ID tags: every digger's responsibility... and reward

[Jean-Loup]

Around 2004-2006, I was intensively investigating former German grave sites in the area of Nice, southern France, and performing metal detector searches when possible.
One such site was located in the beautyful village of la Roquette. The town had been liberated by a daring operation by the 517th Parachute Infantry on August 28th 1944. The US paratroopers had crossed a wide river during the night and snuck completely behind the German defensive positions without being noticed. When they attacked, the fight was brief but violent. Locals remembered that 13 Germans had been killed, but a check in the Volksbund archives indicated that in fact only 11 had been killed. The rest of the German garison surendered. Miraculously, no Americans were killed in this operation that deserves to be much better known.
Of the 11 Germans killed, only 7 had been identified when the bodies were exhumed in the 1950s.
Below is a photo of la Roquette and the list of names of the killed established by the Volksbund after the war. Note the four unknown at the bottom.

[Jean-Loup]

Because of the complete surprise with which the US attack came in, and the following surrender of the entire German garison, the fates of the German killed had not be known to their families for many years. Several of them were listed on the German Red Cross missing in action lists, and letters that the families received confirmed that the Germans command had no idea what had happened to its men.
Below is an example of Red Cross missing list, as well as the letter received by one of the families of the dead. The death of both soldiers pictured below was only confirmed in 1958!!

Dear Mr Fischer!<O</O
<O</O
Today I must disclose the sad news to you, that your son, Grenadier Kaspar Fischer, born on 11.4.1926, is reported missing in the southern France invasion battles, in the area of la Roquette (on the Var) since 28.8.1944. Your son, who was assigned to securing the location of la Roquette with a platoon of the company, did not come back to the company after the successful attack of the location by American troops. Because of the situation, it was not possible to bring any outside help to those who were surrounded. It must be assumed that the entire garrison of la Roquette has fallen into American captivity. The company can give you no further details about the whereabouts of your son as no witnesses are available. <O</O</O
Ifthe company were to find out anything else about the whereabouts of your son and the fate of the surrounded, you will be, dear Mr Fischer, told about it immediately. If you were to receive a sign of life from your son in the meantime, you are prayed to pass this information on to the company. <O</O
<O</O
The company greatly regrets the loss of your son and so loses a valued and dear comrade.<O</O
<O</O
For the enquiry, you are requested to get in touch with the ‘International Red Cross’. Information about this and other related matters will be given to you by every regional army bureau.<O</O
<O</O
In the hope that the company will be able to tell you something more about the fate of your son, I salute you with<O</O

Heil Hitler!<O</O

<O</O

Yours truly<O</O
Buchmann Lieutenant and Company Commander

[Jean-Loup]

With the help of local inhabitants, I was able to find out where the 11 killed Germans had been buried and later exhumed. One man had even been present at the exhumation and remembered having seen the German "specialist" digging out a still helmeted head with a paintbrush.
I started my search of the area, which was still full of buttons, and other small items. I was however very surprised, and I in fact have to say, overjoyed, when I found the item shown below.

[Jean-Loup]

At the sight of the exhumation, I had found a German ID tag, that did not corresond to the known ID tag of any of the 7 identified bodies. This meant I had found the ID tag of one of the 4 soldiers who was still unknown!
I sent a letter to the Deutsche Dienststelle in Berlin and also had some phone conversations with them. They needed more then a bit of convincing to understand that this ID tag had been found at the exact site of the former burial, and therefore almost certainly belonged to one of the missing soldiers.
This occurred in about 2008 or so.

[Jean-Loup]

After sending my information to Berlin, the very long wait started.... Very, very long... It took them 10 years to decode the ID tag, find out who it corresponded to, verify that the guy was indeed missing in la Roquette, and consider him identified. However in 2016 I finaly received the good news.
The ID tag had belonged to an 18 year old Silesian soldier named Alois Gallus. His name would be added to the grave where the other soldiers from la Roquette were buried, and one of the "unbekannter Soldat" inscriptions would be removed.

[Jean-Loup]

You will note that on the letter I received, Gallus' hometown is not listed as according to Berlin rules this is private information not to be shared even with the person who is responsible for the identification!
Luckily the Volksbund, that is based in Kassel, in a different Lander, has different rules, and they told me the name of the small town in Silesia where Gallus was from.
Sileasia now belongs to Poland, which means yet another seemingly irrational rule applies: the German identification services are not allowed to actively search for family members of killed soldiers outside the borders of Germany. I think this is an old rule dating from the Cold War when getting a letter behing the Iron Wall proving that a family member had served in the Wehrmacht could have severe consequences.

