Despite the romantic wartime tale, love did not last for Ralph and Lois. The couple divorced in 1947. All that remains is the wreck of the turret, now on display at a local museum in Bolsena, Italy. 
 
 Of the wrecked bomber's 10 men, three were captured by the Germans and finished out the war in a POW Camp. The remaining seven were saved and hidden from the Germans by Italian families. Truesdale also left his turret and let the name of his wife plunge in the water with the plane. Truesdale was among the crewmen captured by the Germans and taken in a POW camp. He managed to escape and remained hidden for three months until the arrival of the Allies. 
 
 The plane crashed into Lake Bolsena, the largest volcanic lake in Europe. All 10 men parachuted to the ground. 
 
 Once near Perugia, the group encountered heavy fire from German anti-aircraft. Seven B-17s in the first wave and 18 in the second suffered serious damage. "Ethel's" two engines were struck and damaged and the bomber spun out of control. 
 
 "Ethel" flew for the last time on Jan. 15, 1944. The final flight was part of a mission which involved the use of 38 B-17 Flying Fortresses divided into two waves. The primary target was the railroad bridge in the town of Certaldo, south of Florence. The alternate target was a marshalling yards at Poggibonsi, near Siena. 
 
 Writing a lover's name on the plane wasn't just Truesdale's idea. When it came to name their plane, the entire crew agreed to call it "Ethel," after the girlfriend of right waist gunner, Anthony Brodniak. The B-17 plane is shown at left. At right Antony Brodniak poses with his girlfriend, Ethel. 
 
 It turned out the words referred to Lois Eileen, the young wife of gunner Sgt. Ralph Truesdale. He was one of the 10-man crew aboard the four-engine aircraft B-17 USAF serial no. 4124364. Ralph Truesdale (R) and his wife, Lois Eileen, are shown here. Lois is holding their five-month-old child. 
 
 The recovered turret featured the intriguing hand-painted words: "Ileen Lois." "The words were still visible after 70 years underwater on the right and left side of the turret," said Mario Di Sorte, a historian who pieced together the plane's history. 
 
 Divers from the Research Center of the Scuba School of Lake Bolsena and the Fire Department of Viterbo identified several pieces of the plane scattered on the bottom of the lake. From a depth of 300 feet, they recovered the largest piece, the Sperry ball turret -- an enclosed capsule that protected the bomber at the belly of the craft. 
 
 A World War II wreck, which has been laying on the bottom of an Italian lake for 70 years, has revealed a forgotten story of love during wartime. The wreck, a B-17 "Flying Fortress" bomber, crashed in Lake Bolsena on Jan. 15, 1944. 
 
 A forgotten story of death and survival during wartime has been brought to light after 70 years as local people unearthed the remains of an American World War II aircraft known as the “Flying Coffin.” 
 
 Found in the forests of Selva del Lamone, a natural reserve near the town of Farnese, Viterbo, in central Italy, the wreck remains were identified as belonging to the heavy bomber Consolidated B-24 Liberator. 
 
 B-24s are recorded as having dropped over 630,000 tons of bombs during World War II and were the most heavily produced American aircraft. 
 
 The four-engine aircraft was notorious among aircrews. Officially designated the “Liberator,” the square shaped B-24 could easily turn into a death trap. It was hard to fly with its stiff and heavy controls, and so earned its name by its crews as the “Flying Coffin.” 
 
 Liberators had only one exit near the tail, making it almost impossible for the crew to reach the rear from the flight deck when wearing a parachute. 
 
 WWII Dogfight Evidence Found in Italy 
 
 According to historian Mario Di Sorte, the wreckage fragments found in Selva del Lamone belong to a B-24 ‘H’ model that operated within the 15th Air Force, 454th Bomb Group, 736th Bomb Squadron from San Giovanni, near Foggia in southern Italy. 
 
 “We were able to fully reconstruct its last flight, unveiling a drama which involved South African escapees, Italian civilians and U.S. pilots,” Di Sorte told Discovery News. 
 
 The B-24H took off from San Giovanni on March 3, 1944 for a bombing mission to Canino airport, south west of Lake Bolsena. It was one of the 277 bombers — all B-17 “Flying Fortress” and B-24 Liberators — taking off from airfields in Puglia to bomb bridges, train stations and airports controlled by the Germans. 
 
 The B-24H was part of an 18-bomber formation that dropped some 25 tons of bombs on the Canino airport, where the Focke Wulf 190 fighters led by German Luftwaffe flying ace Erich Honagen operated. 
 
 “Weather conditions and clouds prevented accurate bombing. Only half of the bombers actually dropped their loads, in many cases missing the main target area,” Di Sorte said. 
 
 Photos: WWII Wreck Reveals Wartime Romance 
 
 As two German fighters attacked the B-24H and its 10-man crew led by lieutenant William J. Goodwin Jr., only two men managed to parachute: sergeant gunner Wallace H. Cleveland and sergeant tail gunner John M. Ashby. 
 
 They were the only survivors of the “Flying Coffin.” 
 
