Researching named militaria - World War 2 + One World War 1 object

[Vegard T]

I thought I'd throw all my named objects which had serial numbers and hope for the best. If you have any idea how to research it further, please let me know:

I used the printer for most of these things, and I have to say the results are pretty good.

First up we have the World War 1 item: An American canteen(More pictures in this thread: My only WWI item: US Canteen ):

As far as I can see, it says:
S-1207
Smith Rosewellt
Unreadable






American WW2 leggings:
Markings:

FOSS, STUART
36279944


American USMC dogtags, I believe one is postwar:
Markings:

REAVES.F.C.
2099046 O
USMC S
MORMAN


Then for the British stuff:

Dogtags:
Markings:

21183181
CE
STOKES F


Gasmask pouch:
Markings:

R.DENNING
968119







Named medal, I believe it was issued to an Indian soldier:
Markings:

12044 SWR.KIRPAL SINGH, R.DECCAN HORSE.













R.A.F grouping(Details here: My British Medal Collection ):

Markings:

1183120
BAPT
R.A.F
GILBERT H







German:

Dogtag:
Markings:

881
2/le.Art.Ers.Abt. 3

[AMTG]

German finds are the hardest to trace.....I had to wait nearly a year to get any info out of Germny on 2 of my relatives, and I had their full names and dates of birth...many German records were destroyed.
Australian records are very easy to find on the net...I have had a few WW2 items that were named and a quick search on the Australian War Memorial site will normally throw up a heap of details....
I am not sure on UK and US searches.......

[Vegard T]

Thanks AMTG, I would think the German militaria would be hard to research, I have researched one person through WASt, even though I had a lot of information about him already, it took about 6 months.

Unfortunately, I don't have any Australian militaria(YET)

[AMTG]

WAst was who I went through...very helpful....

I believe the Austrslian War memorial has just completed the Vietnam nominal roll.....so all these records are publicly available.....

[Battery Command Post]

Forgive my confusion... but are you looking for information on the items, or information on sources of research? I could tell you which year Gilbert joined the RAF for example, by his number, but maybe that isn't what you need? In terms of research though, it's little pieces of info from various sources that eventually lead to breakthroughs, in my experience.

Rob

[Vegard T]

I am looking for information about the people who owned the items and any ways I can find this out. Which year did he join?

[Battery Command Post]

I am looking for information about the people who owned the items and any ways I can find this out. Which year did he join?

Gilbert joined up about 1940. His service number is part of a batch (1150001-1250000) from April 1940 allotted to RAF Cardington. Cardington got another batch in April 1941 and had used up all the 1940 numbers.

12044 SWR.KIRPAL SINGH. This guy (his name tells us he was a Sikh) was a Sowar (the Indian Army equivalent of a Trooper, i.e. a private in the cavalry), and was with the 9th Royal Deccan Horse. This was a Sherman tank equipped regiment which fought in Burma as part of 255 Indian Tank Brigade. See here: 255th Indian Tank Brigade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

968119 R DENNING was a member of the Royal Artillery when he joined the army. Unfortunately, that's all I can tell you about him.

I have a feeling Stokes' number is post-ww2.

Rob

[Vegard T]

Wow, thanks a lot Rob! Very useful information!

There are 2 different types of dog tags, I believe one is Wartime and the other is Post-war(I'll post a picture tomorrow)

[Vegard T]

Update on Stuart Foss:

[Vegard T]

And an addition that came in today:

USMC M1941 Utility uniform

Name:B.B.Rogers
Serial Number(Last 4 letters I believe): R8511