In any case, it was again up to me, a private individual, to track down this soldier's relatives and inform them of his identification. This is never easy in Poland, where there were numerous population displacements after the war, and where Wehrmacht soldiers are not viewed kindly. However I was able to locate Gallus' family, who sent me a picture of him.

[Archi]

Hello Jean-Loup !

Congratulations for your efforts, your patience and the final success.
Great work !

Best regards,

Archi

[Jean-Loup]

A few months later the family sent me an article that they had published in their local paper. For me this was the most magnificient reward I could have received for my patience and I had tears in my eyes when I read it. Below is a google translation of the original Polish article, sorry for the imperfections:

<O</O
For years the family of Alois Gallus did not know how and where he died as a young soldier. After the war, they had only received a written notification from his lieutenant and company commander indicating that he had been killed in the south of France, in the region of Nice, but without any information about the exact location of burial. If not for the passion and commitment of a man who wanted to discover the secret of those events, the story would still be unexplained.<O</O
Alois Gallus was born on June 3, 1926, in Koselwitz - now called Kozłowice. He was the second son of Peter and Anna Gallus. He came from a large family - he had eight siblings. At the age of eighteen, he was drafted into Reserve Grenadier Bataillon 164 of the German Army. In 1944, he fought in France in the region of Nice.<O</O
“We knew practically nothing of the fate of our ancestor, until we received a telephone notification from the Municipal Office in Gorzow Slaski” says Adam Gallus, a member of the family.<O</O
The only information they had about him was a letter he wrote to his mother 30 June 1944.<O</O
“He told to her about the war and about how it was there” says Adam Gallus. “He said that the time of anxiety should end soon, and that he was homesick and could not wait to return to the family. Unfortunately, he never came back. And if not for the mysterious messages, we may never have learned about what happened to him...”<O</O
On 15 January 2016 Gallus received the first e-mail from Jean-Loup G. - a French physician and passionate historian of the Second World War.<O</O
“He wrote that he was able to identify Alois’ body and that he was looking for surviving members of his family” says Adam Gallus.<O</O
The Gallus family exchanged several messages with the Frenchman, who finally dispelled all ambiguity regarding Alois Gallus.<O</O
<O</O
The young and the brave<O</O
The reserve battalion was a group of soldiers composed mainly of young men of different nationalities. Most that fought in it were Silesians, but there were also Czechs and Germans from the areas belonging to Germany today.<O</O
It was stationed in the south of France in the vicinity of Nice, where the American parachute division First Airborne Task Force was dropped on 15 August 1944, with the mission of liberating the area of Nice and to advance towards Italy.<O</O
At that time, the German troops were not strong enough to stop the Allied advance, so their main task was to delay the march of Americans and provide additional time for their officers to prepare a better defense line further back.<O</O
On August 28, 1944, in la Roquette-sur-Var, eleven soldiers were killed while others taken prisoner. Because of this, the German army did not know who had survived and who had died.<O</O
Witnesses that day said they saw the Poles in German uniforms giving up. Jean-Loup G. learned that one Pole with a white flag running towards the side of the Allies was shot by the Germans. Many wanted to lay down their arms, but the officers of the Wehrmacht used all means to prevent them from doing so.<O</O
<O</O
Determined Frenchman<O</O
Eleven bodies of German soldiers initially lay on the ground without burial, but it was very hot and they began to decompose. The local people decided to bury the corpses in a field near la Roquette without any identification.<O</O
In 1958, employees of the Volksbund (German War Graves Commission) came to la Roquette and exhumed the eleven bodies. Because they were all buried in one grave, they were not able to determine which bones belonged to which soldier. They discovered several rings and seven identification tags, that were used to identify seven of the soldiers, but four remained unidentified. All the bones were transported for re-burial at the German military cemetery in Dagneux, near Lyon.<O</O
Knowing that some bodies were still unknown did not give peace to the French enthusiast, so in 2000 he decided to go to la Roquette and on his own he carried out an investigation into the German soldiers.<O</O
He began by talking with residents, who initially received him reluctantly. Patience paid off. Eventually, he found out about the place where the soldiers had been exhumed less than 40 years earlier.<O</O
<O</O
The French doctor watched and studied the ground, and then together with his friends, decided to once again excavate the area. And then they made a breakthrough, because when they dug in the grave, they found helmets, bullets, clothes and an identification tag.<O</O
During the previous exhumation in 1958 the specialists did not have metal detectors, which limited the accuracy of their work.<O</O
The French doctor sent the information about the recovered identification tag to the Office of affairs of informing the next of kin of the fallen members of the German Wehrmacht in Berlin. It took several years before he received a response, that indicated to whom the identification tag had belonged. As it turned out it was the missing a tag of one of the eleven soldiers killed in la Roquette on 28 August 1944 - and precisely that of Alois Gallus.<O</O
<O</O
“The identification tag belonging to Alois Gallus is made of zinc and remained in good condition. It is characterized by the markings Battalion 164, blood group B, and the identification number is still readable” writes Jean-Loup G. in his book Autopsy of Battle.<O</O
<O</O
“The office in Berlin decided to consider our uncle as officially identified and confirmed that he is one of the eleven buried in Dagneux” says Adam Gallus. “The news abut Alois only came to light in 2015.”<O</O
<O</O
Officially, the young soldier from Kozłowice is now buried in grave 453-454 in block 33 of Dagneux Cemetery in France. His name has been inscribed onto the monument.<O></O>
<O</O
Letters that changed everything<O</O
“This message shocked us, it’s a strange feeling to learn about the fate of an ancestor after more than sixty years” says Adam Gallus. “We thought it was impossible, because after the war his siblings tried to get more information about his death.”<O</O
The sisters of the missing soldier living in Germany in the 80s went to Nice to try to find information about him.<O</O
“They came back with nothing” says Adam Gallus. “Alois’ siblings and parents were never able to come to terms with the fact that so little information about the circumstances of his death were known. They lamented that they could not give him a funeral, and that it was not possible to light a candle at his grave.<O</O
When Gallus got in touch with the Frenchman, two sisters and one of Alois’ brothers were still alive.<O</O
“I remember when I gave them the message, everyone was speechless” says Adam Gallus. “Tears rolled down their cheeks. The siblings said that worse than death uncertainty, which lasted more than sixty years. Mr. Jean sent us some pictures of the place where Alois was buried and of the surrounding area, where he died. I have to admit that the views are beautiful, because it’s the middle of the Côte d’Azur.”<O</O
The family has plans to visit the burial place of the fallen ancestor.<O</O
“I want to go to France, to light a candle and pray over the grave of my uncle” says Adam Gallus. “One of his close relatives should at last visit him. Then his parent’s dream will be fulfilled, they wanted to see where their son was killed at least once in their lives. They didnt get that chance, but we might be able to realize their dream.”<O</O
Adam Gallus has corresponded with the French doctor for more than a year. Thanks to him, the mysterious death of an ancestor was clarified.<O</O
“Although Mr Jean already my family all the information about our uncle's death some time ago, he continues to maintain contact” says Adam Gallus. “We are full of admiration for this man, because fulfilling professionally, he also realizes his passions. This is evidenced by all the materials that he sent, that was prepared meticulously. Most importantly, despite numerous trips associated with his explorations, he finds time to share his findings with others, regardless of the language barrier” as it did in our case.<O</O
The Gallus family wants to meet with their new French friend.<O</O
“Mr. G. is a very interesting person and I wish everyone to get to know a man who presents such an attitude” says Adam Gallus. “He mentioned that if we come to France to he will meet with us and show us the place of exhumation and take us to the cemetery. I know that he has already met the families whose ancestors he found. Sometimes I wonder where do these people have in the world today ...”<O</O
Karolina Zajac