 The B-24H exploded before crashing. It split in three parts, leaving the Italian civilians who came to the crash site with a horrifying scene of death. 
 
 “Carbonized bodies were scattered around the wreckage, a body was hanging from a tree with his parachute, while lieutenant William J. Goodwin was seen laying on the ground wearing the oxygen mask with bandages stuffed inside,” Di Sorte said. 
 
 Seriously injured, sergeant Cleveland parachuted away from the crash and was captured by the Germans, ending up in a prison camp in Germany. 
 
 WWII Fighter Plane Recovered: BIG PIC 
 
 Sergeant Ashby was helped by the local family Sabatini along with two South African soldiers. They had escaped from a prison camp in Italy and were hiding themselves in caves owned by the Sabatinis. 
 
 While Asby was later captured by the Germans, also ending up in a prison camp, the South African soldiers met a terrible fate. 
 
 “Bobby” Robert Carter of the South African Engineer Corps and “Alfred” F.J.Crinall of the Rand Light Infantry South African Forces were arrested in the town of Farnese by the Germans on June 4, 1944. 
 
 “They were tortured for two days, forced to dig their own pit and then shot dead,” Di Sorte said. 
 
 The wreckage fragments will go on display in the Selva del Lamone natural reserve by the end of the year. Along with commemorative panels, they will recount the story of the American and South African soldiers. 
 
 Image: The heavy bomber Consolidated B-24 Liberator, known by its crews as the “Flying Coffin.” Credit: Mario Di Sorte. ||||| A rescue team search for the Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander aircraft YV-2615 near the archipielago of Los Roques January 6, 2013. 
 
 MILAN | 
 
 MILAN (Reuters) - The family of Italian fashion executive Vittorio Missoni said on Monday they still believed he was alive, three days after his plane disappeared off the coast of Venezuela, and begged rescuers to find him. 
 
 The small twin-engine plane carrying Missoni, 58, his wife Maurizia Castiglioni, another couple and two Venezuelan crew members went missing on Friday after taking off from the resort of Los Roques, an archipelago off the coast of Venezuela. 
 
 "We believe Vittorio, Maurizia, Elda and Guido are still alive!" Missoni's sister Angela wrote on Twitter. "Please help us find them and bring them back home." 
 
 Italy's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on how the search for the missing plane was progressing. 
 
 Italian media have suggested Missoni, his wife and their friends Elda Scalvenzi and Guido Foresti may have been kidnapped. 
 
 The pilot of a Cessna 402 that took off exactly one minute after the Britten Norman BN2 carrying Missoni said he saw the plane disappear. 
 
 "I saw them right in front of me as they were swallowed up by a huge cumulus cloud," pilot Enrique Rada told Turin daily La Stampa in an interview published on Monday. "It was a lightning bolt. It must have been a lightning bolt." 
 
 Rada told La Stampa he was contacted by the control tower advising him of the plane's disappearance shortly after he saw it enter the cloud. He said he tried to make radio contact with the plane's pilot, German Marchan, but could not do so. 
 
 Missoni is the oldest son of the founders of the fashion house famous for its exuberantly colored knits, featuring bold stripes and zigzags. He is co-owner with siblings Luca and Angela, who handle the technical and design sides of the firm. 
 
 A decision about whether Missoni will go ahead with its Milan fashion show January 13 during the upcoming menswear collections January 12-15 may be made today and will be made public as soon as possible, a Missoni spokeswoman said on Monday. 
 
 The fashion house posted sales of 70 million euros ($91 million) in 2011, making it one of Italy's smaller fashion houses. Gianni Versace, for example, had revenue of 340 million euros in 2011, and Giorgio Armani had 1.8 billion euros. 
 
 ($1 = 0.7666 euros) 
 
 (Reporting by Jennifer Clark; Editing by Pravin Char)
– An Italian WWII pilot who died battling US pilots 70 years ago has been found 13 feet underground, his remains still at the controls of a fighter plane armed with machine guns and cannons, Discovery reports. Lt. Guerrino Bortolani went down in a losing battle against Allied planes on March 11, 1944, and hit the ground so hard that he literally vanished into the countryside outside Padua in northern Italy. "The crash site is now a cornfield," says a member of the wreck-hunting crew that found Bortolani. "We were able to find the remains with the help of an elderly man, who on that day witnessed the fighter going into a nosedive and hit the ground." Bortolani was flying the best Italian fighter plane (the Macchi C.205) in a squadron led by the renowned Italian ace Adriano Visconti. But they went up against a daunting strike by the Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air Force—which had sent 111 B-17 planes over Padua to drop more than 300 tons of bombs. Allies said the Axis defense was "aggressive," but five German planes and four Italian planes went down. Bortolani was "dutiful until the end," the Week notes, sitting on his closed parachute and wearing a ring given him by a fighter pilot academy. Wreck-hunters found several parts of the plane as well, including the tail wheel, control stick, and pieces of the engine. Bortolani is expected to have a proper burial once relatives are found. (Read about a German U-boat found off North Carolina.)