World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseLatin American foreign ministers held a conference in Brazil in Jan 1942, reaching a concensus that diplomatic relations were to be broken off with the Axis powers; Mexico was among the nations to have done so. In May 1942, German submarines operating in the western Atlantic Ocean sank two tankers flying Mexican flags. On 22 May, Mexico declared war on the Axis powers. Mexico became one of the only two Latin American nations to dispatch an expeditionary force to participate in the war fron the front lines (the other being Brazil). Mexican troops fought in European and Pacific theaters of war. One Mexican air squadron, Esquadron 201, famously flew air support for American ground forces during the 1944 to 1945 campaign for the Philippine Islands and attacked Japanese targets at sea in the South China Sea and in harbors in Taiwan. On the home front, having common enemies meant that the United States and Mexico would cooperate on a greater scale despite their poor relationship prior to the war. US sent aid and technicians to Mexico to help gear up Mexican industries for production related to the war effort, while Mexico sent labor to fill vacancies created by the war (particularly in the agricultural fields).

Mexico in World War II Interactive Map