It is not widely known, but the Brazilian Air Force participated in combat on the Allied side on the Italian front in 1944. Brazil had declared war on Germany and Italy on August 22, 1942, and a squadron of Brazilian P-47Ds (known as the 1 Grupo de Caca) was attached to the 350th Fighter Group of the US Twelfth Air Force. It went into action for the first time on November 11, 1944. Before the end of the war, the Brazilian Air Force had received 88 P-47Ds.
Sources:
-
The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion Books,
1987.
-
War Planes of the Second World War, Fighters, Volume Four, William
Green, Doubleday 1964.
-
United States Military Aircraft since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and
Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.
-
The Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, Aircraft in Profile, Edward Shacklady,
Doubleday, 1969.
-
Famous Fighters of the Second World War, Volume I, William Green,
1967.
- Thunderbolt: A Documentary History of the Republic P-47, Roger Freeman, Motorbooks, 1992.
