Tag Dig:shok_yikes:, Part 2..

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

I returned to the Army tip this weeekend for another brief dig spending around 3 hours, but in that time I recovered another 219 British Army ID Tags. I also found a few other odds and ends (see pictures).
Following on from last week I bottomed it to find the tip is only around 1.5m deep. The bottom layer dates from WW2 and contained various items and is made up of a fair amount of ash.
1) The hole bottomed you can make out the natural tan coloured clay, WW2 is the black and pink ash. I left the spade for scale and yes that is a .303 cartidge lying next to it.
2) A post war .303 ammo box and interesting glass bottle with metal collar and hanging bracket.
3) Various WW2 peices, dated pottery sherds, .303 cartridges and remains of clip and a larger sized .303 which is fatter and slightly shorter?, a fork, a bakelite handle surround and another type of clip (top right hand side)?.
4) Close up showing the larger round.
5) 3 hours digging to find an astonishing 219 British Army ID tags.
6) Close up of a few.
7) The cleaned ammo box and bottle. Could this bottle be for blood transfusions? (many of the cleaned tags (around 40%) from last weeks dig are RAMC)
8) Bottle close up.
9) The Ammo Box for 300 .303 rounds is dated 1956.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[gibba1008]

bloody superb finds lucky!!

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Cheers Gibba1008
Went digging again this weekend and found probably another 200 or so Tags. But haven't posted pics this time as pretty much the same as last week although I did get a few other items of interest which I'll post soon.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[Steve T]

Another 200 ?

Blimey LS.....You'll soon have a whole DIVISION !

Keep up the good work

Steve T

[Digger]

Now this would be of importance to your local archaeological unit! Judging by the pics - give them a bell ASAP.

Cheers
Tom.

[gibba1008]

whats the story of this dump lucky, i cant believe all the tags you are finding! do you no why these tags were dumped in such high numbers?? look forward to the new finds being posted....

[Whitehunter]

WOW! i always thought British dog tags where made of plastic.
Are you selling any?

[Adrian Stevenson]

WOW! i always thought British dog tags where made of plastic.
Are you selling any?

These are post war tags. WW1 and WW2 era British tags were made of compressed fibreboard material.

Cheers, Ade.

[jimpy]

WOW! i always thought British dog tags where made of plastic.
Are you selling any?

Whitehunter

As Ade says, WW2 British ID tags were made of compressed fibre.
One being a dark brick red in colour and one hole, the other a dark greenish/grey colour with two holes punched through
I cant remember which way around it was, but one was left with the body on death and the other removed for records.

The two attached should show you what I mean. These are genuine WW2 tags, (they were my late grand-fathers, he survived the war and gave them and the cap badge that is in the picture with them, to me some years ago)

Hope this is of some help.

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Hi All... Thanks for your posts.
When I visited this former Army camp tip, I really had no idea what I would find that's the excitement of digging and then I spotted one and then another and another and so on.
There isn't a great amount of detail on the history, it was built in the late 1930's early 1940's for the British Army and was used through out WW2 even US troops were based there leading up to D-DAY. It then continued in use after the war, believed troops were posted to both Korea and Malaya, it finally closed in the late 1960's.
I have no idea why so many were dumped, perhaps they were retained in the camp maybe when new tags were issued or as people left the Army? When the Army vacated the site all the bits and pieces accumulated through the years were cleared out and ended up being dumped on the tip? it's only my theory to maybe explain it.
I've been collating from the ID numbers from the tags, from the discs cleaned so far it's surprising the number of different formats that were used. The majority are from the period when Regimental Numbers were issued to soldiers joining up between 1920 and 1950, so I guess some must have been serving during WW2 although probably not wearing these tags!
There is also a small number of Service number tags which started in March 1950, the latest issued one that I've cleaned so far is from 1967. A couple show the blood group with one stamped on the back. There are a couple where an error was made and letters over stamped with an X. I've cleaned a couple where the number is proceeded by a W for women these are usual numbers so I'll get some pics taken and show you, and there are a few I haven't been able to identify as of yet.
I think I've posted this before but many are from the Royal Army Medical Corps, there are also plenty from the Royal Army Service Corps, and then other odds from Royal Corps Signals, Royal Pioneer Corps, Royal Army Ordinance Corps, Leicestershire Regiment etc etc. I'll keep cleaning away and see what else comes up.

This brings me onto an interesting thought, it's always assumed that during the Second World War British Forces only used fibre tags, but at the beginning of hostilities there must have been serving Soldiers who already had pre war metal tags. Now with the Countries back against the wall and the massive expansion of the Armed forces were the pre war tags worn by the regulars replaced immediately with fibre tags or was priority given to providing fibre tags for the expansion in Servicemen and Women. Were the regulars tags only replaced as and when they could be fitted in?
Then after the War, when were all the fibre tags withdrawn and replaced by the metal type?
I'll keep digging and posting my finds, I also plan to post pictures of some of the cleaned tags soon.
Thanks for your interest.
LUCKYSTRIKE