fbpx
Wikipedia

Portugal during World War II

At the start of World War II in 1939, the Portuguese Government announced on 1 September that the 550-year-old Anglo-Portuguese Alliance remained intact, but since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance, Portugal was free to remain neutral in the war and would do so. In an aide-mémoire of 5 September 1939, the British government confirmed the understanding.[1] As Adolf Hitler's occupation swept across Europe, neutral Portugal became one of Europe's last escape routes. Portugal was able to maintain its neutrality until 1944, when a military agreement was signed to give the United States permission to establish a military base in Santa Maria in the Azores and thus its status changed to non-belligerent in favour of the Allies.

Overview edit

At the outbreak of World War II, Portugal was ruled by António de Oliveira Salazar, who in 1933 had founded the Estado Novo ("New State"), the corporatist authoritarian government that ruled Portugal until 1974. He had favoured the Spanish nationalist cause, fearing a communist invasion of Portugal, yet he was uneasy at the prospect of a Spanish government bolstered by strong ties with the Axis.[2] Salazar's policy of neutrality for Portugal in World War II thus included a strategic component. The country still held overseas territories that, because of their poor economic development, could not adequately defend themselves from military attack.

Since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance, the country expected to remain neutral. In an aide-mémoire of 5 September 1939, the British government confirmed the understanding and Portugal remained neutral during the entire war.[1]

On 15 May 1940, Salazar's important role in the war was recognised by the British: Douglas Veale, Registrar of the University of Oxford, informed Salazar that the university's Hebdomadal Council had "unanimously decided at its meeting last Monday, to invite you [Salazar] to accept the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Civil Law".[3][4]

Salazar's decision to maintain the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance allowed the Portuguese island of Madeira to come to the aid of the Allies, and in July 1940 around 2,500 evacuees from Gibraltar were shipped to Madeira. At the same time Life magazine, in a long article titled: "Portugal: The War Has Made It Europe's Front", called Salazar "a benevolent ruler", described him as "by far the world's best dictator, he [Salazar] is also the greatest Portuguese since Prince Henry the Navigator", and added that "the dictator has built the nation". Life declared that "most of what is good in modern Portugal can be credited to Dr. Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.... The dictator is everything that most Portuguese are not — calm, silent, ascetic, puritanical, a glutton for work, cool to women. He found a country in chaos and poverty. He has balanced the budget, built roads and schools, torn down slums, cut the death rate and enormously raised Portuguese self-esteem."[5][a]

In September 1940, Winston Churchill wrote to Salazar congratulating him on his ability to keep Portugal out of the war, asserting that "as so often before during the many centuries of the Anglo-Portuguese alliance, British and Portuguese interests are identical on this vital question."[3]

Despite Portuguese neutrality, in December 1941, Portuguese Timor was occupied by Australian and Dutch forces, which were expecting a Japanese invasion. Salazar's reaction was violent. He protested, saying that the Allies had violated Portuguese sovereignty and jeopardised Portuguese neutrality. A Portuguese garrison force (about 800 men) was then sent from East Africa to take over the defence of East Timor, but did not arrive on time; on 20 February 1942 the Japanese began landing troops in Timor.

Azores edit

 
Location of the Portuguese Azores Islands

Portugal managed to remain neutral despite extraordinary pressures from both sides. Both the Allies and the Axis sought to control the strategically located Azores islands during World War II. Salazar was especially worried about a possible German invasion through Spain and did not want to provoke Hitler; nor did he want to give Spain an excuse to take sides with the Axis and invade Portugal due to the strategic importance of the Canary Islands. Both the United Kingdom and the United States devised several plans to set up air bases in the Azores regardless of Portugal's disapproval. The plans were never put into operation.

In 1942 Lajes Field on the Azores was assigned the name Air Base No. 4[6] and the Portuguese government expanded the runway and sent troops and equipment to Lajes, including Gloster Gladiator fighters. Military activity in the Azores grew as the Gladiators' role progressed into flying cover for Allied convoys, reconnaissance missions and meteorological flights.

In August 1943, Portugal signed the Luso-British agreement, which leased bases in the Azores to the British. This was a key turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic, allowing the Allies to provide aerial coverage in the Mid-Atlantic gap; helping them to hunt U-boats and protect convoys.[7] Churchill surprised members of parliament (MPs) when he said he would use a 14th-century treaty; many MPs had not known that Portugal and England had the oldest operational alliance in the world, the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373. Churchill ended his speech saying:

I take this opportunity of placing on record the appreciation by His Majesty's Government, which I have no doubt is shared by Parliament and the British nation, of the attitude of the Portuguese Government, whose loyalty to their British Ally never wavered in the darkest hours of the war. [8]

A few months later, on 1 December 1943, British and U.S. military representatives at RAF Lajes signed a joint agreement outlining the roles and responsibilities for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and United States Navy (USN) at Lajes Field. The agreement established guidelines and limitations for the US to ferry and transport aircraft to Europe via Lajes Field. In return, the US agreed to assist the British in improving and extending existing facilities at Lajes. Air Transport Command transport planes began landing at Lajes Field immediately after the agreement was signed.

In 1944, Portugal signed an agreement with the United States allowing the use of military facilities in the Azores. American forces constructed a small and short-lived air base on Santa Maria Island.

By the end of June 1944 more than 1,900 American aircraft had passed through Lajes Air Base. Using Lajes, the flying time relative to the usual transatlantic route between Brazil and West Africa was cut nearly in half from 70 to 40 hours.

Lajes also served as one of two main stopover and refuelling bases for the first transatlantic crossing of non-rigid airships (blimps) in 1944. The US Navy sent six Goodyear-built K-ships from Naval Air Station South Weymouth in Massachusetts to their first stopover base at Naval Station Argentia Newfoundland and then on to Lajes Field in the Azores before flying to their final destination at Port Lyautey, French Morocco.[9] From their base with Fleet Air Wing 15 at Port Lyautey, the blimps of USN Blimp Squadron ZP-14 (Blimpron 14) conducted night time anti-submarine warfare (ASW), surveillance of German U-boats around the Straits of Gibraltar using magnetic anomaly detection (MAD). In 1945, two ZP-14 replacement blimps were sent from Weeksville, North Carolina to the Bermudas and Lajes Air Base before going on to Port Lyautey.

In 1945, a new air base was constructed in the Azores on the island of Terceira and is currently known as Lajes Field. This base is in an area called Lajes, a broad, flat sea terrace that had been a farm. Lajes Field is a plateau rising out of the sea on the northeast corner of the island. This Air Force base is a joint American and Portuguese venture. Lajes Field continues to support United States and Portuguese military operations. During the Cold War, the United States Navy's P-3 Orion anti-submarine squadrons patrolled the North Atlantic for Soviet submarines and surface spy vessels.

Wolfram (Tungsten) edit

Portugal allowed the United Kingdom to trade and receive credit backed by pounds sterling, allowing Great Britain to obtain vital goods at a time when it was short of gold and escudos and while all other neutrals were prepared to trade sterling only against gold. By 1945 the United Kingdom owed Portugal over $322 million under this arrangement.[10]

Another delicate issue was the trade in wolfram (tungsten). Following the invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany became dependent on Portugal and Spain for their wolfram supplies, since it was of particular value in producing war munitions. To maintain her neutrality, Portugal set up a strict export quota system in 1942. This concept of neutrality through equal division of products supplied to belligerents was different from that of the Northern European neutrals who worked on the basis of "normal pre-war supplies".[10] However, in January 1944, the Allies began pressuring Salazar to embargo all wolfram sales destined for Germany. Portugal resisted, defending their right as a neutral state to sell to anyone and fearing that any reduction in their German exports would prompt Germany to attack Portuguese shipping. Salazar's fears were not groundless: despite Portuguese neutrality, the steamer Ganda was torpedoed and sunk by the Germans in June 1941. On 12 October 1941 the neutral ship Corte Real was stopped for inspection by German U-boat U-83 80 miles west of Lisbon. The U-boat opened fire with the deck gun, setting the ship on fire and finally sinking her with two torpedoes. On 14 December 1941 the unescorted (and neutral) Cassequel was hit in the stern by one of two torpedoes from U-108 about 160 miles southwest of Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, and sank immediately. The Serpa Pinto was likewise stopped and boarded in 1944 (26 May) in the mid-Atlantic by the German submarine U-541, but the ship was ultimately allowed to proceed after the German naval authorities declined to approve its sinking. On 5 June 1944, just before the Normandy invasion, following threats of economic sanctions by the Allies, the Portuguese government opted for a complete embargo on wolfram exports to both the Allies and the Axis, thereby putting 100,000 Portuguese labourers out of work.[11]

