History of Madeira the ships, the Germans proceeded to bombard Funchal for two hours from a range of about . Batteries on Madeira returned fire and eventually forced the Germans to withdraw. In 1917 on December 12, two German U-boats, and (captained by Max Valentiner) again bombarded Funchal, Madeira. This time the attack lasted around 30 minutes. Forty, 4.7 inch and 5.9 inch shells were fired. There were 3 fatalities and 17 wounded, In addition, a number of houses and Santa Clara church were hit. A priest, José Marques Jardim, promised in 1917 to build a monument should peace ever return to Madeira.
History of Madeira of Allied Powers had agreed on Madeira because it was isolated in the Atlantic and easily guarded. Portugal in World War II was neutral and become non-belligerent in 1943,Salazar's decision to stick with the oldest alliance in the world, cemented by the Treaty of Windsor (1386) between Portugal and England, which is still in force today, meant that the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance allowed Madeira to help the refugees in humanitary work and in July 1940 around 2,000 Gibraltarian Evacuees were shipped to Madeira, this was due to the high risk of Gibraltar being attacked by either Spain or Germany. The Germans