Did you know about the WWII canteen cup that led to renaming a highway in the US?

The cup of Private Wesley Karna on the spot where it was found
(Photo: Manuel Noferini)

Small actions can sometimes have unlikely consequences down the line. On September 24, 1944, the day he was killed in action, Michigan Private Wesley Vietti Karna lost his canteen cup in Northern Italy. After lying on the forest floor for many decades, the cup eventually set in action a course of events which led to the dedication of a section of the M-26 in Houghton County as the Private Wesley Vietti Karna Memorial Highway, connecting the village of his birth to the graveyard where he now rests. But how did the lost cup lead to the highway?

Karna was born to Finnish immigrant parents as one of eight siblings (among whom were two pairs of twins). As a private in the 91st “Powder River” Infantry Division, he participated in the gritty, bloody fight up the Italian peninsula. The division reached the Gothic Line, the last main German line of defense in Northern Italy, by late August 1944.

Private Wesley Karna
(Photo: Gotica Toscana)

The German paratroopers holding the line of fortifications near the town of Covigliaio at the Futa Pass were well dug in, led by experienced officers, and supported by accurate artillery. On August 24, U.S. troops clashed with the Germans in the forest. The town’s inhabitants thought that most of the fighting was going to occur in the town proper, so they’ve also went out into the forest to hide, picking a spot just a few hundred yards from the site of the actual clash.

What’s known for sure is that Wesley was killed in combat by multiple penetrating wounds from behind. The rest is up to speculation, but the presence of shrapnel found in the area 80 years later suggests that he was either running to his foxhole or lying in it on his stomach when he was killed, either by a shell from a German 88mm gun, or from a stock of American mortar rounds that were hit and detonated by a German shell. On the same day, possibly in the moment of his death, or maybe sometime earlier, he lost his stainless steel canteen cup. As far as it could be told eight decades later, it must have slipped off the edge of an American foxhole and down an embankment, where it lay undisturbed for eighty years. A few hours after Karna’s death, his unit was relieved and pulled off the frontline.

A memorial stone to Wesley Karna placed at the site of his death
(Photo: Manuel Noferini)

The cup was eventually found by Manuel Noferini, an Italian carabiniere (gendarmerie) veteran and historian, who is a member of Gotica Toscana, an association of military history enthusiasts dedicated to researching the war and maintaining their own museum. Noferini noticed the word “Karna”, assumably a name or nickname, scratched into the bottom of the cup. His research revealed it to be a name, and fortunately a rather uncommon one, which made the search for the former owner easier.

With help from a friend, American veteran and author Andrew Biggio, whose two-volume book The Rifle collects the testimonies of World War II veterans, he eventually made contact with the Karna family. All of Wesley’s siblings are now dead, but there are numerous children and grandchildren surviving, including Wesley’s niece Susan and her son Brad Uren. Susan and Brad traveled to Italy in 2023 and attended a ceremony where a memorial stone was placed at the site of Wesley Karna’s death.

Private Karna’s cup returning to America. The pilot of the plane taking the Karna family home after their trip to Italy honored Private Karna’s sacrifice by making sure the cup was the first “passenger” to reach America.
(Photo: courtesy of Manuel Noferini)

A section of the M-26 highway was renamed in honor of Private Wesley Viatti Karna the following year. The battleship USS Missouri, on display in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, flew a flag in honor of Private Karna during the time of the inauguration ceremony. And as for the cup which set this chain of events in action… it is now in the care of Wesley’s relatives as a precious family heirloom.

You can discover the Gothic Line and learn more about the hard fighting that faced Allied soldiers on the Italian Peninsula on our North Italian and Grand Italian Tours. Our tours bring history to life with visits to local battlefields, museums, monuments and military cemeteries, and with the knowledge of local guide who will tell you all about the stories of the brave men who fought in Italy.