After some research i found another pic:
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| A CCKW fuel tank in Brazil (post-war) refueling C-47 |
But first, let's remember some of the history of Brazilian participation in WWII...
History:
The Brazilian Expeditionary Force or BEF (Portuguese: Força Expedicionária Brasileira, or FEB) was a force about 25,700 men and women arranged by the Army and Air Force to fight alongside the Allied forces in the Mediterranean Theatre of World War II. Brazil was the only South American country to send troops to fight in the Second World War.
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| Brazilian Expeditionary Force shoulder sleeve insignia (Army component) - 'The snake will smoke' |
This air-land force fought in Italy from September 1944 to May 1945, while the Brazilian Navy as well as the Air Force also acted in the Atlantic Ocean from the middle of 1942 until the end of war.
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| PBY-5 Catalina 'ARARÁ' - Brazilian Air Force, in WWII |
During the eight months of the Italian campaign, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force managed to take 20,573 Axis prisoners, consisting of two generals, 892 officers and 19,679 other ranks. During the War, Brazil lost 948 of its own men killed in action across all three services during the Italian campaign.
Brazil's participation alongside the Allied powers in World War II was by no means a foregone conclusion, even though Brazil had come to participate with them in World War I. Then Brazilian participation was primarily naval, although it did send a regiment to the Western Front. The navy and air force played a role in the Battle of the Atlantic after mid-1942, but more importantly, Brazil also contributed with an infantry division that entered combat on the Italian Front in 1944.
As in World War I, Brazil initially maintained a position of neutrality, trading with both the Allies and the Axis Powers, while Brazilian president
Getúlio Vargas's quasi-Fascist policies indicated a leaning toward the Axis powers. However, as the war progressed, trade with the Axis countries became almost impossible and the US began forceful diplomatic and economic efforts to bring Brazil onto the Allied side.
At the beginning of 1942, Brazil permitted the US to set up air bases in return for the offer by the United States to encourage the formation of an iron industry
Companhia Siderurgica Nacional in Brazil. The US bases were located in the states of Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte, where the city of Natal hosted part of the U.S. Navy's
VP-52 patrol squadron. In addition, US Task Force 3 established itself in Brazil; this included a squadron equipped to attack submarines and merchant vessels attempting to trade with Japan.
Although Brazil was technically neutral, this increasing cooperation with the Allies led the Brazilian government to announce at the Pan American States Conference in Rio on 28 January 1942 its decision to sever diplomatic relations with Germany,Japan, and Italy.
As a result, from the end of January to July 1942, German U-Boats sank 13 Brazilian merchant vessels. In August 1942,
U-507 sank five Brazilian vessels in two days, causing more than 600 deaths. In all, 21 German and two Italian submarines were responsible for the sinking of 36 Brazilian merchant ships, causing 1,691 drownings and 1,079 other casualties. The sinkings were the main reason that led the Brazilian government to declare war against the Axis. Soon after Brazil declared war, it began to mobilize an expeditionary force to fight in Europe.
On July 2, 1944 the first five thousand BEF soldiers, the 6th Regimental Combat team, left Brazil for Europe aboard the USNS General Mann, and arrived in Italy on July 16. They disembarked in Naples, where they waited to join the US Task Force 45. In late July, two more transports with Brazilian troops reached Italy, with three more following in September and November 1944, and February 1945.
The BEF dedicated its first weeks in Italy to acquiring the proper equipment to fight on Italian terrain, and to training under American command. In August, the troops moved to
Tarquinia, 350 km north of
Naples, where Mark Clark's army was based.
The Brazilians joined what was a multinational hodgepodge of forces. The American forces included the segregated African-American
92nd Infantry Division and the Japanese-American
442nd Infantry Regiment. British Empire forces included New Zealanders, Canadians, Indians, Gurkhas, Black Africans, Jews and Arabs from the British Mandate in Palestine, South Africans, units of exiles: Poles, Greeks, Czechs, Slovakians, as well as anti-fascist Italians, also served under British command. The French forces included Senegalese, Moroccans and Algerians. In November 1944, the BEF joined General Crittenberger's U.S. IV Corps.
The Germans made much of the political aspect of the presence of the Brazilian force in Italy. They targeted propaganda specifically at the Brazilians. In addition to leaflets, the Germans provided an hour-long daily radio broadcast in Portuguese from Berlin Radio called 'Hora AuriVerde' (GoldenGreen Hour).
The Army campaign:
The BEF achieved battlefield successes at Massarosa, Camaiore, Monte Prano, Monte Acuto, San Quirico, Gallicano, Barga,
Monte Castello, La Serra, Castelnuovo, Soprassasso, Montese, Paravento, Zocca, Marano su Panaro,
Collecchio and Fornovo.