Portugal's role in keeping Spain neutral edit

Just a few days before the end of the Spanish Civil War, on 17 March 1939, Portugal and Spain signed the Iberian Pact, a non-aggression treaty that marked the beginning of a new phase in Iberian relations. Meetings between Franco and Salazar played a fundamental role in this new political arrangement. An additional protocol to the pact was signed on 29 July 1940, after the fall of France.[12] The pact proved to be a decisive instrument in keeping the Iberian Peninsula out of Hitler's continental system.[13]

In November 1943, Sir Ronald Campbell, the British ambassador in Lisbon, wrote:

strict neutrality was the price the allies paid for strategic benefits accruing from Portugal's neutrality and that if her neutrality instead of being strict had been more benevolent in allies' favour Spain would inevitably have thrown herself body and soul into the arms of Germany. If this had happened the peninsula would have been occupied and then North Africa, with the result that the whole course of the war would have been altered to the advantage of the Axis.[1]

The British diplomat Sir George Rendell stated that the Portuguese Republican Government of Bernardino Machado was "far more difficult to deal with as an ally during the First War than the infinitely better Government of Salazar was as a neutral in the Second."[14] A similar opinion is shared by Carlton Hayes, the American Ambassador in Spain during World War II, who writes in his book Wartime Mission in Spain:

[Salazar] didn't look like a regular dictator. Rather, he appeared a modest, quiet, and highly intelligent gentleman and scholar...literally dragged from a professorial chair of political economy in the venerable University of Coimbra a dozen years previously in order to straighten out Portugal's finances, and that his almost miraculous success in this respect had led to the thrusting upon him of other major functions, including those of foreign minister and constitution-maker.

Hayes is very appreciative of Portugal's constant endeavours to draw Spain with Portugal into a genuinely neutral peninsular bloc, an immeasurable contribution, at a time when the British and the United States had much less influence, toward counteracting the propaganda and pleas of the Axis.[citation needed]

Haven for refugees edit

Estimates of the number of refugees that escaped through Portugal during the war range from 100,000 to 1,000,000: an impressive number considering the size of the country's population at that time (around 6 million).[15] "In 1940 Lisbon, happiness was staged so that God could believe it still existed," wrote the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.[16] The Portuguese capital became a symbol of hope for many refugees. Thousands flooded the city trying to obtain the documents necessary to escape to the United States or Palestine. Not all found their way.

On June 12 Salazar issued instructions to the Portuguese consulates in France to provide the Infanta Marie Anne of Portugal, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg; and Infanta Maria Antónia of Portugal, Duchess of Parma with Portuguese passports. With these passports the entire entourage of the royal families could get visas without jeopardising to the neutrality of the Portuguese Government. Thus Zita of Bourbon-Parma and her son Otto von Habsburg got their visas because they were descendants of Portuguese citizens. After the German annexation of Austria, Otto was sentenced to death by the Nazi regime.[17]

On June 13, Salazar again acted fast to support the King of Belgium and his family. Salazar sent instructions to the Portuguese Consulate in Bayonne saying the "Portuguese territory is completely open" to the Belgian royal family and their entourage.[18][19]

On 26 June 1940, four days after France's armistice with Germany, Salazar authorised the main Office of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS-HICEM) in Paris to be transferred to Lisbon. According to the Lisbon Jewish community, Salazar held in high esteem Moisés Bensabat Amzalak, the leader of the Lisbon Jewish community, allowing Amzalak to play an important role in obtaining Salazar's permission for the transfer.[20][21][22]

 
Memorial commemorating Gibraltarian evacuees in Madeira

In July 1940, the civilian population of Gibraltar was evacuated due to expected attacks from Germany and Italy. At that time, Portuguese Madeira agreed to host about 2,500 Gibraltarian evacuees, mostly women and children, who arrived at Funchal between 21 July and 13 August 1940 and remained there until the end of the war.[23][24] In 2010 a monument was commissioned in Gibraltar and shipped to Madeira, where it was erected next to a small chapel at Santa Catarina park, Funchal. The monument was a gift and a symbol of everlasting appreciation from the Gibraltarians to the Madeirans.[25]

The Portuguese consul general in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, helped an undetermined number of refugees, and his actions were not unique by any means. The issue of visas in contravention of instructions was widespread at Portuguese consulates all over Europe,[26] although some cases were directly supported by Salazar. The Portuguese Ambassador in Budapest, Carlos Sampaio Garrido, helped an estimated 1,000 Hungarian Jews in 1944. Along with Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho, under Salazar's direct guidance, they rented houses and apartments to shelter and protect refugees from deportation and murder. On 28 April 1944, the Hungarian Gestapo raided the ambassador's home and arrested his guests. The ambassador, who physically resisted the police, was also arrested, but managed to have his guests released on the grounds of extraterritoriality of diplomatic missions.[27] In 2010, Garrido was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Other Portuguese who deserve credit for saving Jews during the war include Augusto Isaac de Esaguy, Professor Francisco Paula Leite Pinto and Moisés Bensabat Amzalak. A devoted Jew and a supporter of Salazar, Amzalak headed the Lisbon Jewish community for 52 years, from 1926 until 1978.[28]

Historian Carlton Hayes, the American Ambassador in Spain during the war, writes of a "prodigious number of refugees", who began pouring into Spain in November and December 1942.[29][30] Most were Frenchmen, half starved, without money or clothes, and Hayes writes of the decisive intervention of the Ambassador Pedro Teotónio Pereira in favour of 16,000[31] French military refugees who were trying in 1943 to get from Spain to North Africa in order to join the Allied forces there. In that group were also included Poles, Dutchmen, and Belgians, most of whom were soldiers or would-be soldiers. According to Hayes, the Poles in particular were destined to perform brilliant feats in the later Italian campaign.[31][30]

Portugal and the Holocaust edit

Although Portugal was not at war, there are records of Portuguese victims in Mauthausen,[32] Sachsenhausen,[33] Neuengamme, Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Schönebeck.[34][35][36][37][38][39][40] The overwhelming majority of the Portuguese victims recorded in the Holocaust came from France, even though there are records of Portuguese-Belgians, Portuguese-Germans and Portuguese-Dutch.[41][42][43] Moreover, around 4,000 people of Portuguese-Jewish descent living in the Netherlands also died as a consequence of The Holocaust.[44][45]

Portuguese volunteers fighting the Soviet Union on the Axis side edit

After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, recruits from France, Spain, Belgium, the territory of occupied Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the Balkans signed on.[46] The foreigners who served in the Waffen-SS numbered "some 500,000", including those who were pressured into or conscripted.[47] An estimated number of 159 Portuguese volunteers fought for the Axis in the Second World War, mainly in the Spanish Blue Division. They were mostly veteran volunteers of the Spanish civil war, the so-called Viriatos and were essentially adventurous mercenaries or Portuguese fascist nationalists fighting the communist and Bolshevik threat.[48][49]

Portugal and the Pacific War edit

 
Japanese-held territory and Portuguese and other colonial possessions in the Pacific as of 1939

Macau edit

Portugal was also neutral during the Pacific War. Its colony of Macau was isolated following the Japanese conquest of nearby areas of China and the fall of Hong Kong in December 1941. This led to food shortages for the remainder of the war which contributed to high rates of death from disease.[50]

While Japan did not invade Macau, its forces attacked a British merchant ship anchored off the colony in August 1943 and killed 20 members of its crew. The government of Macau was subsequently forced to accept the presence of Japanese "advisers", recognise Japanese authority in southern China and withdraw the colony's garrison from several bases. In addition, Macau's government traded some of the colony's defensive guns for food and agreed to sell supplies of aviation fuel to Japan in early 1945.[50]

On 16 January 1945 US Navy aircraft attacked Macau as part of the South China Sea raid. The main targets were the aviation fuel stores, which the Allies had learned were to be sold, and a radio station in or near the fort of Dona Maria II. In addition, urban areas and the colony's harbour were damaged. American aircraft also accidentally attacked Macau on 25 February and 11 June 1945. Following the war the US Government paid compensation for the damage to Macau's harbour.[50]

East Timor edit

 
The East Timorese village of Mindelo (Turiscai) is burnt to the ground by Australian guerrillas to prevent its use as a Japanese base, 12 December 1942

On 17 December 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dutch and Australian troops disembarked at Portuguese Timor, in violation of Portuguese sovereignty. Salazar denounced the allied operation as an invasion of a neutral territory. On 19 February 1942, alleging self-defence, Japan invaded the island of Timor.

