Luftwaffe Erkennungsmarke for ID

[Schachbrett]

Please help me completely identify this disc. I did some research here and on Lexikon der Wehrmacht and found out that "8" stands for company number, and "Nr. 56" indicates persons role in war. Correct me if I'm wrong.

"Lw." surely stands for "Luftwaffe", but I can't get to "I.R.75". My first association is "Infanterie Regiment", but I don't know.
I'm also curious about this mark at the bottom- "A" like mark. Does it mean anything?

Any help is welcome!

Kind regards

[Jerry B]

At risk of getting it wrong, I think you are looking at the wrong time period and instead this is probably a WWI erkkennsmarke for LandWehr Infantry Regiment 75. The A is probably his blood group, if they use the same system as used in WWII, and the 56 is is roll number.

Copied from Wikipedia;

On mobilization, the 1st Landwehr Division was created by aggregating four mixed Landwehr brigades (gemischte Landwehr-Brigaden), each of which generally included its own infantry, cavalry and artillery. Its initial wartime organization was as follows:[1]
33. gemischte Landwehr-Brigade
Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 75
Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 76
2.Garde-Landwehr-Eskadron
1.Landwehr-Eskadron/IX. Armeekorps
1.Landwehr-Batterie/IX. Armeekorps

[Schachbrett]

So, it means that German dogtags were the same in WW1 and WW2?
I forgot to mention that it's made of aluminium.
Thanks for posting!

[SatansCabanaBoy]

here's a WW1 tag if this helps...they are not quite the same...

[Schachbrett]

Indeed. I just did a quick research and it looks like there were 2 versions of WW1 dogtag. First one had no perforation in the middle and 2nd one had. It also looks like that both versions had only 2 holes instead of 3 (like WW2).

Thanks for valuable picture!

[Matt L]

The 'A' is indeed the soldier's blood group- but that means the disc was issued after mid-1941, which was when the mark began to be put on discs. WWI Erkennungsmarken were a bit different in size and shape than WWII, and that's definitely a WWII type you have Schachbrett. And there were more than two versions- there were several in fact.

It certainly appears to be 8. Kompanie, Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment 75, although the reference I have doesn't list one. There were a number of them- 33, 40, 59, 182- but no 75. That doesn't mean it didn't exist, but possibly that it was redesignated before the war started and thus doesn't appear on the WWII units lists. It does appear to be a pre-war disc- since it's a field unit and not a replacement unit- so that would fit. Since a soldier retained the original disc he was issued, and didn't switch if he switched units, it's perfectly reasonable to have the blood group letter on a pre-war disc, even of a unit that no longer existed as the soldier would have been transferred and he'd get the stamp in 1941 when his field unit marked all their soldiers' discs.

[Schachbrett]

Matt L, thank You for truly detailed answer. As the matter of fact, I'm very pleased that it's Landwehr and not Luftwaffe.

Kind regards

[Matt L]

Sure thing- I'm glad it's more interesting to you than it might have been