The first missions the Brazilians undertook were reconnaissance operations to the end of August. Brazilian troops helped to fill the gap left by divisions of the Fifth Army and French Expeditionary Corps that left Italy for
Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France.
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| Brazilian M-8 Greyhound - recon car |
On September 16, the 6th RCT took
Massarosa. Two days later it also took
Camaiore and other small towns on the way north. By then, the BEF had already conquered Monte Prano, and taken control of the
Serchio valley without any major casualties. After having suffered its first reverses around Barga city, and after the arrival of the 1st RCT at the end of October, the BEF was directed to the base of the Apennines where it would spend the next months facing the harsh winter and the resistance of the
Gothic Line. Allied forces were unable to break through the mountains over the winter and an offensive by German and Italian divisions to the left of the BEF sector, against the US 92nd Infantry Division, required the assistance of the
8th Indian Infantry Division to be refrained.
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| Brazilian soldiers in patrol - Italy, 1945 |
Between the end of February and beginning of March 1945, in preparation for the Spring offensive, the Brazilian Division and the
U.S. 10th Mountain Division were able to capture important positions on the Apennines, which deprived the Germans of key artillery positions on the mountains, whose effective fire had since the fall of 1944 blocked the Allied path to Bologna.
In the US 5th Army's sector, the final offensive on the Italian Front began on April 14, after a bombardment of 2,000 artillery pieces; an attack carried out by the troops of US IV Corps, commenced by the Brazilian Division took
Montese. After the 1st day of the Allied offensive,the Germans, without much effort, had stopped the main attack of the IV Corps led by the US 10th Mountain Division, causing significant casualties among the troops of that US division, the Germans mislead to think that the BEF's raid over Montese using
M8 armoured cars and Sherman Tanks could be the real main Allied objective on that sector, which lead them to shell the Brazilians with 1,800 artillery rounds from the total of 2,800 used against all 4 Allied divisions in that sector during the days of the combat for Montese when they tried unsuccessfully to take Montese back from Brazilians. After that, the breaking of the Germans' lines to the North by forces of IV Corps became unavoidable. On the right, the Polish Division, from the British 8th Army, and the U.S. 34th Infantry Division, from the US 5th Army, entered Bologna on 21 April.
On 25 April the Italian resistance movement started a general partisan insurrection at the same time as the Brazilians troops arrived at Parma and the Americans at Modena and Genoa. The British VIII Army advanced towards Venice and Trieste.
At the
battle of Collecchio, the Brazilian forces were preparing to face fierce resistance at the Taro river region from the retreating German-Italian forces of the region of Genoa/La Spezia that had been set free by troops of the 92nd US Division. These Axis troops were surrounded near Fornovo and after some fighting surrendered. On April 28, the Brazilians captured more than 13,000 men, including the entire
148th Infantry Division, elements of the
90th Panzergrenadier and the Italian 1st 'Italia'
Bersaglieri Division.
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| German General Otto Fretter-Pico, Commander of the 148th Infantry Division, and General Mario Carloni surrendering to Brazilian FEB – Italy, 1945. |
This took the German Command by surprise as it had planned for these troops to join forces with the German-Italian Army of Liguria to counterattack against the US 5th Army. The US 5th army had advanced, as is inevitable in these situations, in a fast but diffuse and disarranged way uncoordinated with air support, and had left some gaps on its left flank and to the rear. The Axis forces had left intact many bridges throughout the Po River to facilitate a counter-attack. The German Army Command was already negotiating a truce in Caserta, and hoped that a counterattack would improve the conditions for surrender. The events in Fornovo disrupted the German plan, as much by the disarray of their troops as by the delay it caused. This, added to the news of Hitler's death and the fall of Berlin to the Red Army, left the German Command in Italy with no option but to accept the unconditional surrender of its troops.
In their final advance, the Brazilians reached Turin and then on 2 May they joined up with French troops at the border in Susa. That same day brought the announcement of the end of hostilities in Italy.
The Air Force campaign:
The 1° GAVCA (1st Fighter Group/1º Grupo de Aviação de Caça) was formed on December 18, 1943. Its commanding Officer was Ten.-Cel.-Av. (Aviation Lieutenant Colonel) Nero Moura.
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| Badge of Brazilian Fighter Squadron. - There is no translation possible for Senta a pua. Looks like: Hitting hard!!! |
The group had 350 men, including 43 pilots. The group was divided into four flights: Red ("A"), Yellow ("B"), Blue ("C"), and Green ("D"). The CO of the group and some officers were not attached to any specific flight. Unlike the BEF's Army component, the 1oGAVCA had personnel who were experienced
Brazilian Air Force (Portuguese: Força Aérea Brasileira, or FAB) pilots. One of them was Alberto M. Torres, who had piloted a
PBY-5A Catalina that had sunk
U-199, which was operating off the Brazilian coast.
