Wednesday, December 12, 2012

10th Mountain in WWII Italy and Irish shipwrecks


Just a couple of stories today:

Researchers located an amphibious US truck at the bottom of the 600 foot deep Lake Garda.  The truck is likely the one that sank with 24 men while attempting to storm Italian dictator Mussolini’s refuge near the end of WWII on 30 April 1945.  The DUKW, as it is known, was carrying men of the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division, 85th Infantry Regiment.  Photos show the submerged truck but there are no indications of the men who were listed as missing in action.  More here.

 DUKW amphibious truck

 DUKW amphibious truck


10th Mountain Division, between 0830 and 0910 14 April 1945, Bologna, Italy


 10th Mountain Division, 87th Mountain Infantry, Co K, covering another squad in Sassomolare, Italy, Porretta Moderna Highway, 
4 March 1945


10th Mountain, 8th Infantry regiment, marching north near Malcesine on Lake Garda, 29 April 1945 (the day before the reported DUKW sank in Lake Garda)

About a month ago,  a major survey was published of shipwrecks off the coast of Ireland.  The survey has plenty of photos and shows such things as a tanker sunk during WWII, Sherman tanks that had been loaded on the ship, the 1870s wreck of the ironclad battleship HMS Vanguard, a WWI dreadnought battleship, a German U-Boat and many more.  More here.    

HMS Vanguard at anchor ca. 1870-1875
 
The tanker, the Empire Heritage, had been carrying numerous Sherman tanks.  After being torpedoed by German U-boat U-482 on September 8, 1944, survivors were picked up by the rescue ship Pinto.  The Pinto was fired on by the same U-boat and sunk. Another ship arrived for those survivors.




Kapitänleutnant Hartmut Graf von Matuschka, Captain of the U-482 that sunk the Empire Heritage and Pinto


Type VII C U-boat, same type as U-482 but different U-boat pictured

Sherman tanks in European theater, 1943

Sherman tank in Sicily, 1943

The joys of military related nautical archaeology...

Some WWII and other shipwreck information websites below:

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/3351.html

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