'Smoking Snakes' from SABATONs current release, »Heroes«, deals with three Brazilian soldiers who got separated from their group in Italy in WW2. But they didn’t surrender and fought against the German forces, which had lots more of soldiers than the Brazilians, until the bitter end.
Most of us have heard the expression “when pigs fly” but in a different part of the world another popular saying was that “It’s more likely for a snake to smoke a pipe than for the Brazilian expeditionary force to go to the front and fight” in the same context. However, one day in 1944 the snake did smoke and over 25.000 Brazilians left to join WW2. This is the story about three of them who fought so bravely against a much larger opposing force. Located in the mountains and heavily defended by the Germans as a last bastion to block the advance of allied troops in the direction of the Po Valley, on 14 April 1945, Montese became the stage for the most arduous and bloody battle of Brazilian troops in Italy.
Three Brazilian soldiers on patrol were attacked by German forces. Outnumbered, the patrol was ordered to surrender. The three men took cover and opened fire on the enemy until running out of ammunition. Not satisfied, they proceeded to pitch their bayonets and advanced against the Germans and consequently were fired upon and shot dead.