The group trained for combat in Panama, where 2o Ten.-Av. (Aviation Second Lieutenant) Dante Isidoro Gastaldoni was killed in a training accident. On May 11, 1944, the group was declared operational and became active in the air defense of the Panama Canal Zone. On June 22, the 1oGAVCA traveled to the U.S. to convert to the
Republic P-47D Thunderbolt.
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| Brazilian P-47 Thunderbolt 'Jambock' B-3 |
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| Brazilian P-47 Thunderbolt 'Jambock' D-5 |
The Brazilian pilots initially flew from 31 October 1944, as individual elements of flights attached to 350th FG squadrons, at first in affiliation flights and progressively taking part in more dangerous missions. Less than two weeks later, on November 11, the group started its own operations flying from its base at Tarquinia, using its tactical callsign Jambock. Brazilian Air Force stars replaced the white U.S. star in the roundel on the FAB Thunderbolts. The 1oGAVCA started its fighting career as a fighter-bomber unit, its missions being armed reconnaissance and interdiction, in support of the US Fifth Army, to which the FEB was attached. On April 16, 1945, the U.S. Fifth Army started its offensive along the Po Valley. By then, the strength of the Group had fallen to 25 pilots, some having been killed and others shot down and captured. Some others had been relieved from operations on medical grounds due to combat fatigue. The Group disbanded the Yellow flight and distributed the surviving pilots among the other flights. Each pilot flew on average two missions a day.
On 22 April 1945, the three remaining flights took off at 5-minute intervals, starting at 8:30 AM, to destroy bridges, barges, and motorized vehicles in the San Benedetto region. At 10:00 AM, a flight took off for an armed reconnaissance mission south of Mantua. They destroyed more than 80 tanks, trucks, and vehicles. By the end of the day, the group had flown 44 individual missions and destroyed hundreds of vehicles and barges. On this day the group flew the most sorties of the war; consequently, Brazil commemorates April 22 Brazilian Fighter Arm Day.
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| Brazilian P-47 Thunderbolt 'Jambock' C-1 starting a dive bombing attack |
In all, the 1oGAVCA flew a total of 445 missions, 2,550 individual sorties, and 5,465 combat flight hours, from 11 November 1944 to 6 May 1945. The XXII Tactical Air Command acknowledged the efficiency of the Group by noting that although it flew only 5% of the total of missions carried out by all squadrons under its control, it accomplished a much higher percentage of the total destruction wrought:
85% of the ammunition depots
36% of the fuel depots
28% of the bridges (19% damaged)
15% of motor vehicles (13% damaged)
10% of horse-drawn vehicles (10% damaged).
The Navy:
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. The Axis tried to block the transport of material logistics to the United States and the supply of Great Britain, initiating a policy of sinking commercial ships in the Atlantic.
As a result of the Axis attacks Brazil suffered nearly 1600 dead, including nearly 500 civilians and more than 1,000 of Brazil's 7,000 sailors involved in the conflict. The navy losses included 470 sailors of the merchant navy and 570 sailors of the military navy, a total of 36 ships sunk by the Germans, and more than 350 dead in 3 accidental sinkings.
The main task of the Brazilian Navy was, together with the Allies, to ensure the safety of ships sailing between the Center and South Atlantic to Gibraltar. The Brazilian navy conducted 574 operations that protected 3,164 merchant ships; German submarines U-boats were only able to sink three ships. In the fight against German submarines, Brazilian frigates and submarines used sea mines and depth charges.
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| Brazilian Navy using depth charges aimed at U-boats |
According to German documents, the Brazilian Navy attacked German submarines U-boats a total of 66 times. 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.
The Truck History:
Thе GMC CCKW is a 2.5 ton 6X6 U.S. Army cargo truck that saw service in World War II and the Korean War, often referred to as a "Deuce and a Half" or "Jimmy". The CCKW came in many variants, based on the open or closed cab, and Long Wheel Base (LWB 353) or Short Wheel Base (SWB 352).
Built to 812,262 copies, CCKWs were employed in large numbers for the
Red Ball Express, an enormous convoy system created by Allied forces to supply their forces moving through Europe following the breakout from the D-Day beaches in Normandy, from August 25 to November 16, 1944, when the port facilities at Antwerp were opened. At its peak the Red Ball operated 5,958 vehicles, and carried about 12,500 tons of supplies a day.
The designation CCKW comes from model nomenclature used by GMC; the first C indicated a vehicle designed in 1941, the second C signifies a conventional cab, the K indicates all-wheel drive and the W indicated tandem rear axles. Including the DUKW, General Motors in the US produced 562,750 of these 2.5 ton trucks just prior to and during World War II.
