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 war front in the Appennines

The war front in the Appennines

In early November, after first confrontations with the Germans in Garfagnana, the Brazilians were transferred to the Reno Valley, where they found an entirely, unknown enemy awaiting them: the Apennine winter. With headquarters in Pistoia, the F.E.B. took part in all the operations destined to break through the front around the ss 64 Porrettana highway. Despite heavy losses and the cold season, The Brazilians managed to obtain important tactical position information from the Germans. The journey from Mount Castello, Castelnuovo, Montese and Zocca which led them to Fornovo, Alessandria and Torino, cost the division 474 dead and 2,738 wounded by the end of April, 1945.

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.