Tragedy Strikes on the Mountain

The larger, slower group of 10 men had progressed some way down the mountain slope and into a valley when a tragedy began to unfold which was to lead to the death of three of them: Pte. Douglas Clarke of South Africa and two Americans – USAAF S/Sgt. John J. McGowan of New York and Sgt. Donald E. Lundgren of North Grafton, Massachusetts. [2]

The bodies were found in the snow by a search party next day and were brought down to Brissago, where the local doctor ascribed the deaths to exhaustion. The bodies would have been buried in the Brissago cemetery without further ado had not the efficient Swiss police notified the respective foreign consulates – in the case of Clarke, the British consul in Lugano.

The UK military attaché in Berne soon cabled the news to the War Office in London. Since the "British" casualty was in fact a Springbok escaped prisoner of war, the Foreign Office passed the information on to the South African High Commissioner in London, and kept him up to date with all further developments.(Continued)