as a young man, lamborghini was drawn more to farming machinery rather than the farming lifestyle itself. following his interest in mechanics, lamborghini studied at the fratelli taddia technical institute near bologna. in 1940 he was drafted into the italian royal air force, where he served as a mechanic at the italian garrison on the island of rhodes (territory of the kingdom of italy since 1911, after the italo-turkish war), becoming the supervisor of the vehicle maintenance unit. lamborghini was taken prisoner when the island fell to the british at the end of the war in 1945, and was not able to return home until the next year. he married, but his wife died in 1947 while giving birth to his first child, a boy named tonino.