Goa edit

From December 1942, German merchant ships which had sought refuge in the territory of Goa in Portuguese India in 1939 began providing regular intelligence on Allied shipping via radio to German U-boats of the Monsun Gruppe operating in the Indian Ocean. Once the British discovered this, the Special Operations Executive launched Operation Creek, using a group of part-time soldiers called the Calcutta Light Horse to infiltrate the harbour and sink the German ship Ehrenfels with limpet mines, ending the transmissions. Due to the violation of Portuguese neutrality, the operation was kept secret until 1978.

Military operations that threatened Portuguese neutrality edit

By the Axis edit

Operation Felix edit

The Germans had planned an attack on Gibraltar, codenamed Operation Felix, which was never initiated. It included the potential invasion of Portugal if the British gained a foothold and considered the occupation of Madeira and of the Azores.[51]

Führer Directive No. 18 edit

On 12 November 1940 Hitler issued Führer Directive No. 18, which outlined the plan to invade Portugal if British forces were to gain a footing there. "I also request that the problem of occupying Madeira and the Azores should be considered, together with the advantages and disadvantages which this would entail for our sea and air warfare. The results of these investigations are to be submitted to me as soon as possible," Hitler added.[52]

Operation Isabella edit

In June 1941, Operation Isabella was a Nazi German plan to be put into effect after the collapse of the Soviet Union to secure bases in Spain and Portugal for the continuation of the strangulation of Great Britain. This concept was laid out by Hitler, but was never executed.

By the Allies edit

Operation Alacrity edit

Operation Alacrity was the codename for a proposed Allied seizure of the Azores during World War II. The islands were of enormous strategic value with regard to the defeat of the German U-boats. Salazar was especially worried about a possible German invasion through Spain and did not want to provoke Hitler; nor did he want to give Spain an excuse to take sides with the Axis and invade Portugal due to the strategic importance of the Canary Islands. The United Kingdom and the United States devised plans to set up air bases regardless of Portugal's disapproval. The plans were never put into operation. Instead in 1943 Britain requested, and Portugal agreed, to allow Britain to set up bases there. Operation Alacrity was preceded by War Plan Gray.[53]

War Plan Gray edit

War Plan Gray was a plan for the United States to invade the Azores Islands in 1940–41. Gray is one of the many colour-coded war plans created in the early 20th century.[54] On 22 May 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed the U.S. Army and Navy to draft an official plan to occupy the Portuguese Azores. Approved by the Joint Board on 29 May, War Plan Gray called for a landing force of 28,000 troops, one half Marine and one half Army.

Espionage edit

Several American reports called Lisbon "The Capital of Espionage". However, the PVDE (Portuguese secret police) always maintained a neutral stance towards foreign espionage activity, as long as there was no intervention in Portuguese internal policies. Writers such as Ian Fleming (the creator of James Bond) were based there,[citation needed] while other prominent people such as the Duke of Windsor and the Spanish royal family were exiled in Estoril. German spies attempted to buy information on trans-Atlantic shipping to help their submarines fight the Battle of the Atlantic. The Spaniard Juan Pujol García, better known as Codename Garbo, passed on misinformation to the Germans, hoping it would hasten the end of the Franco regime; he was recruited by the British as a double agent while in Lisbon. Conversely, William Colepaugh, an American traitor, was recruited as an agent by the Germans while his ship was in port in Lisbon – he was subsequently landed by U-boat U-1230 in Maine before being captured.

In 1941 John Beevor, the head of Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Lisbon, established an underground network with the aim of carrying out sabotage tasks in the event of a German and/or Spanish invasion of Portugal. The targets for immediate destruction were oil refineries, railroads, bridges and industrial and mining facilities. The Portuguese police discovered that Beevor's network included several "anti-Salazar" Portuguese members, which irked the Portuguese authorities. Salazar suspected that British flirtation with his opponents could be hiding an attempt to install in Lisbon a "democratic" alternative to his regime, one willing to bring the country under British patronage. Salazar informed the British Ambassador that he wanted heads to roll and ended up requesting Beevor's withdrawal.[55] Despite the incident Captain Agostinho Lourenço, the founder and first head of PVDE, earned a reputation with British observers, recorded in a confidential print generated at the British Embassy, which suggested a "pro-British" bias on his part. Lourenço always kept a good relationship with the MI6 which allowed him later in 1956 to become the head of international police organisation, Interpol.

In June 1943, a commercial airliner carrying the actor Leslie Howard was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by the Luftwaffe after taking off from Lisbon.

Aftermath edit

 
President Truman signing the North Atlantic Treaty with Portuguese Ambassador Teotónio Pereira standing behind.

Salazar stood doggedly by his "juridical neutrality" to the end of the war. On the death of Hitler, he followed the protocol and ordered flags to be flown at half mast.[56] Salazar also allowed German Ambassador Hoyningen-Huene to settle permanently in the Lisbon area, where he lived out part of his retirement.[57] Portugal continued to welcome refugees after the war. Umberto II, king of Italy, lived for 37 years in exile in Cascais. The Count and Countess of Barcelona (the heir-apparent to the defunct Spanish throne D. Juan de Bourbon and his wife D. Maria de las Mercedes) were exiled in Estoril, Cascais on 2 February 1946. Later, in April, they were joined by their children Pilar, Juan Carlos (the future King Juan Carlos of Spain), Margarita and Alfonso. Calouste Gulbenkian, the Armenian oil magnate known as "Mr. Five Percent", also chose Portugal as a place to settle. In an operation organised by Caritas Portugal from 1947 to 1952, 5,500 Austrian children, most of them orphans, were transported by train from Vienna to Lisbon and then placed in the foster care of Portuguese families.[58]

Portugal survived the horrors of war not only physically intact but significantly wealthier. To commemorate its escape from the destruction of the war, in 1959 the Cristo Rei monument was built in Almada, overlooking Lisbon.