[Jean-Loup]

There you have it: each time an ID tag from a killed soldier is found, a similar identification can potentialy be made. It is up to us diggers and collectors to do the right thing, to evaluate the situation, and to inform the Deutsche Dienststelle or Volksbund of the find.
With this responsibility also comes the possibility of a great reward: knowing that there is one less lost soldier.


Below, a photo of the grave of some of the other la Roquette victims. For those interested in more about la Roquette, you can also refer to this thread: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ghlight=sputek

[KLMKsunbunny]

What a wonderful story...! Thanks for sharing

R.I.P Alois, you are not forgotten

[djpool]

J.L. that's an awesome story. Jim

[Ironcrown]

Very good, well done Jean-Loup

[Thomas Bendixen]

Can only echo "Well done", you have mended an old wound for that family

BR Thomas

[Lutfen]

That's excellent work Jean-Loup! Great to hear about battlefield archaeology being approached with care and compassion.

Regards,
Michael

[Don Bible]

ID tags

It is Memorial Day week-end here in the USA. What a sad but wonderful story this is...that is especially fitting at this time.
Doctor Loup is to be congratulated for his commitment to identifying the young soldier and for his patience in seeing the story through with the German authorities.
Hopefully someday...a member of the soldier's family will be able to visit the last resting place of their loved one.
They have been given a very special gift by the dedication of Doctor Loup.