Low Number Disc

[JOHN JONES]

Would this be a high rank, as stated in the film.
Interested to know the unit.

John.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=979252

[Admiraal]

Would this be a high rank, as stated in the film.
Interested to know the unit.

John.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=979252

Have not seen the film, but a low number doesn't automatically mean a high rank.
In this case, number 3, means that he was the third soldier to receive a dogtag from that unit.
At the start of the war, when dogtag's were given out, they rend to give (high)officers the first dogtag's.

When someone lost his EKM he would receive a new one from the unit he was in at that time. So for example, if a normal soldier was transferred to a newly created unit in lets say 1943 and he lost his EKM after a week or so. He would probably be the first soldier to receive a (new) EKM as the unit was newly created. That means that that normal soldier receives a low number EKM.

Do you understand what i'm trying to say?
For dogtags with low numbers of units that were already active at the start of the war the chance is high that its an officer.

[Admiraal]

Here is an example.
This soldier lost his dogtag and received a new one.
He received a dogtag with number 3, pretty low! And he's not an officer, just a normal soldier.

[Archi]

Hello !

Very interesting information and very good example provided by Rick Admiraal !
(I was totally unaware of this 2nd type of low number EKM ... )

Together with the info provided by Lionel in the other thread, it should give a good overview,
on the two different ways, low numbers on EKM could occur.

So it would be important to understand what kind of unit this is and which formation it blonged to.

I agree with the deciphering by Ironcrown in the other thread :
"leichte Kolonne (mot.[orisiert]) 100"
Leihte Kolonne is typically a kind of supply unit, but :
The supply units e.g. of 100. Jg. Div. should be numbered like 1.- 9. and in addition, the 2 "leichte Kolonnen" were not (mot.).
It could point to either le. Pionier-Kolonne 100 or le. Nachrichten-Kol. 100, but in both cases, I would expect
an additional Pi. or Na. on the EKM.
Or it is a total different unit ...
To me, this unit/EKM is a great riddle .

Best regards,

Archi

[mr.dogtag]

It's bit other way.
In 1939 -1940 period tags were issued during mobilisation. Officers often got low numbers. Besides, ech unit kept unissued tags in number equal to 30% of its strenght. These were issued as replacement tags and issued to those who lost their original tag.
Paralel to this replacement units were created for training recruits and started issuing their own tags to recruits who were later sent to their combat units, but retained their tags.
Now. How could some tags issued after mobilisation period have low numbers but not necceserily belonging to officers? It's simple - these were replacement tags, but as most of the staff of the unit kept their previous tags, these have low numbers.
For example - Infantry Company formed in 1939 would usually issue around 200+ tags. and retained another 50-70 as ersatzmarken for those who lost their tags.
It's quite often a case that metaldetectorists find a wire with bunch of infantry regiment tags numbered 200+ with serial numbers - these were never issued.
On the other hand - one can find a bunch of tags from say Sturm Bataillon AOK4 - and these will be perhaps also unissued but with numbers 10 + - well most of the soldiers who joined this unit retained their own tags from previous units they served.

[JOHN JONES]

Dog Tag 3

Many thanks for all the knowledgeable responses on how the numbering system
I can see how the sequences would not be in strict order after, the initial
issues. This dig seems to have taken place in mid to late summer and the
intention seems to be to rebury with named markers, in a larger German Graveyard.
I will keep checking for updates, on the status of the ID process.

John.