Erkennungsmarken, Art, Flak, all from the eastern front.

[Laplander]

Hello.

I just recieved this small group of erkennungsmarken.
Please share your views and opinions on these if there are any.
Best regards
Anders

[Stacez]

Hello Laplander,
Actually, what do you expect? Do you need an identification of these units for example?

[Laplander]

Hi Stacez.
Thanks for your reply.
I only expect the usual nice replies, as always on this forum.
If you think the tags are fakes for example.
I am still very new at collecting german dog tags and would very much appreciate if you could confirm that they are real.
Any other info is also welcome.

[Stacez]

I'm not an expert to say that but for me they look fine and I think they are original for 100% percent
They belonged accordingly to:
schwere Flak-Ersatz-Abteilung 11
Flak-Ersatz-Abteilung 11

2 Batterie/ schwere Artillerie-Abteilung 763
Lexikon der Wehrmacht - schwere Artillerie-Abteilung

5 Batterie/ Artillerie Regiment 213
Artillerie-Regiment 213 - Lexikon der Wehrmacht

[Laplander]

Thanks again Stacez!
These three tags came with a few more.
I need some help with them aswell.
How is the weather in Poland?
Here in Sweden we have lots of snow and quite cold.

Best regards
Anders

[Stacez]

No problem Laplander, I can help with the others as well. I don't know exactly what weather in Poland is cause I'm doing some course in Italy and here it has been raining almost for 2 weeks

[Matt L]

Nice ones Anders and yeah, they're all fine. The conditions aren't the best, but you have some less-common forms there: specifically the Ers. 11 stamped on one side for the top and the other side for the bottom and the other two being rotated to stamp the second side- the vast, vast majority of discs are stamped on one side and both sides done the same way up...

[Laplander]

Hi Matt!
Yes, I felt they might be a little less common.
Its amazing to see the all the variations that appear on the dog tags.
I wonder if these variations were decided by "the bosses" or if it was up to the person who stamped the letters?
Anyway, it sure makes the collecting more intersting.
Thanks Matt for your help!

Best regards
Anders

[Matt L]

I get the impression that a deal of the decision was unit-specific; it's hard to account for the varying abbreviations and other features otherwise; if such things were orders from a central authority, there'd be far more consistency than we see. Features such as rotating the disc to mark the second half seem more common on earlier-war discs, which makes some sense given the quantities of discs made as the war progressed and more and more soldiers were inducted; time-saving measures would seem necessary. Perhaps it was those units that didn't have large numbers of new men kept the older methods?

[Laplander]

Very sound theory Matt.
I checked my discs for rotation-variation and found that roughly half of my 50 discs have this.
The more I look at these, the more variation appear.
Would be intersting to talk to a german veteran and ask about details around the stamping of discs.

Anders