Further to a thread in the Fallschirmjaeger Forum about Erkennungsmarken, I submit the following for evaluation:
I noticed these two tags in one of the online auctions recently and was immediately struck by the odd similarity of their appearance despite being from completely different units. Upon closer inspection of the images I saw that the lettering used for the units is identical as is that used for the men's numbers and blood groups. There is also an identical pair of dents on each side of the tag on both tags. It doesn't seem to take a Sherlock Holmes prodigy to consider that there might be something fishy going on here.
Of course it's quite probable that there would be consistent features if the tags came from the same manufacturer. However, the fact that they each have an individual soldier's blood group on them means that they were issued. And since they're not Ersatz units, they would have seemingly been issued by their respective units, not by a central source. It also seems quite amazing that they'd be 'reunited' after nearly 60 years- perhaps a little too much so...
What do you think?
I noticed these two tags in one of the online auctions recently and was immediately struck by the odd similarity of their appearance despite being from completely different units. Upon closer inspection of the images I saw that the lettering used for the units is identical as is that used for the men's numbers and blood groups. There is also an identical pair of dents on each side of the tag on both tags. It doesn't seem to take a Sherlock Holmes prodigy to consider that there might be something fishy going on here.
Of course it's quite probable that there would be consistent features if the tags came from the same manufacturer. However, the fact that they each have an individual soldier's blood group on them means that they were issued. And since they're not Ersatz units, they would have seemingly been issued by their respective units, not by a central source. It also seems quite amazing that they'd be 'reunited' after nearly 60 years- perhaps a little too much so...
What do you think?