Page 269 - Il Mediterraneo quale elemento del Potere Marittimo - Atti 16-18 settembre 1996

THE IMPORT ANCE OF THE BRAZILIAN NORTHEAST 255

of German invasion. Also, weather conditions in che northern roure brought se-
rious limitations during che greater part of che year.
Marshall emphasized che importance of Northeastern Brazil when he wrote
that "che immediate conclusion of the contract with Pan American Airways is now
more essential to national defense than any other matter" (Memorandum from the
Chief-of-Staff to the US War Minister, dated 7 September 1940, quoted in Frame-
work, Conn and Fairchild, p. 252).
The ADP represented Pan Am's most importane contribution to continental
defense and to the Allies· victory in World War II, particularly in the Mediterra-
nean. Six months before theJapanese attack on Pearl Harbor and 14 months prior
to Brazirs entry into the war, the ADP's airports were already running as part of
che Allied air supply system.
N a tal received che well-deserved title of "Springboard to Victory", as i t assu-
red a continuous flow of aircraft, equipment, men and materie! to the fronts.
Natal was the main link in che supply roure of the British troops besieged
by Rommel. The air base of Parnamirim was the focal point of the transport sy-
stem connecting che US, via Ascension Island, to the Mediterranean, Africa and
the China-Burma-India theater. Without such a system, supply problems during
che 1941 crisis and operation Torch's support in 1942 would not bave been sol-
veci. The air and naval bases in the Northeast bulge were decisive in removing the
Axis submarines from South Atlantic waters.
"In November 1942, Fortune magazin.e declared that che previous situation
had been reversed: now Natal was dangerously dose to Dakar".
U ntil the end of the war an d a long cime afterwards, thousands of soldiers
and tonnes of war materie! filtered through the airports of Natal and Belém.
The Brazil-United States alliance in World War II brought good dividends,
not only to both countries but to che world as a whole, contributing decisively to
the defeat of Nazi-Fascist totalitarianism and keeping che war from reaching the
Americas.
It is difficult to imagine how the allies in the Mediterranean, Africa, and Sou-
thern and Southeast Asia could have been supplied during the months that prece-
ded the successful invasion ofNorth Africa in 1943, without the bases in che strategie
Northeast of Brazil and the air shuttle that was established with the African continent.
As Cordell Hull stated in his Memoirs, "Without the air bases that Brazil allo-
wed us to build in their territory, victory in Europe and Asia would not bave come
so soon··.
The Brazilian Northeast played an importane part in the preparation for war,
and the war in the Mediterranean.