German ID tag - half

**BlackCat1982** · 09-07-2015, 02:34 PM

Lucky find. Made of zinc rather than alloy or steel. Could belong to a casualty but just as likely to be discarded by the owner. Also were broken up after being processed as POW.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 09-07-2015 02:34 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**slados28** · 09-07-2015, 02:48 PM

Interesting tag --- I only hope people can be sensible when commenting, seems there yet another "gravedigger" vibe flaring up here again. One has to be aware in instances when broken tags are found but there's no reason to be leaping to conclusions all over. No good comes of this.

Maybe contacting the Volksbund would be a good idea here, taking the farmer's account as relayed by the OP into consideration. In that way this would be a very good find as it may help ID possibly previously unidentified remains ---

**HPL2008** · 09-07-2015, 03:07 PM

by Glenn66

I'm not so sure, the '20' can't represent kompanie, as there were no more than 13 or sometimes 14 kompanien in a regiment.

I don't have complete data on Handschar's organization, but the Waffen-Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment der SS 28 had a maximum of four battalions. (The III. and IV. were disbanded, respectively, in June and October 1944.)

The I. and II. Bataillon had six companies each (1st through 6th and 7th through 12th, respectively)*.

If the III. and IV. Bataillon had at least four companies each, a 20. Kompanie had to have existed (for a while).

*) According to https://axis101.bizland.com/CroatianFeldpost02.htm

by sdesic

Thank you guys. Our own (13th) Handschar division ... Croatian division but from Bosnia and Herzegovina
(we were under Croatian rule from 1941-1944)

According to George Lepre's standard work on the division, many members of its personnel strongly disliked wearing the Croatian red-and-white checkerboard shield on their sleeves...:

"Some of the Imams said, 'We won't be wearing this badge for long!' By the time we reached Brčko, most of them had already removed it."

**sdesic** · 09-07-2015, 04:45 PM

I am going to inspect this and sites arround for any clues but it is 70 years old battlefield in a communist country.
All sides did anything to win in WWII (and kept it as a secret)... there is probably more of those.

I found that article about found remains ...
they (2 "bodies") were found 20m from local road in shallow grave (bedrock is close) in 2011.
It is not conclusive if they are German but they found bullet fragments with bones.

**sdesic** · 09-07-2015, 04:57 PM

There are two possible dates for this battlefield... 20th January 1944 and September 10th 1944

**bigmacglenn** · 09-07-2015, 05:04 PM

Thanks for posting your find along with the information you've been able to gather on the location's background...Keep us posted as you continue to search the area...
cheers, Glenn

**Eike41** · 09-07-2015, 07:13 PM

I have the org. charts for the 27th and 28th SS mountain regiments somewhere, when I get time I will post them for you, but HPL2008 is correct they had a large number of companies.
Cheers

**BlackCat1982** · 09-07-2015, 08:47 PM

Y

by sdesic

I am going to inspect this and sites arround for any clues but it is 70 years old battlefield in a communist country.
All sides did anything to win in WWII (and kept it as a secret)... there is probably more of those.

I found that article about found remains ...
they (2 "bodies") were found 20m from local road in shallow grave (bedrock is close) in 2011.
It is not conclusive if they are German but they found bullet fragments with bones.

There is a fair amount of hypothesis in your reply. Human remains could be found as a result of combat losses, but also as acts of retribution. Many old scores were settled against those who had chosen to side with the enemy. Careful examination of any remains would identify them and the uniform they wore.
It might the logical to assume that your tag belonged to the remains found, but I would encourage you to make your own examination,based on what you know - where the bones were located, where the tag was etc.

Good luck.

**Wagriff** · 09-07-2015, 09:26 PM

"Human remains could be found as a result of combat losses, but also as acts of retribution. Many old scores were settled against those who had chosen to side with the enemy."

True that. The Croatian Ustashi units and the SS outfits were not exactly invited to tea when the Partisans caught them up. I've seen the results in photos of the Slovenian mountains and other places. Not pretty...