Searching Lake Garda for WWII missing

  • 12 January 2013
  • From the section Europe









Image caption Some US soldiers completed the journey across Lake Garda

"Accidents are also part of war," said Mr Rios.

"But it was tragic that it was so close to the end of the war that so many lives were lost."

Underwater 'ducks'

The troops drowned on the night of 30 April 1945.

By then the Italian Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini had already been captured and shot. His body had been hung up for display in a street in Milan a few days earlier.

And within 24 hours of the accident on Lake Garda, the German forces in Italy surrendered.

But they had fought until the last moment.

Elite SS troops put up fierce resistance in the beautiful hills and villages on the lake's northern shores.

They had tried to block the Allied advance by blowing up tunnels and bridges.

And so the Americans had taken to the water, deploying their huge amphibious vehicles.

These were six-wheeled trucks called DUKWs, although the soldiers just referred to them as "Ducks".

The machines switched to propeller propulsion whenever they plunged into rivers or lakes.

On 30 April, men of the 605th Field Artillery Battalion were given the task of carrying one of their big weapons up to a point on the shore where it could be used to pound the German positions.

"A storm was brewing, but earlier in the evening another DUKW had made this crossing successfully," said Mr Rios.

It seems though that the height of the waves became too much for the heavily laden craft.

"Approaching the harbour at Riva, the boat took on water and the men began throwing heavy equipment overboard, but to no avail. The boat capsized."

The only survivor was Corporal Thomas Hough, from Dayton, Ohio, who had been a lifeguard before joining the army.

'Shouts of joy'

Nearby on the shore as the disaster unfolded was Carlo Bombardelli, who was nine years old at the time.

His family's home was metres from the water's edge.

"There were strong winds that night, and my father and I heard some screams from the lake," Mr Bombardelli said.

He remembers two US soldiers commandeering a boat to go out onto the heaving waters in the darkness to look for survivors.

"The day after, we found eight American backpacks on the beach."

Several years ago a team from the University of Texas mounted an unsuccessful search for the lost craft.

But in 2011 a local organisation that responds to emergencies on the lake, the Garda Volunteer Group, took up the hunt.

Group spokesman Luca Turrini said: "Other searches were based on the confusing testimony of the lone survivor, who had said that they had sunk close to the shore.

"But we went much further into the lake and had more time to look."

The group used a sonar device to scan the depths.

And after one particular pass along the mud on the lake bed, there was a sudden, ecstatic moment of discovery.

"We saw the camera hovering over a vehicle," said Mr Turrini.

"And we could see the insignia of the US Army. There were shouts of joy."

He said that he and his fellow volunteers would continue to explore the site.

They will examine small objects around the wrecked craft, and see if they can identify human remains.

"It's difficult because the mud has covered everything," he said.

More on this story

Around the BBC