War memorial donated to Montese by the FEB
Brazilian military votive monument in Pistoia
Monument to the FEB in locality Guanella, at the foothills of Mount Castello
Brazilian soldiers playing with snow
The Brazilian “Pracinhas” advance towards Montese
Montese - A FEB patrol under the command of the Brazilian hero Max Wolff Filho

THE FEB THE F.E.B. IN ITALYThe front of Mount Belvedere

The front of Mount Belvedere

While the Allies failed to make a breach in the Gothic Line, at the end of September 1944 the Germans were stationed on the ridges that ran from Mount Belvedere, in the north-east to the left of the Reno River, controlling the area around the ss Porrettana 64 highway, the main road towards Bologna and northern Italy. The front remained stationary for six long months during which the Apennines between the Reno and Panaro were ravaged by war with tragic suffering for the civilian population.

Montese, Bronze Medal of Civil Merit, in the final phase of World War II was the northwest edge of the Gothic Line, the last German

defense against the advance of the allies in Italy. The Germans arrived in Montese at the end of the summer of 1944 from the front of Tuscany, where the

first defenses of the Gothic Line on the Giogo and Futa Pass had been broken by the attacks of the Fifth Army.