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10th Mountain Division Lost DUKW Memorial–Lake Garda

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Details:

Immediately outside the church near the monument for Colonel William Darby.

Monument


An inscribed light colored marble monument about 6 feet tall.

 

 

In April 1945 while pursing the German Army along the northern edge of Lake Garda Italy, the Germans destroyed all the tunnels on the lakeside road precluding the 10th Mountain Division from the pursuit. The unit instead conducted an amphibious assault on April 30, 1945 across the lake using DUKW amphibious vehicles. 

 

The 10th Mountain Division assault, lead by Colonel William O. Darby included a DUKW manned by the 605th Filed Artillery Battalion of the division (PFC Del Grosso was a member of the 52nd Quartermaster Battalion).  During the assault, a storm developed and the over loaded DUKW sank killing 24 of the 25 soldiers aboard.  The lone survivor was  Corporal Thomas Earl “Tom” Hough of Dayton, Ohio.  According to Cpl. Thomas Hough,  the soldiers desperately tossed their equipment and ammunition overboard in an attempt to keep the vessel from sinking. But the DUKW went down anyway, plunging the men into the frigid waters of the glacier-fed lake. 24 soldiers drowned and their bodies were not recovered. Hough, a former lifeguard from Dayton, Ohio, was rescued by two 10th Mountain soldiers on shore who heard the cries for help, The 24 who perished were commemorated on the Wall of the Missing at the Florence American Military Cemetery.  

 

In 2018 the sunken DUKW was discovered at the bottom of Lake Garda and the soldiers are now commemorated on a memorial in Nago-Torbole.  Many of the soldiers were repatriated to the United States.  


The list of soldiers who died during the attack are list below in the text section.

 

The DUKW (colloquially known as Duck) is a six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the ​2 1⁄2-ton CCKW trucks used by the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean War.

 

The name DUKW comes from General Motors Corporation model nomenclature:

 

D, Designed in 1942

U, Utility

K, All-wheel drive

W, Dual-tandem rear axles

 

Monument Text:

The text is written in English and reads:

 

(Symbol of the 10th Mountain Division)

 

Dedicated to the Twenty-Five

10th Mountain Division (US Army)

Soldiers Who Drowned on Lake Garda

April 30th 1945

 

 

 

Pfc Armstrong, Walter J.

Cpl Armstrong, William R.

Pvt Britton, Merle

Cpl Champion, Max L.

Pfc Dillard, Jerry T.

Cpl Hamilton, Emory E.

Pvt Harper, Howard

Cpl Harwell, James

1sgt Hilley, James S.

Pfc King, Leroy A.

Pfc Koskela, Edward E.

Pfc Lade, Stanley R.

Cpl Madara, William E.

Pfc Miller, Frank J.

Pvt Morrison William C.,Jr.

Pvt Murray, Roger L.

Pfc Paulson, Elmer C.

Pfc Reynolds Xwell Y.

Cpl Russell, Gayle W., Jr.

Pfc Russell, Norman B.

Pvt Tame, Frank

Pfc Tannehill, Charles E.

Cpl Wright, Richard

Pfc Del Grosso, Nicholas*