After 70 years, military dog tag returns home after family of soldier who lost it is found

This will be a special birthday for an 87-year-old granny from Olgiate Olona. Luigia Colombo will receive the military dog tag of her father, who fought during the Second World War.

A couple of months ago, we told you about the mobilisation of the Gruppo Ricerche Storiche, a Rome-based association of history enthusiasts who travel all over the country in search of relatives of soldiers whose possessions have been found. Their search had led them to Varese Province, and it was in the VareseNews Facebook group “Oggi in Valle Olona” where one of them, Maurizio De Angelis, had talked about the initiative, and revealed that a military dog tag had been found, and asked for any relatives of the soldier Giuseppe Colombo to come forward. The State Archives contain information about him only until 1943. It does not seem that he took part in the civil war, as he stayed out of the conflicts from 1943 to 1945, and managed to go back home.

Two months after the start of the search, the soldier’s personal information has finally been revealed, his family has been found and his military dog tag can return to the hands of Luigia and her brother Virginio. The two children of the soldier were tracked down thanks to the efforts of De Angelis and to the contribution of Olgiate Olona town council (who provided the personal information of the family), but that is not all. There is a third person to whom Luigia can say “Thank you”; after discovering that the search was underway, Davide Mancini, from Olgiate, a reader of our newspaper and a history buff, immediately came forward to help directly in the field. And that is exactly what happened. It was he who rang the doorbell of the Colombos and informed them that the dog tag had been found.

Afraid of Covid, and demonstrating the level of distrust our elderly people show to strangers (considering the amount of fraud we hear about), Luigia did not immediately trust the good David, who, armed with patience and initiative, managed to achieve his goal. “I expected my story would be met with distrust,” he said. “Who’d trust someone who tells you a dog tag has been found and they want to return it to you without you having to pay a cent? I was expecting the person concerned to be afraid. I’d already prepared a copy of the VareseNews article that spoke about the dog tag being found, the photo of the site of the historical research group and my contacts. I left everything in the mailbox, and went home with the hope they’d get back to me. And that’s what happened.”

Luigia’s daughter telephoned him that evening and she understand that something magical was really happening to her family. Davide, who is a mechanical designer who has always had a great interest in historical research, especially local history, cannot hide his enthusiasm. “It was a joy to take part in this wonderful initiative; the dog tag is finally going home. I’ll also have the honour of handing it to Luigia: what a thrill it will be.”

“In our work of searching, we occasionally find people who are as enthusiastic about history as we are, who are in the right place, who help us to trace the family,” De Angelis explained. “Davide did a great job in overcoming the understandable initial distrust. Unfortunately, we don’t only come across impartial help, but also crooks: for the Olgiate Olona dog tag, someone came forward claiming to be a relative of Giuseppe’s, but once we had traced his actual relatives, he said he wanted to purchase the tag for his collection. It was really nasty. What is important to us is to return the objects to the legitimate descendants, without asking for money. We’ve now returned more than 130 tags to their rightful owners, and all we ask for is a photograph of the soldier and of the relative who receives the tag. What drives our work is a great passion for history, not the profit motive.” Now they are only waiting for the official return. “I am waiting for the tag to come from Liguria (where it was discovered), then we’ll prepare a frame with the photo of Colombo and send it to Davide, who’ll deliver it for us.”

At the home of Luigia, this is what they are looking forward to, as her niece Federica told us. “My grandmother turns 87 on 21 January; this will be the most wonderful gift for her. We hope to receive it in time, but if we don’t, it will be fine all the same, when we celebrate the return of the tag. We’re all excited. She was just a child when my great-grandfather left for the front; she remembers that he managed to return, but he didn’t often speak at home about what he’d experienced in the war. Thanks to Maurizio, to the registry in the town hall and to Davide, an important object in our history will finally be able to return home.”

 

Translated by Vittoria Bonanomi, Elisa Cairone and Elisabetta Ciocca

Reviewed by Prof. Rolf Cook