Dan Wilson’s Capri Bell from WWII

Someone posted on the 15th Army Air Force Facebook page that he’d just found his grandfather’s Capri bell from WWII Italy. Several other people posted that they still had one a family member had brought home.

There was a legend with it.

Danny Wilson bought one when he first arrived in Italy. It was sent home with his effects from his base in Italy after he was declared MIA. His mother wore it on her watch for decades. Last I knew, Aunt Darlene had her mother’s watch, but no one knows what happened to it.

Photo of Leora Wilson wearing her watch with the little Capri bell fastened to it.

Danny Wilson was one of the three Wilson brothers lost during the War. The family story is told in Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss for an Iowa Family During World War II. My journey of research into what happened to the three brothers is told in What Leora Never Knew: A Granddaughter’s Quest for Answers.