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  • 81 World War II

    (1939-1945)
       In the European phase of the war, neutral Portugal contributed more to the Allied victory than historians have acknowledged. Portugal experienced severe pressures to compromise her neutrality from both the Axis and Allied powers and, on several occasions, there were efforts to force Portugal to enter the war as a belligerent. Several factors lent Portugal importance as a neutral. This was especially the case during the period from the fall of France in June 1940 to the Allied invasion and reconquest of France from June to August 1944.
       In four respects, Portugal became briefly a modest strategic asset for the Allies and a war materiel supplier for both sides: the country's location in the southwesternmost corner of the largely German-occupied European continent; being a transport and communication terminus, observation post for spies, and crossroads between Europe, the Atlantic, the Americas, and Africa; Portugal's strategically located Atlantic islands, the Azores, Madeira, and Cape Verde archipelagos; and having important mines of wolfram or tungsten ore, crucial for the war industry for hardening steel.
       To maintain strict neutrality, the Estado Novo regime dominated by Antônio de Oliveira Salazar performed a delicate balancing act. Lisbon attempted to please and cater to the interests of both sets of belligerents, but only to the extent that the concessions granted would not threaten Portugal's security or its status as a neutral. On at least two occasions, Portugal's neutrality status was threatened. First, Germany briefly considered invading Portugal and Spain during 1940-41. A second occasion came in 1943 and 1944 as Great Britain, backed by the United States, pressured Portugal to grant war-related concessions that threatened Portugal's status of strict neutrality and would possibly bring Portugal into the war on the Allied side. Nazi Germany's plan ("Operation Felix") to invade the Iberian Peninsula from late 1940 into 1941 was never executed, but the Allies occupied and used several air and naval bases in Portugal's Azores Islands.
       The second major crisis for Portugal's neutrality came with increasing Allied pressures for concessions from the summer of 1943 to the summer of 1944. Led by Britain, Portugal's oldest ally, Portugal was pressured to grant access to air and naval bases in the Azores Islands. Such bases were necessary to assist the Allies in winning the Battle of the Atlantic, the naval war in which German U-boats continued to destroy Allied shipping. In October 1943, following tedious negotiations, British forces began to operate such bases and, in November 1944, American forces were allowed to enter the islands. Germany protested and made threats, but there was no German attack.
       Tensions rose again in the spring of 1944, when the Allies demanded that Lisbon cease exporting wolfram to Germany. Salazar grew agitated, considered resigning, and argued that Portugal had made a solemn promise to Germany that wolfram exports would be continued and that Portugal could not break its pledge. The Portuguese ambassador in London concluded that the shipping of wolfram to Germany was "the price of neutrality." Fearing that a still-dangerous Germany could still attack Portugal, Salazar ordered the banning of the mining, sale, and exports of wolfram not only to Germany but to the Allies as of 6 June 1944.
       Portugal did not enter the war as a belligerent, and its forces did not engage in combat, but some Portuguese experienced directly or indirectly the impact of fighting. Off Portugal or near her Atlantic islands, Portuguese naval personnel or commercial fishermen rescued at sea hundreds of victims of U-boat sinkings of Allied shipping in the Atlantic. German U-boats sank four or five Portuguese merchant vessels as well and, in 1944, a U-boat stopped, boarded, searched, and forced the evacuation of a Portuguese ocean liner, the Serpa Pinto, in mid-Atlantic. Filled with refugees, the liner was not sunk but several passengers lost their lives and the U-boat kidnapped two of the ship's passengers, Portuguese Americans of military age, and interned them in a prison camp. As for involvement in a theater of war, hundreds of inhabitants were killed and wounded in remote East Timor, a Portuguese colony near Indonesia, which was invaded, annexed, and ruled by Japanese forces between February 1942 and August 1945. In other incidents, scores of Allied military planes, out of fuel or damaged in air combat, crashed or were forced to land in neutral Portugal. Air personnel who did not survive such crashes were buried in Portuguese cemeteries or in the English Cemetery, Lisbon.
       Portugal's peripheral involvement in largely nonbelligerent aspects of the war accelerated social, economic, and political change in Portugal's urban society. It strengthened political opposition to the dictatorship among intellectual and working classes, and it obliged the regime to bolster political repression. The general economic and financial status of Portugal, too, underwent improvements since creditor Britain, in order to purchase wolfram, foods, and other materials needed during the war, became indebted to Portugal. When Britain repaid this debt after the war, Portugal was able to restore and expand its merchant fleet. Unlike most of Europe, ravaged by the worst war in human history, Portugal did not suffer heavy losses of human life, infrastructure, and property. Unlike even her neighbor Spain, badly shaken by its terrible Civil War (1936-39), Portugal's immediate postwar condition was more favorable, especially in urban areas, although deep-seated poverty remained.
