Lake Garda Bomb Recovery: Operations Complete and Lake Cleared
Air Bomb Recovery Operations in Lake Garda
Everything went smoothly yesterday morning during the recovery operations of the 76 air bombs that had been lying on the lakebed opposite Lugana Marina for 55 years, at a depth of 7-8 meters. The operations were delicate given the exceptional preservation condition of the explosive.
Shortly after 1 PM, a series of ten small detonations ended the lives of 40 German-made air bombs, equipped with SS11 fuzes, each weighing 25 pounds – approximately 13 kilograms – and containing 3 kilograms of “Amatolo” type powder. A powder based on aluminum, whose explosive power is significantly greater than traditional trinitrotoluene (TNT).
Second phase and lake remediation
This morning marks the second and final phase, with the recovery of the remaining 36 bombs and the consequent completion of the cleanup of that stretch of the lake, between Sirmione and Peschiera. A shallow area where the waters do not exceed a depth of 7-8 meters for over a kilometer from the shoreline.
During yesterday’s morning operation, aside from Sirmione’s mayor Maurizio Ferrari, numerous Carabinieri were involved, coordinated directly by the commander of the Desenzano Company, Captain Franco Giandinoto, as well as seven divers from the “Comsubin” Underwater Group of the Marina Militare based in La Spezia, led by their Corvette Captain Massimo Pegazzano. Six members of the Military Engineering Corps, led by Colonel Arturo Porrino and Marshal D’Amico – who was also present in 1982 during the recovery of over 400 grenades in Manerba del Garda – also participated.
The municipal police of Sirmione, led by Commander Carlo Caromanni, personnel from the nearby Inter-municipal Civil Protection Center belonging to the Volontari del Garda, two ambulances from the Italian Red Cross, and a fire brigade tanker from Brescia participated in a large deployment of forces, primarily due to the danger posed by these remnants.
Once collected from the lakebed, the bombs were transported ashore using a couple of boats from the Dive Team and then loaded onto a military Ducato vehicle, transported to an isolated rural location beyond the highway 11, where they were placed into ten large holes about 2.5 meters deep and just over a meter wide. The holes were first filled with sandbags and then covered with soil.
Disposal methods and detonation operations
Each hole contained four bombs. Next to each was placed an explosive stick connected to a slow-burning fuse, triggering the explosion.
The traffic disruptions were minimal; along the Milan-Venice highway, which was intermittently blocked, and only for a few minutes at a time to allow military vehicles to cross the road.
Discoveries and historical context
The discovery of these 76 pieces in Sirmione was linked to searches related to the missiles that planes of NATO dropped on April 15 of last year. These missiles were used to shed excess weight and often contained bombs that detonated upon impact with the ground during support operations for ground troops, in groups of 30 to 40 pieces.
This was in case of an emergency landing, as the supersonic aircraft had run low on fuel after an operation in nearby Yugoslavia. Thus, the lakebed of Italy’s largest lake has become a real war cemetery.
It is also known that a powder dump, located on the Veneto shore, was previously the subject of legal investigations after it was revealed that organized crime recovered explosive remnants from the underwater ordnance – wartime residues resting on Lake Garda’s bed – which were then used for various attacks.
Periodic calls have been made for a comprehensive, total cleanup operation of the lakebed, but given its significant depths and the lake’s vast size, such an operation would face serious and insurmountable difficulties.
This is evident considering that to date, NATO missiles have still not been identified or recovered. Most recoveries are accidental. Even fishermen have occasionally, and perhaps still do, come across old but still dangerous World War II ordnance while retrieving their nets – especially during stormy days.