The Editorial Team
Gotica Toscana and all the other associations that are dedicated to keeping alive the memory of the veterans who fought during the Second World War work to honor the courage of these men, which is the foundation of our Freedom. Reconstructing the story of a soldier who fell on Italian soil and reuniting him with the memory of his family is one of the aims of these associations. Sometimes, the discovery of personal objects, as in this case, an abandoned mess tin, allows us to reconstruct the broken bond between the family and the young man who left for a war from which he would never return.
This is the story of Wesley Vietti Karna, born August 24, 1922, to Finnish immigrants Erick and Ida Kara, in Adams Township, Michigan, where Karna grew up. His was a large family of miners, with 8 brothers and sisters. In April 1944, when he was just 21 years old, Karna was traveling to North Africa as a private in Company F of the 362nd Regiment of the 91stth US Army Infantry Division. After initial training at Camp White, Oregon, the Division participates in Oregon Maneuver, the largest military field exercise in the Pacific Northwest. In North Africa, Division training continues at Arzew and Renan, French Morocco. In June 1944 the 91th Infantry Division is sent to Italy as part of the 2nd Corps of the 5thth American Army. Karna was a member of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 362nd Infantry Regiment, 91st Division, II Corps, Fifth U.S. Army that fought on the Gothic Line against German paratroopers.
Manuel Noferini tells us his story (and the story of his mess tin).
by Manuel Noferini
In the last days of September 1944 the war passed through an impervious forest just north of the Futa pass, a very short distance from where the terrified civilian population of Covigliaio, a nearby town, had taken refuge. There the German paratroopers of the 11th Regiment and the infantrymen of the 91st faced each otherth US division.
The Germans were few and in many cases they were replacements who had arrived at the front only a few days earlier and with very little or no combat experience. On the other hand, the cadres were very good, and knew how to use the human material at their disposal well. They had chosen that place to resist because it was not very exposed, but at the same time it allowed them to maintain control of the nearby Highway 65, even without being too close to it. The Americans attacked: the Germans defended themselves, and well. The paratroopers were also supported by the precise fire of some '88 artillery pieces, which hit numerous enemies who were advancing in the open. The battle lasted a day and a night. The civilians heard them fighting, very close. Then slowly the cadence of the shots decreased, and the noise of the shots was gradually replaced by the clatter of the boots of the retreating soldiers, who were descending into the valley along the nearby stream. Loaded with weapons and ammunition belts, they made a lot of noise; and this left a strong impression on the population.
At dawn the Americans arrived. The dazed civilians emerged from their shelters and headed towards their homes. They had no idea if they would still find them standing. Returning, they had to cross the battlefield. The still smoking ground was strewn with the dead, perhaps a hundred. Most of them were Germans, but there were also many Americans. When people arrived at the town, it was a surprise: it was still mostly intact, apart from a few roofs shattered by cannon fire. The load-bearing walls were all still standing. The houses inside had been partly raided, but the damage was limited because there was very little to steal in that poor town. One thing everyone noticed, however, was... the complete lack of bedside tables! They had been taken away from every bedroom, and the explanation is banal: the Americans used them to light fires. But why not a wardrobe or a chest of drawers? Because the bedside tables were easier to smash, it was less effort.
Many decades later, right in the middle of that out-of-the-way woods, a stainless steel mess tin turned up, found during an inspection of Gotica Toscana. He had slipped from the edge of an American "foxhole" down a small embankment. The individual hole was part of a fairly large group identified shortly before, which in all likelihood had been dug by the same Americans who took part in the battle. From there they must have left to attack the German positions.
But there's more.
Looking between the rust stains left by the iron handle, now completely disintegrated, a writing could be glimpsed. By carefully cleaning the object, what might initially appear to be simple scratches took on a well-defined shape, a series of letters lightly engraved on the metal. It was a job done quickly, nothing artistic, because it was only meant to help you recognize your own apprenticeship among those of others.
“Karna”, it was clearly read, and it could have been a surname or at most a nickname. Who knows if it would ever be possible to trace the owner! Initially it seemed like we had to look for the classic needle in the haystack, but a brief search on the Web confirmed that it must be a surname, which among other things was not very common.
In addition to his surname, it was known that the soldier was in Italy in 1944, and that in all likelihood he was part of the 91stst Infantry Division. We continued with the research, exploiting all the resources that could be accessed from Italy. Various matches were found: a fair number of young Americans enlisted in the Army with the surname Karna. On these, for each of them, we sought more precise information, until we arrived at Wesley. This young man of twenty-two unfortunately did not survive the war. It's a story that gives you chills when you rediscover it. He died the same day he lost his mess tin, 24 September 1944.
He was probably hit by a '88 shot fired by the Germans while he was preparing to attack the paratroopers of the 11th Regiment on the Covigliaio hill. As already mentioned, it is known that the area was bombed by the Germans in 1988, who had precisely identified the enemy's position. From the archives it appears that Wesley died from multiple shrapnel wounds, so this reconstruction is quite plausible.
His body was recovered from the battlefield, he was buried in the military cemetery of Castelfiorentino, and remained there until his remains were repatriated after the war, at his mother's request.
Wesley was from Michigan, and came from a mining family of Finnish origin with 8 children, including two sets of twins. The brothers and sisters are now all dead, but there are numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren today, scattered throughout the United States. There is also one of them, born in 1945, who has the same name as him: Wesley.
Thanks to the interest of his friend Andrew Biggio, author of the book "The Rifle" which collects the testimonies of numerous American fighters of the Second World War, it was possible to get in touch with the family, who never forgot their young son who fell in a distant land. And so, on May 13, 2023, a representative of the Karna family arrived from Michigan to remember him and to bring home the small heirloom that belonged to him. They are Brad Uren and his mother Susan, the latter daughter of Irene, one of Wesley's sisters. A commemorative stone dedicated to him was placed on the place where the soldier died, while at the MuGot headquarters in Ponzalla a plaque was inaugurated in their presence in honor of the 362nd Infantry Regiment, commissioned by the family of another veteran who had been part of it, Second Lieutenant Cleron J. Carpenter.