       Portugal experienced other effects, especially during 1939-42, as there was an influx of about a million war refugees, an infestation of foreign spies and other secret agents from 60 secret intelligence services, and the residence of scores of international journalists who came to report the war from Lisbon. There was also the growth of war-related mining (especially wolfram and tin). Portugal's media eagerly reported the war and, by and large, despite government censorship, the Portuguese print media favored the Allied cause. Portugal's standard of living underwent some improvement, although price increases were unpopular.
       The silent invasion of several thousand foreign spies, in addition to the hiring of many Portuguese as informants and spies, had fascinating outcomes. "Spyland" Portugal, especially when Portugal was a key point for communicating with occupied Europe (1940-44), witnessed some unusual events, and spying for foreigners at least briefly became a national industry. Until mid-1944, when Allied forces invaded France, Portugal was the only secure entry point from across the Atlantic to Europe or to the British Isles, as well as the escape hatch for refugees, spies, defectors, and others fleeing occupied Europe or Vichy-controlled Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. Through Portugal by car, ship, train, or scheduled civil airliner one could travel to and from Spain or to Britain, or one could leave through Portugal, the westernmost continental country of Europe, to seek refuge across the Atlantic in the Americas.
       The wartime Portuguese scene was a colorful melange of illegal activities, including espionage, the black market, war propaganda, gambling, speculation, currency counterfeiting, diamond and wolfram smuggling, prostitution, and the drug and arms trade, and they were conducted by an unusual cast of characters. These included refugees, some of whom were spies, smugglers, diplomats, and business people, many from foreign countries seeking things they could find only in Portugal: information, affordable food, shelter, and security. German agents who contacted Allied sailors in the port of Lisbon sought to corrupt and neutralize these men and, if possible, recruit them as spies, and British intelligence countered this effort. Britain's MI-6 established a new kind of "safe house" to protect such Allied crews from German espionage and venereal disease infection, an approved and controlled house of prostitution in Lisbon's bairro alto district.
       Foreign observers and writers were impressed with the exotic, spy-ridden scene in Lisbon, as well as in Estoril on the Sun Coast (Costa do Sol), west of Lisbon harbor. What they observed appeared in noted autobiographical works and novels, some written during and some after the war. Among notable writers and journalists who visited or resided in wartime Portugal were Hungarian writer and former communist Arthur Koestler, on the run from the Nazi's Gestapo; American radio broadcaster-journalist Eric Sevareid; novelist and Hollywood script-writer Frederick Prokosch; American diplomat George Kennan; Rumanian cultural attache and later scholar of mythology Mircea Eliade; and British naval intelligence officer and novelist-to-be Ian Fleming. Other notable visiting British intelligence officers included novelist Graham Greene; secret Soviet agent in MI-6 and future defector to the Soviet Union Harold "Kim" Philby; and writer Malcolm Muggeridge. French letters were represented by French writer and airman, Antoine Saint-Exupery and French playwright, Jean Giroudoux. Finally, Aquilino Ribeiro, one of Portugal's premier contemporary novelists, wrote about wartime Portugal, including one sensational novel, Volframio, which portrayed the profound impact of the exploitation of the mineral wolfram on Portugal's poor, still backward society.
       In Estoril, Portugal, the idea for the world's most celebrated fictitious spy, James Bond, was probably first conceived by Ian Fleming. Fleming visited Portugal several times after 1939 on Naval Intelligence missions, and later he dreamed up the James Bond character and stories. Background for the early novels in the James Bond series was based in part on people and places Fleming observed in Portugal. A key location in Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale (1953) is the gambling Casino of Estoril. In addition, one aspect of the main plot, the notion that a spy could invent "secret" intelligence for personal profit, was observed as well by the British novelist and former MI-6 officer, while engaged in operations in wartime Portugal. Greene later used this information in his 1958 spy novel, Our Man in Havana, as he observed enemy agents who fabricated "secrets" for money.
       Thus, Portugal's World War II experiences introduced the country and her people to a host of new peoples, ideas, products, and influences that altered attitudes and quickened the pace of change in this quiet, largely tradition-bound, isolated country. The 1943-45 connections established during the Allied use of air and naval bases in Portugal's Azores Islands were a prelude to Portugal's postwar membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

