"Although the Vargas government had been negotiating with the United States since 1939 over the creation of American air and naval bases in Brazil to confront the Axis threat, war came to Brazil as a result of German submarine attacks on Brazilian shipping. Pereira’s book is the single best study of the attacks and is based on spectacular archival research in Brazil, the United States, and Germany."

Durval Lourenço Pereira, Operação Brasil: O Ataque Alemão que mudou o curso da Segunda Guerra Mundial (São Paulo: Editora Contexto, 2015) [CDD-940.5381]

By far this is the best study of the German submarine attacks on Brazilian shipping that took Brazil into World War II in August 1942. Wisely the author was not content with the standard Brazilian and American archival sources. His use of the German records allowed him to tell a different, more detailed account. It was thought that the sinkings off the coast of Northeast Brazil were the work of a pack of subs. It turns out that there was one lone sub, U-507. This very well written study is carefully researched and takes readers into the internal debates of the Brazilian authorities as to how to react. It supersedes all previous studies of Brazil’s entry into the war. Don’t miss this book. (fdm)"

​

                                                                                                                                                 Frank D. McCann, Jr.