Despite the authoritarian character of the regime, Portugal did not experience the same levels of international isolation as Francoist Spain did following World War II. Unlike Spain, Portugal under Salazar was accepted into the Marshall Plan (1947–1948) in return for the aid it gave to the Allies during the final stages of the war. Furthermore, also unlike Spain, it was one of the 12 founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, a reflection of Portugal's role as an ally against communism during the Cold War, despite being the only non-democratic founding nation.[59]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Leite, Joaquim da Costa (1998). "Neutrality by Agreement: Portugal and the British Alliance in World War II". American University International Law Review. 14 (1): 185–199.
  2. ^ Kay 1970, pp. 121–122.
  3. ^ a b Meneses 2009, p. 240.
  4. ^ "Oxford In Portugal 1941". British Pathé. 1941. from the original on 15 August 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
  5. ^ "Portugal: The War Has Made It Europe's Front Door". Life. 29 July 1940. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  6. ^ . 19 December 2009. Archived from the original on 19 December 2009. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  7. ^ "Factsheets: Lajes Field History – The U.S. Enters the Azores". United States Air Force. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  8. ^ Aģreement With Portuģal HC Deb 12 October 1943 vol 392 cc716-9
  9. ^ https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fbd712_4eac320cdad44dd68701e9cecad8e446.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  10. ^ a b Kay 1970, p. 155.
  11. ^ Kay 1970, p. 180.
  12. ^ Maria Inácia Rezola, "The Franco–Salazar Meetings: Foreign policy and Iberian relations during the Dictatorships (1942–1963)" E-Journal of Portuguese History (2008) 6#2 pp. 1–11. online
  13. ^ Hoare 1946, p. 58.
  14. ^ Rendel 1957, p. 37.
  15. ^ Neil Lochery estimates a high end number of one million. See Lochery, Neill. "Lisbon: War in the Shadows of the City of Light, 1939–45", Public Affairs; 1 edition (1 November 2011), ISBN 1-58648-879-1
  16. ^ Saint-Exupery escaped from France to Portugal and ended up in Lisbon, waiting for a visa to go to America.
  17. ^ Madeira, Lina A. (2013). O Mecanismo de (Des)Promoções do MNE: O Caso Paradigmático de Aristides de Sousa Mendes (PhD). Coimbra University. p. 458.
  18. ^ Madeira, Lina A. (2013). O Mecanismo de (Des)Promoções do MNE: O Caso Paradigmático de Aristides de Sousa Mendes (PhD). Coimbra University. p. 459.
  19. ^ AHDMNE, Telegramas expedidos, Consulado de Portugal em Bayonne, Lisboa, t de Oliveira Salazar para Faria Machado, 13.06.1940.
  20. ^ Gallagher 2020, p. 125.
  21. ^ Levy, Samuel. (in Portuguese). Israeli Community in Lisbon. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  22. ^ Goldstein, Israel (1984). My World as a Jew: The Memoirs of Israel Goldstein. Associated University Presses. p. 413. ISBN 978-0-8453-4780-5.
  23. ^ Gallagher 2020, p. 124.
  24. ^ Mascarenhas, Alice (9 January 2013). "Madeira Gold Medal of Merit for Louis". Gibraltar Chronicle The Independent Daily. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  25. ^ www.love-madeira.com (accessed 13 December 2010) 17 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  26. ^ Milgram 2011, p. 89.
  27. ^ Milgram 2011, p. 264.
  28. ^ Gallagher 2020, pp. 123–127.
  29. ^ Hayes 1945, p. 113.
  30. ^ a b Gallagher 2021, p. 179.
  31. ^ a b Hayes 1945, p. 119.
  32. ^ "Vítimas portuguesas do Holocausto homenageadas pela primeira vez na Áustria".
  33. ^ Sousa, Tenente-coronel Pedro Marquês de. "Um português vítima do Holocausto: Inácio Augusto Anta (1906-1945)". REVISTA MILITAR. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  34. ^ "A história nunca contada dos portugueses nos campos de concentração". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). 22 June 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  35. ^ "Eram seis menos dez quando o relógio de Paulo parou em Neuengamme". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). 29 June 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  36. ^ "Portugueses nos campos de concentração - Comboio Fantasma". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  37. ^ "Portugueses nos campos de concentração - Comboio da Morte". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  38. ^ "Portugueses nos campos de concentração - As deportações de França". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  39. ^ "Nascer em Lisboa sem nunca lá ter posto os pés". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). 22 June 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  40. ^ "Portugueses nos campos de concentração - Os Campos Nazis". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  41. ^ "Investigação revela portugueses detidos e mortos pelos nazis durante a II Guerra Mundial". SIC Notícias (in Portuguese). 21 July 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  42. ^ "Portugueses no Holocausto. Lista das 70 vítimas deve ser ″publicada oficialmente″". TSF Rádio Notícias (in European Portuguese). 27 January 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  43. ^ "Revelação: centenas de portugueses e cidadãos de origem portuguesa estiveram nos campos de concentração nazis ou morreram às mãos de Hitler". CNN Portugal (in Portuguese). Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  44. ^ Abrunhosa, Maria Eugénia (1 December 2020). ""Portugueses no Holocausto": o "descarinho" que acabou em Auschwitz". Sete Margens (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  45. ^ "Esther Mucznik - Portugueses no Holocausto, Histórias das vítimas dos campos de concentração, dos cônsules que salvaram vidas e dos resistentes que lutaram contra o nazismo". www.museudoneorealismo.pt (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  46. ^ Stein 1984, pp. 172, 179.
  47. ^ Stein 1984, p. 133.
  48. ^ "Os portugueses que combateram no exército de Hitler". sapo.pt. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  49. ^ "Centena e meia de portugueses combateram no Exército de Hitler". sapo.pt. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  50. ^ a b c Garrett 2010, p. 116.
  51. ^ Escuadra, Alfonso and others,Operation Felix 3 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine (Section: The German assault plan), www.discovergibraltar.com
  52. ^ "Führer Directive x". www.alternatewars.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  53. ^ Herz, Norman (2004). Operation Alacrity: The Azores and the War in the Atlantic. Naval Institute Press, 2004. ISBN 978-1-59114-364-2.
  54. ^ "The War Plan Rainbow". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 10 February 2010.
  55. ^ Wylie, Neville (2001). "'An Amateur Learns His Job'? Special Operations Executive in Portugal, 1940–42". Journal of Contemporary History. 36 (3): 441–457. doi:10.1177/002200940103600303. JSTOR 261006. S2CID 144652193.
  56. ^ Kay 1970, p. 181.
  57. ^ Lochery 2011, p. 29.
  58. ^ Sobral, Claudia (2013). "Depois da guerra, o paraíso era Portugal" [After the war the paradise was Portugal]. Público (in Portuguese). Portugal. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  59. ^ Nicolau Andresen, "The Salazar Regime and European Integration, 1947–1972," European Review of History (2007) 14#2 pp. 195–214
  1. '^ Lifes full article, Portugal: The War Has Made It Europe's Front Door, can be accessed online for further reading.

Sources edit

  • Beevor, John Grosvenor (1981). SOE: Recollections and Reflections, 1940–45. Bodley Head. ISBN 978-0370304144. SOE was the British Special Operations Executive.
  • Gallagher, Tom (2020). Salazar: The Dictator Who Refused To Die. C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78738-388-3.
  • Gallagher, Tom (2021). Salazar: O Ditador Que Se Recusa a Morrer (in Portuguese). D Quixote. ISBN 9789722071772.
  • Garrett, Richard J. (2010). The Defences of Macau: Forts, Ships and Weapons over 450 years. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-9888028498.
  • Hayes, Carlton J.H. (1945). Wartime mission in Spain, 1942–1945. Macmillan Company. ISBN 978-1121497245.
  • Hoare, Samuel (1946). Ambassador on Special Mission. UK: Collins; First Edition. pp. 124–125.
  • Kay, Hugh (1970). Salazar and Modern Portugal. New York: Hawthorn Books.
  • Klemmer, Harvey. "Lisbon – Gateway to Warring Europe", National Geographic, August 1941
  • Lochery, Neill (2011). Lisbon: War in the Shadows of the City of Light, 1939–1945. United States: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1586488796.
  • McNab, Chris (2009). The SS: 1923–1945. Amber Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1906626495.
  • Meneses, Filipe Ribeiro (2009). Salazar: A Political Biography. Enigma Books; 1 edition. p. 544. ISBN 978-1-929631-90-2.
  • Rendel, Sir George (1957). The Sword and the Olive – Recollections of Diplomacy and Foreign Service 1913–1954 (First ed.). John Murray. ASIN B000UVRG60.
  • Stein, George H (1984). The Waffen SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War, 1939–1945. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801492754.
  • Wheeler, Douglas L. "The Price of Neutrality: Portugal, the Wolfram Question, and World War II". Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Summer, 1986), pp. 107–127

Further reading edit

  • Macintyre, Ben (2013). Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies. Broadway Books. ISBN 978-0-307-88877-8.

