Garda Lake Searches Reveal WWII Bombs, Not NATO Ordnance
They search for smart bombs dumped in the lake by a NATO F15 but find only World War II bombs. Yesterday, the navy divers located a cluster of ordnance, about ten in total, resting on the seabed 200 meters from the shore, in front of Lugana. The area has been cordoned off and will soon be cleared.
There is no sign of NATO bombs, despite ongoing searches that have been underway for months. The fate of Garda is quite strange. Beneath its waters lie secrets, testimonies of past wars, and perhaps even of the most tragic events in recent history.
The waters house weapons, bombs, crates of explosives, and projectiles — even those that could contain secret correspondence between Winston Churchill and Benito Mussolini. Wooden and zinc crates anchored to the seabed by a boulder, possibly thrown into the lake by Il Duce before abandoning his last residence on the shores of Gargnano.
Many have searched for them. No one has found them. Not even the renowned Piccard, who conducted dives in ’91. Much like the elusive NATO bombs, dropped in the afternoon of April 16, ’99, from an F15 returning from a mission in Kosovo.
The pilot, troubled by fuel issues and unable to land at Aviano, headed toward the Ghedi airbase, thus extending his flight. He was forced to jettison his ordnance into the lake. Exactly where they ended up remains unknown.
Initially, it was thought they might have fallen into the Brescia part of the lake. Later, after an investigation was opened by the Procura della Repubblica di Brescia and following further indications, the drop zone was moved to the Veronese shore in the Garda area.
The search area, initiated in autumn, was then extended to the lower lake, including parts of the Brescia region, up to the Sirmione peninsula. Divers and amphibious troops from the Marina militare di La Spezia have been scouring the lakebed for months. And they have found several ordnance pieces.
The most notable find was reported yesterday to the Carabinieri di Desenzano. Divers discovered about ten medium-sized bombs, definitely dating from World War II. They are located roughly 150-200 meters from the shore, at a depth of 40 meters.
The area has been cordoned off, and cleanup will begin. The lake became a dumping ground for residual war debris in 1945. In Salò, the Repubblica Sociale was present, and in Malcesine, in Veneto, the Generale Command of the Luftwaffe, the German air force, was based.
And at the end of the conflict, everything ends up in the lake. Then comes the recovery and explosions. In ’53, the casemates of the islet of Trimellone, opposite Malcesine, were blown up, revealing a real arsenal beneath the waters.
Garda also plays a role in more recent events. Judge Felice Casson had divers explore near the Trimellone island in 1988, where an explosives cache was found, on the indication of a defendant involved in the Bologna station bombing.
There is suspicion that the explosives recovered from Garda were also used in the Italicus and Brescia bombings.
