Brasília (DF) – This Friday, September 6, marks the 80th anniversary of the first action of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB). The 1st Combat Engineering Company, part of the 1st Echelon of the FEB, landed on Italian soil on July 16, 1944. Under the command of Captain Floriano Moller, the company underwent intense training with the American 5th Army. While one platoon attended the M2 Bailey bridges course, another platoon attended the explosives and demining course at the Dugenta Engineering School in Italy.
In the retreat, the Germans destroyed the bridges in Tuscany, booby-trapped the roads, the Arno and Serchio rivers were wide and flowing, and the 5th Army troops were detained at the Arno River cut-off. The use of engineering was imminent and decisive for the advance against the Nazi troops.
The first combat action
On September 6, the mission was to defuse 50 kg of explosives at the base of one bridge and three anti-tank mines on another, as well as laying two Bailey bridges. The traps were neutralized on the same day.
The launching of the bridges began. The first, located in the village of Montecalvoli, on the wreckage of a bridge on the Usciana canal, a tributary of the River Arno, was completed on the day of Brazil’s Independence and was therefore named “Sete de Setembro”. Its capacity was “class 40” and it was 58 meters long.
The second, at Santa Maria a Monte, on the same canal, a few kilometers upriver, was named “Entre Rios”, in reference to the city where they were quartered in Rio de Janeiro before leaving for Italy. The bridge was built on September 9th. Its capacity was also “class 40” and it was 43 meters long.
The technique and excellence of Brazilian engineering was the harbinger of the elite troops that had entered Italian soil – the FEB was in action.