-loaded with men and by the time they reached Italy the soldiers were so battered and tired they disembarked in a mess, with a very bad mood, they were also wearing older uniforms, so when the Italians noticed that sad mass of poor morale grey soldiers they thought they were German prisioners and shouted insults and threw rocks at them, ungratefull to say the least. :P

[Godvampire]

Hmmm well i dont know too much about Vargas, but as ive heard he doesnt have a good reputation.

Maybe the expeditionary force was not impressive to someones cos they were fighting at the late war chasing the germans, but though noticed the mass german surrender they have acomplished.

But that fighter squad is very impressive.

"The Group had 350 men, including 43 pilots, and was sent to Panama for combat training, since the pilots already had flying experience — one of its pilots, 2º Ten.-Av. Alberto M. Torres, was the pilot of the PBY-5A Catalina that had sunk the U-199."

Wonderful...i hope i wont find this guy on my upcoming patrols in SH3

"The 1ºGAVCA flew a total of 445 missions, 2,550 individual sorties and 5,465 combat flight hours, from 11 November 1944 to 4 May 1945. The XXII Tactical Air Command acknowledged the efficiency of the Group by noting that, between 6 to 29 April 1945, it flew only 5% of the total of missions carried out by all squadrons under its control, but destroyed:

- 85% of the ammunition depots, - 36% of the fuel depots, - 28% of the bridges (19% damaged), - 15% of motor vehicles (13% damaged) and - 10% of horse-drawn vehicles (10% damaged)."

Quite good stats to my point of view.

[Abraham]

Originally Posted by Godvampire

..."The 1ºGAVCA flew a total of 445 missions, 2,550 individual sorties and 5,465 combat flight hours, from 11 November 1944 to 4 May 1945. The XXII Tactical Air Command acknowledged the efficiency of the Group by noting that, between 6 to 29 April 1945, it flew only 5% of the total of missions carried out by all squadrons under its control, but destroyed:

- 85% of the ammunition depots, - 36% of the fuel depots, - 28% of the bridges (19% damaged), - 15% of motor vehicles (13% damaged) and - 10% of horse-drawn vehicles (10% damaged)."

Nothing is said about air sorties so, it was a fighter/bomber squad only?

At that time there was very little Luftwaffe air activity over Italy, due to shortages, especially of fuel (and trained pilots). Whatever operational fighters were available were used to defend the Fatherland, so Allied fighters were mostly used in the fighter-bomber role.

[CB..]

i have a book called- "Aircraft of the Chaco War 1928-1935"

by Dan Hagedorn and Antonio L. Sapienza
(Schiffer Military history series)


covering the Air war between Bolivia and Paraguay
which although not exactly related to events in WW2- might be of some interest here?

[TteFAboB]

Originally Posted by Abraham

At that time there was very little Luftwaffe air activity over Italy, due to shortages, especially of fuel (and trained pilots). Whatever operational fighters were available were used to defend the Fatherland, so Allied fighters were mostly used in the fighter-bomber role.

I told you wikipedia sucked, there wasn't "very little" Luftwaffe activity in the area they operated in, there was NONE! Not a single encounter with an enemy aircraft.

[Onkel Neal]

Thanks for sharing, interesting

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by TteFAboB

I told you wikipedia sucked, there wasn't "very little" Luftwaffe activity in the area they operated in, there was NONE! Not a single encounter with an enemy aircraft.

Ah, a kindred spirit. I have always treated the information on Wikipedia with a high degree of skepticism. Being open to community, you get a lot of armchair 'experts'. As I tell my students, 'use it if you wish, but researcher, beware.'

[Abraham]

Originally Posted by TteFAboB

I told you wikipedia sucked, there wasn't "very little" Luftwaffe activity in the area they operated in, there was NONE! Not a single encounter with an enemy aircraft.

Who's talking about Wikipedia?
I didn't use it - and seldom do.

There may not have been encounters, but that doesn't mean there was no Luftwaffe activity at all.
If I am wrong, it's my knowledge that sucks...

[TteFAboB]

Of course, I'm just using a figure of speech.