portugal, during, world, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, messages, this, article, need, reorganization, comply, with, wikipedia, layout, guidelines, please, help,. This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article may be in need of reorganization to comply with Wikipedia s layout guidelines Please help by editing the article to make improvements to the overall structure April 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article relies excessively on references to primary sources Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources Find sources Portugal during World War II news newspapers books scholar JSTOR April 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message At the start of World War II in 1939 the Portuguese Government announced on 1 September that the 550 year old Anglo Portuguese Alliance remained intact but since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance Portugal was free to remain neutral in the war and would do so In an aide memoire of 5 September 1939 the British government confirmed the understanding 1 As Adolf Hitler s occupation swept across Europe neutral Portugal became one of Europe s last escape routes Portugal was able to maintain its neutrality until 1944 when a military agreement was signed to give the United States permission to establish a military base in Santa Maria in the Azores and thus its status changed to non belligerent in favour of the Allies Contents 1 Overview 2 Azores 3 Wolfram Tungsten 4 Portugal s role in keeping Spain neutral 5 Haven for refugees 6 Portugal and the Holocaust 7 Portuguese volunteers fighting the Soviet Union on the Axis side 8 Portugal and the Pacific War 8 1 Macau 8 2 East Timor 9 Goa 10 Military operations that threatened Portuguese neutrality 10 1 By the Axis 10 1 1 Operation Felix 10 1 2 Fuhrer Directive No 18 10 1 3 Operation Isabella 10 2 By the Allies 10 2 1 Operation Alacrity 10 2 2 War Plan Gray 11 Espionage 12 Aftermath 13 See also 14 References 15 Sources 16 Further readingOverview editAt the outbreak of World War II Portugal was ruled by Antonio de Oliveira Salazar who in 1933 had founded the Estado Novo New State the corporatist authoritarian government that ruled Portugal until 1974 He had favoured the Spanish nationalist cause fearing a communist invasion of Portugal yet he was uneasy at the prospect of a Spanish government bolstered by strong ties with the Axis 2 Salazar s policy of neutrality for Portugal in World War II thus included a strategic component The country still held overseas territories that because of their poor economic development could not adequately defend themselves from military attack Since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance the country expected to remain neutral In an aide memoire of 5 September 1939 the British government confirmed the understanding and Portugal remained neutral during the entire war 1 On 15 May 1940 Salazar s important role in the war was recognised by the British Douglas Veale Registrar of the University of Oxford informed Salazar that the university s Hebdomadal Council had unanimously decided at its meeting last Monday to invite you Salazar to accept the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Civil Law 3 4 Salazar s decision to maintain the Anglo Portuguese Alliance allowed the Portuguese island of Madeira to come to the aid of the Allies and in July 1940 around 2 500 evacuees from Gibraltar were shipped to Madeira At the same time Life magazine in a long article titled Portugal The War Has Made It Europe s Front called Salazar a benevolent ruler described him as by far the world s best dictator he Salazar is also the greatest Portuguese since Prince Henry the Navigator and added that the dictator has built the nation Life declared that most of what is good in modern Portugal can be credited to Dr Antonio de Oliveira Salazar The dictator is everything that most Portuguese are not calm silent ascetic puritanical a glutton for work cool to women He found a country in chaos and poverty He has balanced the budget built roads and schools torn down slums cut the death rate and enormously raised Portuguese self esteem 5 a In September 1940 Winston Churchill wrote to Salazar congratulating him on his ability to keep Portugal out of the war asserting that as so often before during the many centuries of the Anglo Portuguese alliance British and Portuguese interests are identical on this vital question 3 Despite Portuguese neutrality in December 1941 Portuguese Timor was occupied by Australian and Dutch forces which were expecting a Japanese invasion Salazar s reaction was violent He protested saying that the Allies had violated Portuguese sovereignty and jeopardised Portuguese neutrality A Portuguese garrison force about 800 men was then sent from East Africa to take over the defence of East Timor but did not arrive on time on 20 February 1942 the Japanese began landing troops in Timor Azores edit nbsp Location of the Portuguese Azores IslandsPortugal managed to remain neutral despite extraordinary pressures from both sides Both the Allies and the Axis sought to control the strategically located Azores islands during World War II Salazar was especially worried about a possible German invasion through Spain and did not want to provoke Hitler nor did he want to give Spain an excuse to take sides with the Axis and invade Portugal due to the strategic importance of the Canary Islands Both the United Kingdom and the United States devised several plans to set up air bases in the Azores regardless of Portugal s disapproval The plans were never put into operation In 1942 Lajes Field on the Azores was assigned the name Air Base No 4 6 and the Portuguese government expanded the runway and sent troops and equipment to Lajes including Gloster Gladiator fighters Military activity in the Azores grew as the Gladiators role progressed into flying cover for Allied convoys reconnaissance missions and meteorological flights In August 1943 Portugal signed the Luso British agreement which leased bases in the Azores to the British This was a key turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic allowing the Allies to provide aerial coverage in the Mid Atlantic gap helping them to hunt U boats and protect convoys 7 Churchill surprised members of parliament MPs when he said he would use a 14th century treaty many MPs had not known that Portugal and England had the oldest operational alliance in the world the Anglo Portuguese Treaty of 1373 Churchill ended his speech saying I take this opportunity of placing on record the appreciation by His Majesty s Government which I have no doubt is shared by Parliament and the British nation of the attitude of the Portuguese Government whose loyalty to their British Ally never wavered in the darkest hours of the war 8 dd A few months later on 1 December 1943 British and U S military representatives at RAF Lajes signed a joint agreement outlining the roles and responsibilities for the United States Army Air Forces USAAF and United States Navy USN at Lajes Field The agreement established guidelines and limitations for the US to ferry and transport aircraft to Europe via Lajes Field In return the US agreed to assist the British in improving and extending existing facilities at Lajes Air Transport Command transport planes began landing at Lajes Field immediately after the agreement was signed In 1944 Portugal signed an agreement with the United States allowing the use of military facilities in the Azores American forces constructed a small and short lived air base on Santa Maria Island By the end of June 1944 more than 1 900 American aircraft had passed through Lajes Air Base Using Lajes the flying time relative to the usual transatlantic route between Brazil and West Africa was cut nearly in half from 70 to 40 hours Lajes also served as one of two main stopover and refuelling bases for the first transatlantic crossing of non rigid airships blimps in 1944 The US Navy sent six Goodyear built K ships from Naval Air Station South Weymouth in Massachusetts to their first stopover base at Naval Station Argentia Newfoundland and then on to Lajes Field in the Azores before flying to their final destination at Port Lyautey French Morocco 9 From their base with Fleet Air Wing 15 at Port Lyautey the blimps of USN Blimp Squadron ZP 14 Blimpron 14 conducted night time anti submarine warfare ASW surveillance of German U boats around the Straits of Gibraltar using magnetic anomaly detection MAD In 1945 two ZP 14 replacement blimps were sent from Weeksville North Carolina to the Bermudas and Lajes Air Base before going on to Port Lyautey In 1945 a new air base was constructed in the Azores on the island of Terceira and is currently known as Lajes Field This base is in an area called Lajes a broad flat sea terrace that had been a farm Lajes Field is a plateau rising out of the sea on the northeast corner of the island This Air Force base is a joint American and Portuguese venture Lajes Field continues to support United States and Portuguese military operations During the Cold War the United States Navy s P 3 Orion anti submarine