    Historical dictionary of Portugal > World War II

  • 82 test

    test [test]
    test1 (a)-(e) contrôle1 (a), 1 (c) examen1 (b) tester3 (a), 3 (c) analyser3 (b), 3 (f) examiner3 (b) essayer3 (c) vérifier3 (d) contrôler3 (d) mesurer3 (e) évaluer3 (e) éprouver3 (g)
    1 noun
    (a) (examination → gen) test m; School contrôle m, interrogation f;
    to pass a test réussir à un examen;
    biology test interrogation f de biologie;
    to sit or to take a test passer un examen;
    general knowledge test test m de culture générale;
    I'm taking my (driving) test tomorrow je passe mon permis (de conduire) demain;
    did you pass your (driving) test? avez-vous été reçu au permis (de conduire)?
    (b) Medicine (of blood, urine) test m, analyse f; (of eyes, hearing) examen m;
    to undergo tests subir des tests ou examens;
    to have a blood test faire faire une analyse de sang;
    to have an eye test se faire examiner la vue;
    the lab did a test for salmonella le laboratoire a fait une analyse pour détecter la présence de salmonelles
    (c) (trial → of equipment, machine) test m, essai m, épreuve f; (→ of quality) contrôle m; Marketing (→ of reaction, popularity) évaluation f;
    to carry out tests on sth effectuer des tests sur qch;
    all new drugs undergo clinical tests tous les nouveaux médicaments subissent des tests cliniques;
    a test for noise levels un contrôle des niveaux sonores;
    to be on test être testé ou à l'essai;
    to put sth to the test tester qch, faire l'essai de qch
    (d) (of character, endurance, resolve) test m;
    a good test of character un bon test de personnalité, un bon moyen de tester la personnalité;
    to put sb to the test éprouver qn, mettre qn à l'épreuve;
    his courage was really put to the test son courage fut sérieusement mis à l'épreuve ou éprouvé;
    it's the first major test for the Prime Minister c'est la première fois que le Premier ministre est réellement mis à l'épreuve;
    to stand the test se montrer à la hauteur;
    also figurative test of strength épreuve f de force;
    to stand the test of time durer, résister à l'épreuve du temps;
    her books have certainly stood the test of time ses livres n'ont pas pris une ride
    (e) (measure) test m;
    it's a test of union solidarity c'est un test de la solidarité syndicale;
    it will be a test of popularity for the new leader ce sera un test de popularité pour le nouveau dirigeant;
    the by-election will be a good test of public opinion l'élection partielle représentera un bon test de l'opinion publique
    (f) British Sport test-match m
    d'essai
    (a) (examine → ability, knowledge, intelligence) tester, mesurer; School (→ pupils) tester, contrôler les connaissances de;
    we were tested in geography nous avons eu un contrôle de géographie;
    she was tested on her knowledge of plants on a testé ou vérifié ses connaissances botaniques
    (b) Medicine (blood, urine) analyser, faire une analyse de; (sight, hearing) examiner;
    to have one's eyes tested se faire examiner la vue;
    figurative you need your eyes tested or British testing! il faut mettre des lunettes!;
    to test sb for AIDS faire subir le test de dépistage du sida à qn;
    to test an athlete for steroids faire subir des tests à un athlète pour détecter l'usage de stéroïdes
    (c) (try out → prototype, car) essayer, faire l'essai de; (→ product) essayer; (→ weapon, procedure) tester; (→ drug) tester, expérimenter;
    none of our products are tested on animals nos produits ne sont pas testés sur les animaux
    (d) (check → batteries, pressure, suspension) vérifier, contrôler
    (e) (measure → reaction, popularity) mesurer, évaluer; Marketing (→ quality) contrôler;
    the day of action will test union solidarity la journée d'action permettra de mesurer ou d'évaluer la solidarité syndicale
    (f) (analyse → soil) analyser, faire des prélèvements dans; (→ water) analyser;
    the water was tested for phosphates on a analysé l'eau pour en déterminer le taux de phosphates;
    to test food for starch rechercher la présence d'amidon dans les aliments;
    figurative to test the water tâter le terrain
    (g) (tax → machinery, driver, patience) éprouver, mettre à l'épreuve;
    to test sb to the limit pousser qn à bout ou à la dernière extrémité;
    to test sb's patience to the limit mettre la patience de qn à rude épreuve
    to test for salmonella faire une recherche de salmonelles;
    to test for AIDS procéder à un test de dépistage du sida;
    to test for the presence of gas rechercher la présence de gaz
    she tested positive for AIDS son test de dépistage du sida s'est révélé positif
    testing, testing! un, deux, trois!
    ►► Law & History the Test Act = loi anglaise de 1673, abrogée en 1828, interdisant aux catholiques l'accès aux postes gouvernementaux et à la fonction de député;
    test area région f test;
    test ban interdiction f des essais nucléaires;
    test ban treaty traité m de prohibition des essais nucléaires;
    test bench banc m d'essai;
    British Television test card mire f;
    Law test case affaire f qui fait jurisprudence;
    the trial has come to be regarded as a test case in environmental law ce procès a acquis force de précédent dans le domaine de la protection de l'environnement;
    figurative doctors regard her experiences as a test case for some of their theories les médecins estiment que ses expériences vont leur permettre d'éprouver ou de mettre à l'épreuve certaines de leurs théories;
    test certificate certificat m d'essai;
    Television test chart mire f (de réglage);
    Marketing test city ville f test;
    test drive essai m sur route;
    to go for a test drive essayer une voiture;
    Aviation test flight vol m d'essai;
    test market marché-test m, marché m témoin;
    British test match match m international, test-match m;
    (a) Chemistry papier m réactif
    (b) British School interrogation f écrite;
    American Television test pattern mire f (de réglage);
    Music test piece morceau m imposé ou de concours;
    test pilot pilote m d'essai;
    test run essai m;
    to go for a test run faire un essai;
    test shot lancement m d'essai;
    test signal signal m de mesure;
    test site site m témoin;
    Cars test track piste f d'essai;
    test tube éprouvette f
    (a) (idea, theory) tester
    (b) (prototype, product) essayer, mettre à l'essai;
    these products are tested out on animals ces produits sont testés sur les animaux

    Un panorama unique de l'anglais et du français > test

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