The F.E.B. adopted a particular coat of arms depicting a cobra smoking a pipe.
The reference is to a speech made by Vargas in which the president said: “It was easier for a snake to smoke than Brazil ever enter the war”. However, the “snake did smoke” with destination Italy.
The Brazilian infantry, under the command of General Joào Baptista Mascarenhas de Moraes, arrived in Italy by sea in the summer of 1944 spaced out in 5 intervals they then joined ranks with the IV Corps of the Fifth U.S. Army.