Versions:
- Water tanker 700 Gal.
- Fuel tanker 750 Gal
- Dump
- Flatbed
- Ordnance Maintenance Truck, Van
- K-53 truck Van
- K-60 truck Van
- M27 Bomb Service Truck
- M27B1 Bomb Service Truck
- M1 chemical Service Truck
- Dental Operating Truck, Van
- Surgical Truck, Van
- Water purification truck
- Fire Engine
- Tractor cab
Initially all versions were of closed cab design (having a metal roof and doors) with all steel cargo beds. But as the war progressed an open cab version was designed that had fixed 'half doors' and a canvas top/sides and the steel bed was replaced by a wooden one to conserve steel. The wood bed proved unsatisfactory and a 'composite' bed with steel sides and framing, but with wooden slats for the bed, was developed. Later on the 'wood/steel' composite bed was replaced by an all steel composite bed.Truck, cargo, 2½-Ton, 6X6, long-wheelbase / short-wheelbase.
Specs:
750 gal fuel tank truck:
The kits:
First of all, the CCKW 353 6x6 Fuel tank truck, from Brazilian Air Force in italy, 1944-45. This was my goal:
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Profile of CCKW 353 Airfield fuel tank F3
Markings of Brazilian Air Force
1º Grupo de Caça - Senta a Púa! |
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| A good guide on this subject |
To do that, I used;
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| Excelent Tamiya CCKW 353 6x6 cargo truck |
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| Conversion kit from CMK in resin - awesome kit... |
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| The pic in the CMK box |
The Tamiya truck is very nice to build...Piece of cake...This project ran swift and smooth.
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| Starting the building by chassi and engine |
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| Following the CMK booklet (very good) for minor surgeries in the chassi... |
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| Chassi almost ready... |
With the chassi ready, it's resin time. The CMK conversion kit is clean and very well cast...I recommend...
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| Cutting with saw the resin excess... |
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| Done !!! |
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| dry-run with parts... |
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| the tank structure... |
I used superglue to built the 750 gal. tank
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| Notice the excellent aspect of the resin kit... |
And in the chassi:
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| Testing the fuel tank in the CCKW cjassi. |
The cabin under construction...
Using plasticard in the rear of chassi for better support of the fuel tank
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| Notice the plasticard add... |
Time to glue the tank in the chassi: super glue and epoxy (fast cure...)
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| Notice the details in metal (CMK kit) |
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| ...and plasticard details... |
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| Notice the cooper wire. |
The truck is ready for painting. Fist ... primer!!
And Olive-drab:The Brazilian vehicles wearing american colors...
I made my decals with Corel Draw and Laserjet Color. The Brazilian Stars markings was very beautiful!!
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| Brazilian Air Force Star (with Southern Cross) |
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| Brazilian Stars and markings in Portuguese: Brazilian Air Force and No Smoking |
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| The 1st Brazilian Fighter Squadron was part of 350th Fighter Group |
After the decals dried, i sealed the decals with a new layer of Future and applied a coat of matte varnish.
The cabin canvas painted with acrilycs and oils...Notice the weathering...
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| fire extinguisher in red |
The MVlenses for the headlights...
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| Fiat lux !!! |
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| and MVlenses for the other searchlights... |
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| The rear searchlight and markings: 350th Fighter Group (350 FG) - 1st Brazilian Fighter Squadron (1° BR/ FS) |
And the truck was ready: Very used, but ready for action !!!
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| CCKW 353 Fuel Tank - Brazilian Air Force |
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| CCKW 353 Fuel Tank - Brazilian Air Force - front view |
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CCKW 353 6x6 fuel tanker from Brazilian Air Force
Brazilian Expeditionary Force - 1st Brazilian Fighter Squadron
350th Fighter Group - XII Tactical Air Command
Pisa, Italy - February 1945. |
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| CCKW 353 Fuel Tank - Brazilian Air Force - left side |
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| CCKW 353 Fuel Tank - Brazilian Air Force - rear view |
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CCKW 353 6x6 fuel tanker from Brazilian Air Force
Brazilian Expeditionary Force - 1st Brazilian Fighter Squadron
350th Fighter Group - XII Tactical Air Command
Pisa, Italy - February 1945. |
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Thanks for follow, Gents.
Um grande abraço !!!
The MVlenses for the headlights...
Beatiful !
ResponderExcluirMarcelo from Brazil
Excelente...como fez os decalques com letras brancas?
ResponderExcluirMarcelo, valeu....
ResponderExcluirMeia-Roda, os decais foram feitos em silk-screen sobre filme transparente. Um colega fez para mim...
Um abraço, senhores...