Name Jose Cavalcanti | ||
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José Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque (13 September 1885 in Cabaceiras – 16 August 1959 in Rio de Janeiro) was a military officer, who became a Marshal in the Brazilian Army. Son of Cândido Albuquerque and Maria Albuquerque, he was the nephew of Epitácio Pessoa (Brazil's President from 1919 to 1922), and brother of João Pessoa, the Governor of Northern State of Paraiba. He was one of the officers sent on a preparatory mission to Europe by the Brazilian Army during the World War I against the Central Powers. In his subsequent career he had a strong influence on the reform and update of some Brazilian Army branches and institutions. To honor him, the 12th Cavalry Regiment of the Brazilian Army adopted his name.
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Early career
He joined the Brazilian Army in 1903. For his performance in his career, he was appointed in 1918 to attend the preparatory military mission which the Brazilian army sent to France. There, he spent a brief internship at Saint-Cyr to learn about the adaptation of his military branch (the Cavalry) to the then-recent invention, the tank. After this, he joined the 4th Dragoons Regiment of the 2nd Cavalry French Division. That year, this regiment (as other French cavalry units) using Schneider and St Chamond models, at the cost of heavy losses, participated actively in the containment of German spring offensives, and later, already with the then new and revolutionary Renault FTs, in the successful final Allied counter-offensives.
As platoon leader, while serving with the 4th Dragoons (a unit, at the time of his arrival, consisted mostly of colonial troops), he was promoted to squadron leader and at rank of captain, as decorated by Belgians and French, for courage in action, which he insisted should be credited to the bravery of his subordinates, who even came to gift him with grisly necklaces made with ears of enemy soldiers. By war's end, while hospitalized victim of typhoid fever, he had an affair with an English nurse, who later became his wife.
1920s to 1940s
Upon his return to Brazil after the war, he drew on his experiences to advocate for reform in the Brazilian Army. Although he has achieved relative success regarding some institution's internal matters (e.g. on the reform of the Brazilian Army Academy), his post-1930 position against the involvement of the military in politics and civil life gradually moved him away from the center of military power.
Such that his war experiences, which partly he made public through the 1921 book Os Tanks na Guerra Européia ("Tanks in the European war"), that could have been seminal for the development and upkeep of a modern Army armoured corps; after a shy start in the early 1920s, were not longer availed by the High Command, even during World War II, when the creation of an Expeditionary Force became necessary.
Last years
After retire from military life, he acted politically, along with students and intellectuals, for the nationalization of petroleum production in Brazil, which would lead to the creation of the national oil company, Petrobras, in 1954. Between 1954 and 1956, he cooperated on the planning of the then new Brazilian capital, Brasilia.