What was the logic behind the german dog tag system

[Jean-Loup]

Why did the Germans have dog tags that did not have the persons name on it, whitch is obviously the most usefull information, that does not give away any secrets; but instead had the unit listed, that could be used as intelligence information by the enemy; and a code number to make it extremely difficult to find out the name of the wearer.
It seems illogical to me , but I guess they had their reasons. Can anyone explain?
JL

[mr.dogtag]

Well I belive that the most important reason for it is that it is much simpler to produce 200 similar tags than stamping each letter by letter like in the case of French/Polish/British/Belgian and other tags.
US troops needed to use Graphotype machines( used primarly for social security/credit card production purposes) to avoid slow stamping problem. A briliant invention but still needs a heavy machine.
German Army learned the problem during IWW and decided to start using Abbreviation stamps ( Made of whole words like Flak., Inf. etc) to speed up the production, even if it was kept in field conditions.
Of course single letter stamping tools were also in use. Still it was much easier to stamp only unit name + number instead of producing like 200 diferent tags for the whole coy.
I have lots of IWW groupings of tags ( there were 3 basic models in period of 1914-1918 and tags seemed to be changed to a newer model every time) belonging to the same person. It is very seldom that all the personal information on one tag belonging to some person is exactly the same as on another tags. In one of the groupings the surname and the birthdate is different ( Valter was changed to Valent and birthdate moved by 2 days).
I belive this was leading to lots of misunderstandings.
The IIWW German system was easier in tag production, but I guess far worse if it comes to book keeping.
Regards
Al

[Frontalschaden]

Hello


It is not easy for me, but I will try it with my bad english...

Why did the Germans have dog tags that did not have the persons name on it, whitch is obviously the most usefull information, that does not give away any secrets; but instead had the unit listed, that could be used as intelligence information by the enemy...

No ! It couldn`t be used by the enemy, because at the dogtag you can only see the unit were the soldier made his basic training. The dogtags were normaly stamped with the replacement unit and not with his field unit.

As an example:
There could be "3./ Jnfanterie Ersatz Bataillon 23" at the dogtag and the soldier is in duty with 2./ Grenadier-Regiment 974


It is far too much work, to stamp everytime a new dogtag whensoever the soldier is displaced to a new unit.
With the "german system" the soldier can use one dogtag from the first to the last day of the war.

...and a code number to make it extremely difficult to find out the name of the wearer.

The dogtag numbers are centralized in the WASt (Wehrmachtsauskunftsstelle) and in a list in his active (field) unit. The company sergeant only have to look in his list and he can read the rank, name, surname, inscription of the dogtag and the full address of the loved ones (dependants) of the soldier.



The reason of the mob-code from the Luftwaffe is another. The mob-code have to cloud the true unit. It is only nessescary with dogtags from flying units and paratrooper units.



Best regards

Fronti

[Jean-Loup]

Thanks for the explanations guys. It doesnt sound 100% logical to me, but I understand the reasons...
"With the "german system" the soldier can use one dogtag from the first to the last day of the war."
Its the same if the person had his name written down on the tag.

JL

[Matt L]

It must be borne in mind too that the WWII system is actually a return to the original system- the very first Hundemarke had a man's unit and his roll number on it- personal information such as name, home address, birthdate, etc. would have all been kept in the roll book so really knowing which unit's book to look at is the most basic information you need. Putting only a soldier's name and serial number on a disc requires a huge central list- a far more complicated thing than localized records. And since the Regiment was the main organizational body of most military forces at the time, and still is for Commonwealth armies, it makes perfect sense that this would be the main record-keeper as well.

The Landswehr moved to personalized Erkennungsmarken early in WWI- in 1915 I think- moving from small discs with unit and roll number to larger ones with full names, birthdate, sometimes home town with actual house address, and unit- sometimes every single unit a man transferred to with previous ones being struck out. Once they changed to a breakable type where the information has to be duplicated on each side, that just got crazy. I have one disc with over 70 characters per side stamped on it- which is a LOT to have to stamp by hand.

When the Wehrmacht began reorganizing, someone must have realized that it was far more efficient to return to the original method of using unit-centralized records and thus all that was necessary to stamp on a soldiers disc was the location of his basic records and his own personal listing number. It's a whole lot less to have to stamp, and doesn't require the centralized record-keeping for the entire Wehrmacht that just a sequential serial number would.

Interestingly, the Kriegsmarine did opt for this method- of course it was a far, far smaller force than the Heer...

Matt