Dave, thanks for the "translation" on chokes.
Gardone was liberated right at the end of April, 1945. I believe that units of the US 10th Mountain Division crossed Lake Garda and claimed the honor, but some accounts say Italian partisans were in control when they got there. 10th Mountain was looking for Mussolini, who had escaped to the Lake Como area earlier. Interesting book about this period is a memoir by a machine gunner in 10th Mtn. named Robert Ellis. It is called "See Naples and Die."
Ellis remembers 10th Mtn. finding a cache of German-seized fine Italian civilian shotguns in Bolzano; 10th Mtn. members tried to ship them home but many were snagged by the evil REMFs. Could this be one of them???
Ellis had to settle for a couple of Italian revolvers, probably Model 1889s, and could never find ammo for them!
I recently had the somewhat melancholy pleasure of driving a Smart thru the very tunnel on the Lake Garda shore north of Malcesine where a large number of 10th Mtn. troopers were killed and wounded by a German 88 that exploded in the tunnel while they were in it. Hard to imagine the violence that lovely area saw in WWI and WWII when you are just a tourist there.
Last edited by Mike A.; 11/04/11 07:28 PM.
