Lake Garda: From the Lost Mountaineers to a lost P-47 — Searching for those who never came home

For more than 80 years, the waters of Lake Garda in northern Italy have held the stories of American servicemen who never came home.

This POW/MIA Recognition Day, researchers in Italy and the United States are hoping to build on one remarkable discovery to search for another.

The first story involves 25 soldiers of the U.S. 10th Mountain Division who disappeared on the night of April 30, 1945, when a DUKW amphibious vehicle sank while crossing Lake Garda during the final days of World War II. Their bodies were never recovered and the men were listed as missing in action.

For decades, the location of the DUKW remained unknown.

The search eventually became a long-running collaboration involving Italian researchers and divers, American researchers and underwater specialists. The Gruppo Volontari del Garda located the vehicle in the deep waters of Lake Garda, providing an important breakthrough in understanding what happened to the 25 men.

For Associazione Benàch, the discovery was only part of the story.

The Torbole-based historical research association spent years investigating the identities and wartime histories of the 25 men, searching military records, tracing relatives and documenting the efforts to locate the sunken DUKW. That research became the basis for "The Lost Mountaineers," a documentary produced by Associazione Benàch that tells the story of the 25 soldiers, the circumstances surrounding the sinking and the search for the lost vehicle.

The documentary has allowed the story to reach audiences far beyond Lake Garda, helping preserve the memory of the men and connect their wartime history with their families and with a new generation.

But remembering the men is not limited to a film.

Every year, Associazione Benàch holds a moment of reflection at the Torbole monument dedicated to the 25 men of the DUKW. As part of the commemoration, the association places a Missing Man Table in their honor - a symbolic reminder of the American servicemen who never returned home.

The simple ceremony brings together local people, researchers, veterans, military representatives and others who wish to remember the men. More than eight decades after their disappearance, their names continue to be spoken at the place where their story is remembered.

The DUKW discovery now provides a possible model for another search in the same lake.

2nd Lt. Truman L. Allen, a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot with the 65th Fighter Squadron, 57th Fighter Group, disappeared over Lake Garda on April 26, 1945 - just four days before the DUKW tragedy.

Allen's aircraft was a P-47D Thunderbolt, serial number 44-20987, nicknamed "Balls Out II." According to wartime eyewitness testimony, Allen's aircraft came under ground fire during a low-level mission and was subsequently seen plunging into Lake Garda.

Allen's remains have never been recovered.

Researchers now believe there is a possibility that the aircraft itself remains somewhere beneath the lake.

The Volontari del Garda have already investigated parts of the suspected area. Historical research by Associazione Benàch has brought together information from Allen's Missing Air Crew Report (MACR), eyewitness accounts from other aircraft and interviews with local Italian witnesses, helping to narrow the area where the aircraft may have gone down.

The search, however, presents a formidable technical challenge.

According to the Volontari del Garda, the suspected area contains deep underwater canyons and steep formations that can make conventional sonar searches difficult. The underwater terrain can obstruct or weaken the sonar signal, potentially leaving sections of the lake floor difficult to survey.

The experience gained from the DUKW search could now prove valuable.

The Italian team involved in the DUKW research and the American organisation ProMare are exploring how they might combine their experience and technology in a new search for Allen's P-47. Associazione Benàch, led by Ben Appleby and Antonella Previdi, is working with the organisations involved and with local authorities to explore the possibility of conducting a new search using more advanced underwater equipment and techniques.

For those involved, the objective is not simply to find an aircraft.

The DUKW project demonstrated how historical documents, eyewitness testimony, local knowledge, underwater research and modern technology can be brought together to investigate the fate of Americans lost during the final days of the war.

It also demonstrated that the work continues after a discovery: identifying the men, finding their families, recording their stories and making sure they are not forgotten.

Now that same approach could be applied to Truman Allen.

The two stories are separated by only four days. On April 26, Allen disappeared beneath Lake Garda. On April 30, 25 soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division disappeared in the DUKW tragedy.

More than eight decades later, one wreck has been found and documented. The other remains undiscovered.

At the monument in Torbole, the Missing Man Table continues to stand as a reminder that the search for those who never came home is not simply a matter of history.

This POW/MIA Recognition Day, Lake Garda remembers them - and the search continues.

(Ben Appleby is part of the Associazione Benàch, an organization in Torbole dedicated to the memory of fallen and missing Soldiers)