Between July 1944 and February 1945, around 25,000 Brazilian soldiers were enlisted and organised into a small air force and an infantry division, the FEB. The FEB played an important role on the Italian front during the Second World War. They were attached to the IV Corps of the U.S. Fifth Army, commanded by General Clark. 

They took part in fierce battles against Nazi-Fascist troops, particularly in the Lucca and Pistoia areas of the Apennines, under the leadership of General João Batista Mascarenhas de Moraes. The symbol of the FEB was a snake holding a pipe, and their motto, inspired by this symbol, was “The cobra is smoking”. 

The memorial stone was installed in Borgo a Mozzano on 25 October 2014, on the occasion of the 70th Anniversary of its Liberation, which took place at the end of September 1944 thanks to the FEB. Marco Pierucci and Ilaria Brunini performed the Brazilian and Italian national anthems in the presence of local authorities, associations, and the military attaché of the Brazilian Embassy in Italy. 

In the same town of Borgo a Mozzano, other places of memory are also present: the Museum of Memory, the memorial stone of the Socciglia labour camp, the memorial stone dedicated to the partisan Pietro Pistis, the plaque commemorating the Liberation, and the fortifications of the Gothic Line.