squadrons patrolled the North Atlantic for Soviet submarines and surface spy vessels Wolfram Tungsten editPortugal allowed the United Kingdom to trade and receive credit backed by pounds sterling allowing Great Britain to obtain vital goods at a time when it was short of gold and escudos and while all other neutrals were prepared to trade sterling only against gold By 1945 the United Kingdom owed Portugal over 322 million under this arrangement 10 Another delicate issue was the trade in wolfram tungsten Following the invasion of the Soviet Union Germany became dependent on Portugal and Spain for their wolfram supplies since it was of particular value in producing war munitions To maintain her neutrality Portugal set up a strict export quota system in 1942 This concept of neutrality through equal division of products supplied to belligerents was different from that of the Northern European neutrals who worked on the basis of normal pre war supplies 10 However in January 1944 the Allies began pressuring Salazar to embargo all wolfram sales destined for Germany Portugal resisted defending their right as a neutral state to sell to anyone and fearing that any reduction in their German exports would prompt Germany to attack Portuguese shipping Salazar s fears were not groundless despite Portuguese neutrality the steamer Ganda was torpedoed and sunk by the Germans in June 1941 On 12 October 1941 the neutral ship Corte Real was stopped for inspection by German U boat U 83 80 miles west of Lisbon The U boat opened fire with the deck gun setting the ship on fire and finally sinking her with two torpedoes On 14 December 1941 the unescorted and neutral Cassequel was hit in the stern by one of two torpedoes from U 108 about 160 miles southwest of Cape St Vincent Portugal and sank immediately The Serpa Pinto was likewise stopped and boarded in 1944 26 May in the mid Atlantic by the German submarine U 541 but the ship was ultimately allowed to proceed after the German naval authorities declined to approve its sinking On 5 June 1944 just before the Normandy invasion following threats of economic sanctions by the Allies the Portuguese government opted for a complete embargo on wolfram exports to both the Allies and the Axis thereby putting 100 000 Portuguese labourers out of work 11 Portugal s role in keeping Spain neutral editJust a few days before the end of the Spanish Civil War on 17 March 1939 Portugal and Spain signed the Iberian Pact a non aggression treaty that marked the beginning of a new phase in Iberian relations Meetings between Franco and Salazar played a fundamental role in this new political arrangement An additional protocol to the pact was signed on 29 July 1940 after the fall of France 12 The pact proved to be a decisive instrument in keeping the Iberian Peninsula out of Hitler s continental system 13 In November 1943 Sir Ronald Campbell the British ambassador in Lisbon wrote strict neutrality was the price the allies paid for strategic benefits accruing from Portugal s neutrality and that if her neutrality instead of being strict had been more benevolent in allies favour Spain would inevitably have thrown herself body and soul into the arms of Germany If this had happened the peninsula would have been occupied and then North Africa with the result that the whole course of the war would have been altered to the advantage of the Axis 1 The British diplomat Sir George Rendell stated that the Portuguese Republican Government of Bernardino Machado was far more difficult to deal with as an ally during the First War than the infinitely better Government of Salazar was as a neutral in the Second 14 A similar opinion is shared by Carlton Hayes the American Ambassador in Spain during World War II who writes in his book Wartime Mission in Spain Salazar didn t look like a regular dictator Rather he appeared a modest quiet and highly intelligent gentleman and scholar literally dragged from a professorial chair of political economy in the venerable University of Coimbra a dozen years previously in order to straighten out Portugal s finances and that his almost miraculous success in this respect had led to the thrusting upon him of other major functions including those of foreign minister and constitution maker Hayes is very appreciative of Portugal s constant endeavours to draw Spain with Portugal into a genuinely neutral peninsular bloc an immeasurable contribution at a time when the British and the United States had much less influence toward counteracting the propaganda and pleas of the Axis citation needed Haven for refugees editEstimates of the number of refugees that escaped through Portugal during the war range from 100 000 to 1 000 000 an impressive number considering the size of the country s population at that time around 6 million 15 In 1940 Lisbon happiness was staged so that God could believe it still existed wrote the French writer Antoine de Saint Exupery 16 The Portuguese capital became a symbol of hope for many refugees Thousands flooded the city trying to obtain the documents necessary to escape to the United States or Palestine Not all found their way On June 12 Salazar issued instructions to the Portuguese consulates in France to provide the Infanta Marie Anne of Portugal Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal Duchess of Parma with Portuguese passports With these passports the entire entourage of the royal families could get visas without jeopardising to the neutrality of the Portuguese Government Thus Zita of Bourbon Parma and her son Otto von Habsburg got their visas because they were descendants of Portuguese citizens After the German annexation of Austria Otto was sentenced to death by the Nazi regime 17 On June 13 Salazar again acted fast to support the King of Belgium and his family Salazar sent instructions to the Portuguese Consulate in Bayonne saying the Portuguese territory is completely open to the Belgian royal family and their entourage 18 19 On 26 June 1940 four days after France s armistice with Germany Salazar authorised the main Office of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society HIAS HICEM in Paris to be transferred to Lisbon According to the Lisbon Jewish community Salazar held in high esteem Moises Bensabat Amzalak the leader of the Lisbon Jewish community allowing Amzalak to play an important role in obtaining Salazar s permission for the transfer 20 21 22 nbsp Memorial commemorating Gibraltarian evacuees in MadeiraIn July 1940 the civilian population of Gibraltar was evacuated due to expected attacks from Germany and Italy At that time Portuguese Madeira agreed to host about 2 500 Gibraltarian evacuees mostly women and children who arrived at Funchal between 21 July and 13 August 1940 and remained there until the end of the war 23 24 In 2010 a monument was commissioned in Gibraltar and shipped to Madeira where it was erected next to a small chapel at Santa Catarina park Funchal The monument was a gift and a symbol of everlasting appreciation from the Gibraltarians to the Madeirans 25 The Portuguese consul general in Bordeaux Aristides de Sousa Mendes helped an undetermined number of refugees and his actions were not unique by any means The issue of visas in contravention of instructions was widespread at Portuguese consulates all over Europe 26 although some cases were directly supported by Salazar The Portuguese Ambassador in Budapest Carlos Sampaio Garrido helped an estimated 1 000 Hungarian Jews in 1944 Along with Carlos de Liz Texeira Branquinho under Salazar s direct guidance they rented houses and apartments to shelter and protect refugees from deportation and murder On 28 April 1944 the Hungarian Gestapo raided the ambassador s home and arrested his guests The ambassador who physically resisted the police was also arrested but managed to have his guests released on the grounds of extraterritoriality of diplomatic missions 27 In 2010 Garrido was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem Other Portuguese who deserve credit for saving Jews during the war include Augusto Isaac de Esaguy Professor Francisco Paula Leite Pinto and Moises Bensabat Amzalak A devoted Jew and a supporter of Salazar Amzalak headed the Lisbon Jewish community for 52 years from 1926 until 1978 28 Historian Carlton Hayes the American Ambassador in Spain during the war writes of a prodigious number of refugees who began pouring into Spain in November and December 1942 29 30 Most were Frenchmen half starved without money or clothes and Hayes writes of the decisive intervention of the Ambassador Pedro Teotonio Pereira in favour of 16 000 31 French military refugees who were trying in 1943 to get from Spain to North Africa in order to join the Allied forces there In that group were also included Poles Dutchmen and Belgians most of whom were soldiers or would be soldiers According to Hayes the Poles in particular were destined to perform brilliant feats in the later Italian campaign 31 30 Portugal and the Holocaust editMain article Portugal and the HolocaustAlthough Portugal was not at war there are records of Portuguese victims in Mauthausen 32 Sachsenhausen 33 Neuengamme Auschwitz Buchenwald and Schonebeck 