Today we look at the Brazilian military campaign in detail. We follow the progress of the Smoking Cobras across Italy, and recount their challenges and most important battles.

Uniquely among Latin American nations, and often forgotten, the Brazilian army fought in WW2, sending troops to fight in Europe. The Smoking Cobras faced numerous challenges, but they proved themselves to be extraordinarily brave and held their own during their time fighting.

This is the first of a four part series on Brazil's experience of the Second World War. Today we look at the state of the military before they started to fight, the challenges that needed to be overcome to get them there, and the events which led the country into the war.

Today we have a special interview episode in which Stephanie Schmidt (Associate Professor in the department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University at Buffalo) tells us about her new book Child Martyrs and Militant Evangelization in New Spain.

The book examines a set of tragic stories which occurred in the years following the conquest of Mexico, involving the use of high-class indigenous children by missionaries to aid in the conversion of the colony. Through these stories we gain a fascinating glimpse into life in those early years. The tell us a lot, not just about how missionary work was done, but also how this new society was functioning as a whole, and how those missionaries themselves saw actions.