I D. Tag

[Dennis S]

Hi, Can anyone help me with this I.D disk I had it for years but got it with some non-noteworthy items. Any Idea what it is for. It appears to be made out
of aluminum alloy. I think . Its marked as follows

1. N. 77.
239

Thanks Dennis

[Matt L]

Hi Dennis,

That's not a bad piece at all- the unit is: 1. Kompanie Nachrichten-Abteilung 77 (1st company, signals detachment 77) and 239 is the soldier's roster number.

I don't have my references easy to hand at the moment, but perhaps someone else will be able to give you the unit details.

Matt

[Dennis S]

Thanks

Hi Dennis,

That's not a bad piece at all- the unit is: 1. Kompanie Nachrichten-Abteilung 77 (1st company, signals detachment 77) and 239 is the soldier's roster number.

I don't have my references easy to hand at the moment, but perhaps someone else will be able to give you the unit details.

Matt

Matt, I appreciate your quick reply , I had a feeling it may have been signals or smoke. So probably original I presume by your reply. Any reason no blood type.
many thanks again. Regards Dennis

[Matt L]

Sure thing Dennis- I'm happy to help.
Indeed, in my opinion, it is authentic.

There could be several reasons why it doesn't have a blood group letter on it: 1) it was never issued, 2) the Wehrmacht began putting blood group letters on Erkennungsmarken only in mid-1941, so it's possible that if the disc was issued, the soldier left the service (maybe badly wounded?) or was killed prior to this time, or 3) the soldier was simply never able to have the test done for some reason.

Because it's a field unit and not an Ersatz unit, if this disc was issued, it is entirely possible that it was carried by a soldier who was serving in the Wehrmacht when the war started. It's my understanding that discs were not issued prior to the outbreak of war- or at least only when soldiers were mobilized to the frontier just before the start of hostilities- so every man serving at that time received a disc marked with the information of the unit he was in. Once the war started, soldiers were issued discs by and marked with the information of the Ersatz unit into which they were first inducted. There were possible occasions that during the war a man might get a disc marked with the info of his field unit, but those seem to have been rare.

So, if this was the case and this soldier was in the field from the start of the war, it could help to explain why he might not have ever had a blood group test done- if he was never sick, never wounded, etc., he might simply never have been anywhere that it could be done. It's not a field test- the antisera necessary are perishable and require refrigeration, so it seems unlikely to me to be something a field medical unit could do. Of course this is all just conjecture. It's just as likely this was simply never issued- after all, the roster number is quite high and there is no obvious indication that the disc was worn.

Here's the information I was able to find about the unit:

Nachrichten-Abteilung 77

Created on 1.3.1939 in WKVIII; attached to the 5. Panzer-Division and was in Poland, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, Russia, the Ukraine, Lithuania, and ended the war in East Prussia. The unit was re-designated Panzer-Nachrichten-Abteilung 77 some time before 1943 -I'm not sure exactly when though.

Matt

[Dennis S]

Thanks

Sure thing Dennis- I'm happy to help.
Indeed, in my opinion, it is authentic.

There could be several reasons why it doesn't have a blood group letter on it: 1) it was never issued, 2) the Wehrmacht began putting blood group letters on Erkennungsmarken only in mid-1941, so it's possible that if the disc was issued, the soldier left the service (maybe badly wounded?) or was killed prior to this time, or 3) the soldier was simply never able to have the test done for some reason.

Because it's a field unit and not an Ersatz unit, if this disc was issued, it is entirely possible that it was carried by a soldier who was serving in the Wehrmacht when the war started. It's my understanding that discs were not issued prior to the outbreak of war- or at least only when soldiers were mobilized to the frontier just before the start of hostilities- so every man serving at that time received a disc marked with the information of the unit he was in. Once the war started, soldiers were issued discs by and marked with the information of the Ersatz unit into which they were first inducted. There were possible occasions that during the war a man might get a disc marked with the info of his field unit, but those seem to have been rare.

So, if this was the case and this soldier was in the field from the start of the war, it could help to explain why he might not have ever had a blood group test done- if he was never sick, never wounded, etc., he might simply never have been anywhere that it could be done. It's not a field test- the antisera necessary are perishable and require refrigeration, so it seems unlikely to me to be something a field medical unit could do. Of course this is all just conjecture. It's just as likely this was simply never issued- after all, the roster number is quite high and there is no obvious indication that the disc was worn.

Here's the information I was able to find about the unit:

Nachrichten-Abteilung 77

Created on 1.3.1939 in WKVIII; attached to the 5. Panzer-Division and was in Poland, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, Russia, the Ukraine, Lithuania, and ended the war in East Prussia. The unit was re-designated Panzer-Nachrichten-Abteilung 77 some time before 1943 -I'm not sure exactly when though.

Matt

Matt, Thats a ton of information it means a lot more now than just a little piece of tin. Thanks again Dennis