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 The overwhelming majority of the Portuguese victims recorded in the Holocaust came from France even though there are records of Portuguese Belgians Portuguese Germans and Portuguese Dutch 41 42 43 Moreover around 4 000 people of Portuguese Jewish descent living in the Netherlands also died as a consequence of The Holocaust 44 45 Portuguese volunteers fighting the Soviet Union on the Axis side editFurther information Wehrmacht foreign volunteers and conscripts Further information Waffen SS foreign volunteers and conscripts After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa recruits from France Spain Belgium the territory of occupied Czechoslovakia Hungary and the Balkans signed on 46 The foreigners who served in the Waffen SS numbered some 500 000 including those who were pressured into or conscripted 47 An estimated number of 159 Portuguese volunteers fought for the Axis in the Second World War mainly in the Spanish Blue Division They were mostly veteran volunteers of the Spanish civil war the so called Viriatos and were essentially adventurous mercenaries or Portuguese fascist nationalists fighting the communist and Bolshevik threat 48 49 Portugal and the Pacific War edit nbsp Japanese held territory and Portuguese and other colonial possessions in the Pacific as of 1939Macau edit See also History of Macau 1938 1949 World War II Portugal was also neutral during the Pacific War Its colony of Macau was isolated following the Japanese conquest of nearby areas of China and the fall of Hong Kong in December 1941 This led to food shortages for the remainder of the war which contributed to high rates of death from disease 50 While Japan did not invade Macau its forces attacked a British merchant ship anchored off the colony in August 1943 and killed 20 members of its crew The government of Macau was subsequently forced to accept the presence of Japanese advisers recognise Japanese authority in southern China and withdraw the colony s garrison from several bases In addition Macau s government traded some of the colony s defensive guns for food and agreed to sell supplies of aviation fuel to Japan in early 1945 50 On 16 January 1945 US Navy aircraft attacked Macau as part of the South China Sea raid The main targets were the aviation fuel stores which the Allies had learned were to be sold and a radio station in or near the fort of Dona Maria II In addition urban areas and the colony s harbour were damaged American aircraft also accidentally attacked Macau on 25 February and 11 June 1945 Following the war the US Government paid compensation for the damage to Macau s harbour 50 East Timor edit nbsp The East Timorese village of Mindelo Turiscai is burnt to the ground by Australian guerrillas to prevent its use as a Japanese base 12 December 1942Main article Battle of Timor On 17 December 1941 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Dutch and Australian troops disembarked at Portuguese Timor in violation of Portuguese sovereignty Salazar denounced the allied operation as an invasion of a neutral territory On 19 February 1942 alleging self defence Japan invaded the island of Timor Goa editSee also History of Goa Second World War Main article Operation Creek From December 1942 German merchant ships which had sought refuge in the territory of Goa in Portuguese India in 1939 began providing regular intelligence on Allied shipping via radio to German U boats of the Monsun Gruppe operating in the Indian Ocean Once the British discovered this the Special Operations Executive launched Operation Creek using a group of part time soldiers called the Calcutta Light Horse to infiltrate the harbour and sink the German ship Ehrenfels with limpet mines ending the transmissions Due to the violation of Portuguese neutrality the operation was kept secret until 1978 Military operations that threatened Portuguese neutrality editBy the Axis edit Operation Felix edit The Germans had planned an attack on Gibraltar codenamed Operation Felix which was never initiated It included the potential invasion of Portugal if the British gained a foothold and considered the occupation of Madeira and of the Azores 51 Fuhrer Directive No 18 edit On 12 November 1940 Hitler issued Fuhrer Directive No 18 which outlined the plan to invade Portugal if British forces were to gain a footing there I also request that the problem of occupying Madeira and the Azores should be considered together with the advantages and disadvantages which this would entail for our sea and air warfare The results of these investigations are to be submitted to me as soon as possible Hitler added 52 Operation Isabella edit In June 1941 Operation Isabella was a Nazi German plan to be put into effect after the collapse of the Soviet Union to secure bases in Spain and Portugal for the continuation of the strangulation of Great Britain This concept was laid out by Hitler but was never executed By the Allies edit Operation Alacrity edit Main article Operation Alacrity Operation Alacrity was the codename for a proposed Allied seizure of the Azores during World War II The islands were of enormous strategic value with regard to the defeat of the German U boats Salazar was especially worried about a possible German invasion through Spain and did not want to provoke Hitler nor did he want to give Spain an excuse to take sides with the Axis and invade Portugal due to the strategic importance of the Canary Islands The United Kingdom and the United States devised plans to set up air bases regardless of Portugal s disapproval The plans were never put into operation Instead in 1943 Britain requested and Portugal agreed to allow Britain to set up bases there Operation Alacrity was preceded by War Plan Gray 53 War Plan Gray edit Main article War Plan Gray War Plan Gray was a plan for the United States to invade the Azores Islands in 1940 41 Gray is one of the many colour coded war plans created in the early 20th century 54 On 22 May 1941 President Franklin D Roosevelt directed the U S Army and Navy to draft an official plan to occupy the Portuguese Azores Approved by the Joint Board on 29 May War Plan Gray called for a landing force of 28 000 troops one half Marine and one half Army Espionage editSeveral American reports called Lisbon The Capital of Espionage However the PVDE Portuguese secret police always maintained a neutral stance towards foreign espionage activity as long as there was no intervention in Portuguese internal policies Writers such as Ian Fleming the creator of James Bond were based there citation needed while other prominent people such as the Duke of Windsor and the Spanish royal family were exiled in Estoril German spies attempted to buy information on trans Atlantic shipping to help their submarines fight the Battle of the Atlantic The Spaniard Juan Pujol Garcia better known as Codename Garbo passed on misinformation to the Germans hoping it would hasten the end of the Franco regime he was recruited by the British as a double agent while in Lisbon Conversely William Colepaugh an American traitor was recruited as an agent by the Germans while his ship was in port in Lisbon he was subsequently landed by U boat U 1230 in Maine before being captured In 1941 John Beevor the head of Special Operations Executive SOE in Lisbon established an underground network with the aim of carrying out sabotage tasks in the event of a German and or Spanish invasion of Portugal The targets for immediate destruction were oil refineries railroads bridges and industrial and mining facilities The Portuguese police discovered that Beevor s network included several anti Salazar Portuguese members which irked the Portuguese authorities Salazar suspected that British flirtation with his opponents could be hiding an attempt to install in Lisbon a democratic alternative to his regime one willing to bring the country under British patronage Salazar informed the British Ambassador that he wanted heads to roll and ended up requesting Beevor s withdrawal 55 Despite the incident Captain Agostinho Lourenco the founder and first head of PVDE earned a reputation with British observers recorded in a confidential print generated at the British Embassy which suggested a pro British bias on his part Lourenco always kept a good relationship with the MI6 which allowed him later in 1956 to become the head of international police organisation Interpol In June 1943 a commercial airliner carrying the actor Leslie Howard was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by the Luftwaffe after taking off from Lisbon Aftermath edit nbsp President Truman signing the North Atlantic Treaty with Portuguese Ambassador Teotonio Pereira standing behind Salazar stood doggedly by his juridical neutrality to the end of the war On the death of Hitler he followed the protocol and ordered flags to be flown at half mast 56 Salazar also allowed German Ambassador Hoyningen Huene to settle permanently in the Lisbon area where he lived out part of his retirement 57 Portugal continued to welcome refugees after the war Umberto II king of Italy lived for 37 years in exile in Cascais The Count and Countess of