Personalization marks meaning?

**aircap1** · 11-05-2019, 07:01 AM

I know it's kind of a bad move on my part but I'm really interested in what these personalization marks mean and if they can be traced to a person or not (Specifically two guys named Willi Muller and W Löffler.

These are photos from my previous post.
From what I've seen is that they're IDs for the Soldbuch but can someone really be ID number 4?

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 11-05-2019 07:01 AM

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**JPhilip** · 11-05-2019, 10:48 AM

Hello,
The numbers painted on gasmasks or canisters are not personalization marks and have nothing to do with soldiers.
The number 4 means that this particular gasmask was the fourth example issued within the unit the soldier served in...
As the size of units issueing gasmaks to soldiers went from Kompanie to Regiment, these numbers can have one, two, three, four or even sometimes five digits.
Below, you can see a five digit number on a middle war produced canister
Thanks

**Dav** · 11-05-2019, 06:55 PM

by JPhilip

Hello,
The numbers painted on gasmasks or canisters are not personalization marks and have nothing to do with soldiers.
The number 4 means that this particular gasmask was the fourth example issued within the unit the soldier served in...
As the size of units issueing gasmaks to soldiers went from Kompanie to Regiment, these numbers can have one, two, three, four or even sometimes five digits.
Below, you can see a five digit number on a middle war produced canister
Thanks

I have always wondered, is the number ever a feldpost number, or were they just assigned within a kompanie/regiment?

**Dav** · 11-05-2019, 07:00 PM

As for the other markings- the A2b indicates production by Auer- I have seen examples marked a1b, and a3b, so it could also represent size. The ink stamp with the eagle is a waffenamt inspection stamp.

**JPhilip** · 11-07-2019, 01:18 AM

by Dav

As for the other markings- the A2b indicates production by Auer- I have seen examples marked a1b, and a3b, so it could also represent size.

Hello,
It is indeed the size as the latter was not ink stamped on the facial mask on early GM30 examples
When the early snout was replaced by the final type, then they started to ink stamp the size on the forehead of the facial mask. For the GM38 it's molded at the same location.
Thanks