Article about: Here is the link for researching feldpost numbers. While there are others this one is my favorite. http://www.stampsx.com/ratgeber/stempel-datenbank.php Go to the pull down menu in Postverwa
This is very kind of you Doug to do this. Thank you very much. It will prove useful to myself and all collectors. Sadly we will still see threads asking "what does this feldpost number mean?) due to the laziness of some. Once again, thank you very much.
'I do not think we can hope for any better thing now.
We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course, and the end cannot be far.
It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. SCOTT.
Last Entry - For God's sake look after our people.'
In memory of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans. South Pole Expedition, 30th March 1912.
Very interesting, but if I try 0909, I have a flak battery.
0909 is for the SS LAH...small number.
To my knowledge the period used 5 digit numbers not 4. The results show all X0909 from 39 to 45, so X0909 appears to be wartime and all assigned to flak batteries. I have researched some very early LAH FP numbers without fail, and none have been 4 digit, can you post the helmet or other item you are referencing?
Just in case there are people reading through this thread wondering what on Earth a feldpostnummer is and what it means to research:
A feldpostnummer (field post number) is a kind of zip code for individual companies and batteries of every German unit. German soldiers would often mark their equipment with their fpn's. This means that a piece of equipment with the fpn on it can be researched and traced back to a specific unit.
For example, a fellow reenactor is currently selling this K98 ammo pouch that a vet brought back from France. Inside the middle flap is a tag with the name 'Rothenberger' and the fpn '00642'. A quick search of this number reveals the following:
Die Reserve-Flakscheinwerfer-Abteilung 298 (v) wurde am 26. August 1939 in Frankfurt am Main aus Teilen der III. / Flak-Regiment 29 mit drei Batterien aufgestellt und anschließen in Frankfurt am Main eingesetzt. 1940 verlegte die Abteilung nach Bordeaux, wo sie dem Stab des Flak-Regiments 45 unterstand. Im Juli 1942 wurde die Abteilung in Flakscheinwerfer-Abteilung 298 (v) umbenannt. Ende 1942 erhielt die Abteilung eine 4. Batterie. Ab April 1943 lag die Abteilung in Paris, ab Januar 1944 in Cherbourg. Hier wurde die Abteilung im Juli 1944 vernichtet.
"In April of 1943 the unit was in Paris, and in January of 1944 it was in Cherbourg. The unit would be destroyed here in July of 1944."
So, Flakscheinwerfer-Abteilung 298 (v) (a searchlight unit) was disbanded by American forces in Cherbourg, which is where the vet must have picked up this ammo pouch.
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