Barcelona the heir apparent to the defunct Spanish throne D Juan de Bourbon and his wife D Maria de las Mercedes were exiled in Estoril Cascais on 2 February 1946 Later in April they were joined by their children Pilar Juan Carlos the future King Juan Carlos of Spain Margarita and Alfonso Calouste Gulbenkian the Armenian oil magnate known as Mr Five Percent also chose Portugal as a place to settle In an operation organised by Caritas Portugal from 1947 to 1952 5 500 Austrian children most of them orphans were transported by train from Vienna to Lisbon and then placed in the foster care of Portuguese families 58 Portugal survived the horrors of war not only physically intact but significantly wealthier To commemorate its escape from the destruction of the war in 1959 the Cristo Rei monument was built in Almada overlooking Lisbon Despite the authoritarian character of the regime Portugal did not experience the same levels of international isolation as Francoist Spain did following World War II Unlike Spain Portugal under Salazar was accepted into the Marshall Plan 1947 1948 in return for the aid it gave to the Allies during the final stages of the war Furthermore also unlike Spain it was one of the 12 founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO in 1949 a reflection of Portugal s role as an ally against communism during the Cold War despite being the only non democratic founding nation 59 See also editPortugal during World War I List of Portuguese military equipment of World War II nbsp Portugal portalForeign relations of PortugalAnglo Portuguese Alliance Cape Verde in World War IINeutral powers during World War II Exiles Memorial CenterReferences edit a b c Leite Joaquim da Costa 1998 Neutrality by Agreement Portugal and the British Alliance in World War II American University International Law Review 14 1 185 199 Kay 1970 pp 121 122 a b Meneses 2009 p 240 Oxford In Portugal 1941 British Pathe 1941 Archived from the original on 15 August 2020 Retrieved 7 June 2014 Portugal The War Has Made It Europe s Front Door Life 29 July 1940 Retrieved 30 April 2015 Portuguese Air Force Mission and Organization 19 December 2009 Archived from the original on 19 December 2009 Retrieved 19 May 2018 Factsheets Lajes Field History The U S Enters the Azores United States Air Force Retrieved 3 August 2010 Agreement With Portugal HC Deb 12 October 1943 vol 392 cc716 9 https docs wixstatic com ugd fbd712 4eac320cdad44dd68701e9cecad8e446 pdf bare URL PDF a b Kay 1970 p 155 Kay 1970 p 180 Maria Inacia Rezola The Franco Salazar Meetings Foreign policy and Iberian relations during the Dictatorships 1942 1963 E Journal of Portuguese History 2008 6 2 pp 1 11 online Hoare 1946 p 58 Rendel 1957 p 37 Neil Lochery estimates a high end number of one million See Lochery Neill Lisbon War in the Shadows of the City of Light 1939 45 Public Affairs 1 edition 1 November 2011 ISBN 1 58648 879 1 Saint Exupery escaped from France to Portugal and ended up in Lisbon waiting for a visa to go to America Madeira Lina A 2013 O Mecanismo de Des Promocoes do MNE O Caso Paradigmatico de Aristides de Sousa Mendes PhD Coimbra University p 458 Madeira Lina A 2013 O Mecanismo de Des Promocoes do MNE O Caso Paradigmatico de Aristides de Sousa Mendes PhD Coimbra University p 459 AHDMNE Telegramas expedidos Consulado de Portugal em Bayonne Lisboa t de Oliveira Salazar para Faria Machado 13 06 1940 Gallagher 2020 p 125 Levy Samuel Moses Bensabat Amzalak in Portuguese Israeli Community in Lisbon Archived from the original on 23 September 2015 Retrieved 6 August 2014 Goldstein Israel 1984 My World as a Jew The Memoirs of Israel Goldstein Associated University Presses p 413 ISBN 978 0 8453 4780 5 Gallagher 2020 p 124 Mascarenhas Alice 9 January 2013 Madeira Gold Medal of Merit for Louis Gibraltar Chronicle The Independent Daily Retrieved 17 April 2014 www love madeira com accessed 13 December 2010 Archived 17 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine Milgram 2011 p 89 sfn error no target CITEREFMilgram2011 help Milgram 2011 p 264 sfn error no target CITEREFMilgram2011 help Gallagher 2020 pp 123 127 Hayes 1945 p 113 a b Gallagher 2021 p 179 a b Hayes 1945 p 119 Vitimas portuguesas do Holocausto homenageadas pela primeira vez na Austria Sousa Tenente coronel Pedro Marques de Um portugues vitima do Holocausto Inacio Augusto Anta 1906 1945 REVISTA MILITAR Retrieved 25 August 2023 A historia nunca contada dos portugueses nos campos de concentracao PUBLICO in Portuguese 22 June 2014 Retrieved 25 August 2023 Eram seis menos dez quando o relogio de Paulo parou em Neuengamme PUBLICO in Portuguese 29 June 2014 Retrieved 25 August 2023 Portugueses nos campos de concentracao Comboio Fantasma PUBLICO in Portuguese Retrieved 25 August 2023 Portugueses nos campos de concentracao Comboio da Morte PUBLICO in Portuguese Retrieved 25 August 2023 Portugueses nos campos de concentracao As deportacoes de Franca PUBLICO in Portuguese Retrieved 25 August 2023 Nascer em Lisboa sem nunca la ter posto os pes PUBLICO in Portuguese 22 June 2014 Retrieved 25 August 2023 Portugueses nos campos de concentracao Os Campos Nazis PUBLICO in Portuguese Retrieved 25 August 2023 Investigacao revela portugueses detidos e mortos pelos nazis durante a II Guerra Mundial SIC Noticias in Portuguese 21 July 2023 Retrieved 25 August 2023 Portugueses no Holocausto Lista das 70 vitimas deve ser publicada oficialmente TSF Radio Noticias in European Portuguese 27 January 2020 Retrieved 25 August 2023 Revelacao centenas de portugueses e cidadaos de origem portuguesa estiveram nos campos de concentracao nazis ou morreram as maos de Hitler CNN Portugal in Portuguese Retrieved 25 August 2023 Abrunhosa Maria Eugenia 1 December 2020 Portugueses no Holocausto o descarinho que acabou em Auschwitz Sete Margens in European Portuguese Retrieved 25 August 2023 Esther Mucznik Portugueses no Holocausto Historias das vitimas dos campos de concentracao dos consules que salvaram vidas e dos resistentes que lutaram contra o nazismo www museudoneorealismo pt in European Portuguese Retrieved 25 August 2023 Stein 1984 pp 172 179 Stein 1984 p 133 Os portugueses que combateram no exercito de Hitler sapo pt Retrieved 17 April 2018 Centena e meia de portugueses combateram no Exercito de Hitler sapo pt Retrieved 17 April 2018 a b c Garrett 2010 p 116 Escuadra Alfonso and others Operation Felix Archived 3 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine Section The German assault plan www discovergibraltar com Fuhrer Directive x www alternatewars com Retrieved 17 April 2018 Herz Norman 2004 Operation Alacrity The Azores and the War in the Atlantic Naval Institute Press 2004 ISBN 978 1 59114 364 2 The War Plan Rainbow GlobalSecurity org Retrieved 10 February 2010 Wylie Neville 2001 An Amateur Learns His Job Special Operations Executive in Portugal 1940 42 Journal of Contemporary History 36 3 441 457 doi 10 1177 002200940103600303 JSTOR 261006 S2CID 144652193 Kay 1970 p 181 Lochery 2011 p 29 Sobral Claudia 2013 Depois da guerra o paraiso era Portugal After the war the paradise was Portugal Publico in Portuguese Portugal Retrieved 21 July 2020 Nicolau Andresen The Salazar Regime and European Integration 1947 1972 European Review of History 2007 14 2 pp 195 214 Lifes full article Portugal The War Has Made It Europe s Front Door can be accessed online for further reading Sources editBeevor John Grosvenor 1981 SOE Recollections and Reflections 1940 45 Bodley Head ISBN 978 0370304144 SOE was the British Special Operations Executive Gallagher Tom 2020 Salazar The Dictator Who Refused To Die C Hurst amp Co Publishers Ltd ISBN 978 1 78738 388 3 Gallagher Tom 2021 Salazar O Ditador Que Se Recusa a Morrer in Portuguese D Quixote ISBN 9789722071772 Garrett Richard J 2010 The Defences of Macau Forts Ships and Weapons over 450 years Hong Kong University Press ISBN 978 9888028498 Hayes Carlton J H 1945 Wartime mission in Spain 1942 1945 Macmillan Company ISBN 978 1121497245 Hoare Samuel 1946 Ambassador on Special Mission UK Collins First Edition pp 124 125 Kay Hugh 1970 Salazar and Modern Portugal New York Hawthorn Books Klemmer Harvey Lisbon Gateway to Warring Europe National Geographic August 1941 Lochery Neill 2011 Lisbon War in the Shadows of the City of Light 1939 1945 United States PublicAffairs ISBN 978 1586488796 McNab Chris 2009 The SS 1923 1945 Amber Books Ltd ISBN 978 1906626495 Meneses Filipe Ribeiro 2009 Salazar A Political Biography Enigma Books 1 edition p 544 ISBN 978 1 929631 90 2 Rendel Sir George 1957 The Sword and the Olive Recollections of Diplomacy and Foreign Service 1913 1954 First ed John Murray ASIN B000UVRG60 Stein George H 1984 The Waffen SS Hitler s Elite Guard at War 1939 1945 Cornell University Press ISBN 978 0801492754 Wheeler Douglas L The Price of Neutrality Portugal the Wolfram Question and World War II Luso Brazilian Review Vol 23 No 1 Summer 1986 pp 107 127Further reading editMacintyre Ben 2013 Double Cross The True Story of the D Day Spies Broadway Books ISBN 978 0 307 88877 8 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Portugal during World War II amp oldid 1186251861, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.