While remaining neutral in the Second World War, Portugal helped the Allies out just a little more
than they did Axis, and without Portugal's passive contributions the Allies, especially
Britain and US, the war might've played out quite a bit differently. It's sometimes easy to forget
the subtler political and positional maneuvers of war when they're drowned out by the rolling
of tanks and exploding of shellfire, though that doesn't mean they're any less important than how
many soldiers one side brings to a fight and how many enemy soldiers they manage to kill in that
fight. Also, Portugal's more direct contributions to the betterment of humanity were nothing small,
and they were especially welcome, given the beating humanity was taking elsewhere in Europe.
In this video, we're going to outline Portugal's contributions to World War
II despite its unyielding stance as "neutral."
Portugal's neutrality in itself was of great significance to the war,
and despite the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 — the near 650-year-old alliance
between England and Portugal, which basically says they've got each other's
backs — Britain agreed. While there were other reasons for Portugal's neutrality,
its dictator-but-not-a-dictator António de Oliveira Salazar logic regarding Portugal's
Iberian neighbour, Spain, was sound. While he feared communism fisting its way into Portugal,
and while nationalist Spain was a shield against said fisting, Salazar Slytherin was also concerned
that Spain would strengthen their ties with Axis and become a threat. So, around six months before
Germany invaded Poland and World War II commenced, and also just at the end of the Spanish Civil War,
a pact between Portugal and Spain was signed. This was the Iberian Pact, and,
among other things, it basically stated that the two countries must band together to resist attacks
on the Iberian Peninsula and keep Iberia neutral despite any sort of war in Europe.
Spain becoming Nazi was out of the picture, and Britain had absolutely no problem at all
letting Portugal sit this one out — unless it came to it that Britain absolutely needed
them. If things hadn't played out this way, it may have been a nightmare for Portugal and
the Allied war effort. Axis could have stormed through Spain, sweeping up Spaniards on the way;
crushed Portugal into the North Atlantic; and then sundered the bulwark of Gibraltar
before blasting into North Africa and obliterating the North Africa Campaign.
The British ambassador in Lisbon at the time, Sir Ronald Campell,
wrote, "[...] [I]f her [Portogual's] neutrality instead of being strict had been more benevolent
in allies' favour Spain would inevitably have thrown herself body and soul into the
arms of Germany. [...] [T]he peninsula would have been occupied and then North
Africa [...] [T]he whole course of the war would have been altered to the advantage of the Axis."
This was a bold move by Salazar; remaining neutral,
as history tells, is in many ways harder than picking a side and fixing bayonets,
so before we outline some of Portugal's other contributions to the war, which in themselves
put tremendous strain on the country's neutrality, let's divvy out some tungsten.
As per Portugal's neutrality, it had to, well, remain neutral... sort of. This extended beyond
actual fighting to trade, of course, and one of the most important goods Portugal had in abundance
was wolfram or tungsten, which was crucial to the production of war munitions. Basically,
both Britain and Germany wanted it, and Portugal wanted to keep reeling in bank while also avoiding
Hitler's wrath. So what Portugal did was sell Germany the same amount of tungsten they sold
Britain, maintaining a balance of supply. Though, thankfully, Portugal made Germany pay upfront,
as opposed to Britain, which was allowed to run up a hefty tab. Nearing Operation Overlord,
the Allies politely asked Portugal to stop supplying the Germans with tungsten, and this,
of course, put Portugal in a sticky situation. Eager to keep their gold "neutral" star,
Portugal halted all tungsten exports, to both the Axes and the Allies, putting many of their own
people out of work. Portugal also traded other goods to both sides, such as rubber and sugar.
The Battle of the Atlantic was fought from the first year of the war to the last year, and as
it was primarily a naval battle, those few spits of land between the Americas and Europe and Africa
were hot real estate. Among those few spits of land are the Azores, a chain of volcanic islands
of the west coast, and a part of, Portugal. Both Britain and the US wanted the Azores so badly they
even devised plans — deemed "Operation Alacrity" and "War Plan Grey" — to snatch it from Portugal
without Portugal's approval. Luckily, neither of these powerhouses needed to cross that line, for,
somehow, Portugal was able to remain neutral, at least on paper, even after leasing Azorean
air bases to the British in August 1943. Britain, however, took their "cashing in
on" the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 a step further, persuading Portugal to let the US set
up some airbases there too. For every pascal of pressure this put on Portugal's neutrality,
ten times as many were released from the war, as granting the Allies this position allowed
them to turn the Battle of the Atlantic in their favour. To put it in perspective,
over 1,900 US aircraft passed through the airbase Lajes Field on the Azorean island Terceira from
late 1943 to mid-1944 alone, cutting their transit time from Brazil to Africa in half.
Now, when I spoke about Portugal's "contributions to the betterment of humanity," I was talking
about how Portugal and its island Madeira became safe havens for hundreds of thousands of refugees
fleeing the war-torn countries of — and trying to altogether flee — Europe in the Second World War.
In July 1940, around 2,500 Gibraltarians were evacuated from Gibraltar in anticipation of an
Axis attack on the British Overseas Territory; these people, mostly women and children,
were shipped to Madeira. The rest of those who found refuge in — or passed through — Portugal,
primarily its capital, Lisbon, were from all over Europe. Many were French, Polish, Dutch,
and Belgian military refugees, and many more were Jews fleeing the Holocaust. Of those who
left Europe altogether, many went to the United States. The sacrifice of Portuguese consul-general
Aristides de Sousa Mendes, and other heroes like him, are to thank for much of what happened in
Lisbon, though that's worthy of at least its own video. To put it in perspective, though,
Sousa Mendes is recognised as "Portugal's Schindler." Anyway, Portugal was a beacon
of hope during World War II, when humanity needed every bit of hope that it could get.
With Portugal favouring Britain in tungsten trade, lending the Azores to the Allies,
and taking refugees, which included military refugees, from all over Europe,
you may be thinking that Portugal wasn't all that neutral in the Second World War.
They certainly leaned just a little more towards the Allies on the whole.
There were outliers, however, with some 159 Portuguese volunteering to join Axis in the
war just so they could fight the communists. These men fell in with their Iberian counterparts
under the "Blue Division," which was a Spanish volunteer and conscript unit in the German Heer.
And don't think the Axis were oblivious to Portugals "neutrality" either. The Germans,
under Operation Felix, had sketched up a plan to invade Portugal and Madeira and the Azores,
though it near came to fruition. There was also Operation Isabella, in which,
after destroying the Soviet Union, the Germans had laid out a concept to
take Iberia and use it as a stage from which they could slowly kill Britain.
So how did all this "neutrality" work out for Portugal? It actually worked out rather well.
Portugal not only survived the most devastating war in human history but came out richer because
of it. Salazar himself, a dictator everywhere but on paper, earned praise from Britain and
America alike, with British diplomat Sir George Rendell stating that the former Portuguese
Republican Government was "far more difficult to deal with as an ally during the First War
than the infinitely better Government of Salazar was as a neutral in the Second."
Regardless of what Portugal's alignment was on paper, it did the Allies and humanity a great
deal of good throughout the Second World War, and it's one of those countries whose contributions
deserve more attention than they get. Though what are your thoughts? Were Portugal's contributions
to World War II those of a neutral nation? Were there any contributions that you think
should have taken priority in this video? Also, would you like to see a video on "Portugal's
Schindler," Aristides de Sousa Mendes? Please let us known down in the comments.