Hi all
I am sure some of you will remember this;
This was found on an old USAAF base in England that, after the war, was used as a transport hub for POW repatriation. It was found on July 27th (my birthday ) 2009 and nearly ended up in the bin. I was just tipping junk away following cleaning of finds from the day when, literally as it slide down the tray into the bin, I noticed a feint 'B' in the mud covered object. I took it back inside and carefully un-folded the metal as much as I dare without breaking it. When cleaned, it revealed the above.
I tried and tried to get it ID'd and even at one point thought it had something to do with Glen Miller !!!! I reasoned that the 5 digit code was an aircraft serial number and, when I searched, it came back as the serial number for the Norseman Glenn Miller was in when he disappeared !!!! However, this soon got discounted and the tag has remained in my collection. I knew it wasn't any member of personnel on the allied side as I had the roll list for the base. So, I assumed it was from a POW but got no further than that.
I recently joined an American MDing forum to promote RRPG and was contacted by one of their members, Lerenfort, asking me if I had IDd it because, if not, .......................... HE COULD !!!!
I have today received the info from Lerenfort and would like to thank him for finally IDing this little piece of WW2 history.
This is what he said................
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When Axis forces were taken POW by the US Army they usually went through a number of processes, from initial searches and interrogation at the point of capture until their final incarceration in a POW camp, either in UK or in USA etc.
Therefore they were issued with a POW tag, which showed in which Theatre of war they were captured, their nationality and their individual number. Their number was simply numerical and is not coded.
In other cases, such as Josef Scheib he was NOT processed by the theatre system but was transported directly to the USA and in his case was processed through NW Command, probably Canada.
Therefore your tag can be disciphered as:
8 = NW Commnand
W = This shows that he was NOT processed by theatre command.
G = He was German!
70424 = He was the 70,424 POW to be processed by NW Command.
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I am not only gobsmacked but also terribly grateful to Lerenfort for his help IDing this object. Its position in my cabinet is being changed to reflect its importance !!!
Cheers
Steve T
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