query: Did Portugal participate in WW2?
passage: Portugal during World War II
Upon the start of World War II in 1939, the Portuguese Government announced on 1 September that the 600-year-old Anglo-Portuguese Alliance remained intact, but that since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance, Portugal was free to remain neutral in the war and would do so. In an aide-mémoire of 5 September 1939, the British Government confirmed the understanding.[1] As Hitler's occupation swept across Europe, neutral Portugal became one of the Continent's last escape routes. Portugal managed to remain neutral throughout the war despite extraordinary pressures from both sides, notably over the strategically located Azores islands and over the wolfram (tungsten) trade.
passage: Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa
As a soldier, he stood out in colonial campaigns in the African and Indian colonies. After Portugal had entered the First World War ("See: Portugal in the Great War") on the Allied side in early 1917, he commanded the Second Division of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps. During the Battle of the Lys on April 9, 1918, the CEP lost 400 dead and around 6,500 prisoners, a third of its forces in the front line. Gomes da Costa's division was hit particularly hard and was all but wiped out.