The Argentines who fought on World War II.

[ÅnÐReS]

(I took this article from an Argentine Sunday magazine so, originally, it is in Spanish. However, i translated some paragraphs.)


TESTIMONIES
The Argentines who fought on World War II

They are men and women who volunteered to combat on the side of the allies on WWII. Most of them are now over 80 years old and say that they would do the same thing because "Hitler had to be stopped".

[...]

Claudio "Tito" Withington had not turned 20 yet when he set up with the idea that obsessed him: "I have to go there to fight for the English", he said at home before getting into a freighter, overflowing meat and cereals, that set sail in Buenos Aires to satiate Great Britain during the war.

Like him, some 3,000 Argentines did not want to say out of history and volunteered on the side of the allies. Among them, there were 800 pilots from which there are 30 still living, inside and outside of the country. In April, the Argentine Embassy in London rendered homage to twelve of these grandparents who paid their own passage to atend to the ceremony that took place at St. Clement Danes church, London's RAF church. There was only one person missing from the British Foreign Office who was not informed about the invitation.

[...]

In February 1943, Ronald Scott calmly embarked towards Liverpool with other 399 volunteers. "They have told me at the British Argentine Society Board that, if something happened to me in the war, they would take care of my mother", remembers Scott, an 87 year old man with a prompt memory. His father, a Scottish immigrant that could not exercise as a Physician because his degree was never recognized, had died when he was 8.

“I regretted not having gone to the war before. I arrived to Liverpool on a night without clouds. The churches that i saw through had been bombed", says Scott [....] "For me, Hitler was a son of a .... He had to be stopped, and better there because here, Perón was pro-German. I was a romantic idealist and wanted to add my two cents".

[...]

“I was in the war for three and a half years, i had a forced landing in the sea and those experiences make you not to get ruffled", synthesizes Scott.

Neither did Bernardo Noel De Larminat, the most awarded Argentine of the group, who prefers not talking about the past. Although it doesn't come out of his mouth, his comrades in arms say that surly De Larminat participated in 341 missions on Hurricanes and Spitfires with the 417th squadron City of Windsor, from Canada, and the French 340th Ille de France and 341th Alsace. Only those who bumped into him on a good day in Bahía Blanca - where he lives - know that he was brought down on April 1th 1945, as he was leading an atack to the Germans in the Netherlands. He landed the Spitfire on a field and it took him one day to avoid the enemy and go back to his squadron.

[continues...]

[source]

[Strengthandhonour]

Traitors..There was Argentines and latin americans who fought in the Italian army from what I know. There was a division for non-Italian born Italians. I cant remember the name of it, but I read about it and if I am correct, there was about 1,500 troops in it, mostly from Argentina.

[ÅnÐReS]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

Traitors..

Traitors? To Europe sure, but not to England precisely. Almost all of those men were either British or sons of English immigrants and naturally they still felt allegiance to England.

However, if there is something that is worth noticing here is that back in those days people seemed to believe wholeheartedly whatever was written in the newspapers as if it was "the word of God", so to speak. Just remember when "The War of the Worlds" was broadcasted on the radio in the U.S. around those years.
And even more illustrative is the fact that most of that people (the ones who believed religiously in the press) were North Americans and English.

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

There was Argentines and latin americans who fought in the Italian army from what I know. There was a division for non-Italian born Italians. I cant remember the name of it, but I read about it and if I am correct, there was about 1,500 troops in it, mostly from Argentina.

I didn't know much about that, but then again it doesn't seem so surprising since much more Italians than English had come to Argentina.
But of course, one will never see articles about Argentine-Italians fighting in WWII on the side of the Axis since the Axis lost and the allies won.

After all, history is written by those who win.

[Milesian]

Originally Posted by ÅnÐReS

Claudio "Tito" Withington had not turned 20 yet when he set up with the idea that obsessed him: "I have to go there to fight for the English",

I've read enough ...

[Theobald]

Why traitors ? If I'm not mistaken Argentina was first neutral and then entered the World War II on the side of the Allies.
Not traitors to Europe either since a British living in America is hardly European in the first place.

[Strengthandhonour]

Argentina was indeed neutral. But you are forgetting that they where one if not the only country in America that traded with both Germany and Italy throughout the war and they refused to break connections with both countries and Spain, even after the US asked them to do so. Also, Argentina declared war on Germany only a short time after they loss. The German-Italian fascist influence in Argentina at this time was big.
here is an example:
http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/a...argentina.html

[ÅnÐReS]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

Argentina was indeed neutral. But you are forgetting that they where one if not the only country in America that traded with both Germany and Italy throughout the war and they refused to break connections with both countries and Spain, even after the US asked them to do so.

True. But trade with Italy and Germany was not as important for our country as the exports to the U.S and Britain especially.

[Strengthandhonour]

Yeah that is correct. Once I read a quote on a book about Argentina in world war II and it said "The heart of the people was behind the axis, but the economical interest of the country was in the hands of the allies"

[ewald steiner]

They were descendants of British families and it would be expected that if they went to Europe to become involved in the war they would do it on the British side,blood is stronger than water,; just as a German or Italian descendants would have taken sides with the Axis.

[Agrippa]

That shows to me again that the worldview, weltanschauung can be more important than pure patriotism or even nationalism if directed in the wrong direction. Because even if your country is fighting on this or that side, its not "right or wrong my country", because probably for what it is fighting is not even really in the interest of your own people.