Big problems with German identification tags - What's your name soldier?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ก.ค. 2022
- Many bodies of World War II German soldiers have remained unidentified because of the poor design of their identification tags. WWII German ID tags do not record a soldier's name and particulars such as his hometown or date of birth, but only the name of the unit he did his basic training in, as well as a serial number unique only to the unit. This coding and recording system is potentially problematic in several ways. This video explains how the German identification tag system worked, and what kinds of mistakes and problems occure because of it (examples from Operation Dragoon and Stalingrad).
Because only the Bundesarchiv Abteilung PA (former Deutsche Dienststelle) is capable of decoding the inscriptions on ID tags, the process is at best always long and complicated.
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A Crocodile Tear Productions documentary.
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German army - Wehrmacht - Wolrd War II - forensic medicine - dog tag - identification disk - identification tag - identity of killed soldiers - Erkennungsmarken - metal detecting - metal detector - battlefield archaeology - excavation - exhumation - digging - forensic medicine - Stalingrad - Villeneuve-Loubet mass grave of German soldiers - Volksbund - VDK - missing in action - killed in action - MIA - POW - vermisten - verscholen - vermistenbildlisten - unknown soldier - German WWII identification tag system - Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori - mistaken identity - exchanged identity - fallschirmjäger - kessel - piastrina - italian identification tag - American identification tag - US army - 1939 - 1940 - 1941 - 1942 - 1943 - 1944 - 1945 - how to research WWII German identification tag - ASN - serial number - laundry number - militaria collection - german helmets - WASt
Absolutely fascinating, l can’t enough of these amazing stories, full of mystery with twists and turns requiring lots of hard work from dedicated individuals with fire in their bellies to give these lost men their identities and their dignity back. Well done all
For anyone interested: there are still no names an a modern German dog tag and the overall design stayed pretty much the same. But the system got better. The number now contains the birthdate in DDMMYY format, the 1. letter of your last name, 5 digits for your home military base and a error checking number. The rest is: blood type, RH factor, religion and nationality.
Nationality?
As a German: Thank you very, very much for your work! I love you! Fortunetely my grandfather wasn't missed, he even survived the war. But there are masses of unknown fallen soldiers. You give them a name and a proper funeral. Thank you!
Unfortunately, my uncle lies in a grave in Ukraine. This place is now being fought over again, which means that these graves will be lost.
I wonder, does the German soldiers back then themself know what do their dogtags mean? And does Busdeswehr still uses the system like this on the dogtags?
@@DingoNovember I did not do service in the Bundeswehr. But I once talked to a soldier about this topic. The Bundeswehr dog tags look the same but they have a different system which was improved in comparison to the Wehrmacht system.
I think, back then the men knew what it meant. They weren't dumb after all and even if they weren't told by standard, they could figure it out or just ask out of curiosity.
@@theodorleberle thank you for the answer. This system must be sometimes a bit inconvenient for the soldiers if they somehow swapped the tags. Cause something like this happened a lot when i was in boot camp even with a t-shirt with a BIG name stencil on the front of it. They’re not dumb you know but under the circumstance like that, it happens
@@DingoNovember Indeed. I can imagine that such things happened. But I can also imagine that there was a very bad punishment for something like that. Just speculation on my side though.
Being a veteran I want to thank you for all your hard work in trying to identify these dead soldier's and not just giving up when running into roadblocks. Truly their souls can now rest in peace. Thank you
Почему на территории Европпы и Прибалтики уничтожают памятники освободителя погибшим войнам Рабочей Крестьянской Красной Армии - СССР? Вы эгсгумируете и восстанавливаете места гибели и возвращаете из небытия солдат Вермахта и прочих ооюзных армий Нацисткой Германии.... а наши могилы Советских солдат разрушают....? Европпа что Сошла с Ума или хочет развязать 3ю мировую войну из за энергоресурсов?!?
I can imagine that fella who engraved his name into his tag, reflecting on his mortality. Little did he know it would help identify his body after all, and let his son know he was found in the process. Just amazing stuff.
If he did it, he probably knew.
I'd probably do it the first week I got the tag LOL
I never realised this about German dog tags. Really strange when you consider how fastidious the Germans are known to be with record keeping.
I truly love what you do in recovering and trying to identify these poor souls.
The record keeping was still fastidious and efficient! Rather than stamping a customized tag for each recruit, you just had to give him the next tag in line. As for keeping the paper records safe, well of course, Germany wasn't going to loose!
@@SailingWindGypsy The tags were 'personalized' with the bloodgroup - so they could have added the name as well. Maybe it was to prevent giving the enemy any information - either during interrogation or found as a casualty.
@@ibubezi7685The enemy doesn't care about a soldier's name or hometown, what they do care about is unit affiliation, which is literally the only thing on the tag
I belong to a group of volunteers who, like you, are dedicated to searching for and finding soldiers who died during the Spanish civil war on the northern front. specifically in Bizkaia, Basque Country. here the identification plates only have a number, but thanks to the list we have of all of them it is very easy for us to know the name of the deceased. congratulations for the work you do.
Thanks. Do you have any videos showing your work?
Bearing in mind the German preoccupation for recording things, this is an incredible oversight. Particularly for relatives who would still like to bring their family home.
I honestly can’t believe how overlooked their dog tags really were. Shame.
Monsieur, firstly I would like to say thank you for your work in helping identify these lost soldiers. You have given your time and effort to a good cause, I imagine lots of people now know what happened to their family members who died during the war and without your knowledge and skills they would probably remain nameless. Great videos thanks for sharing your work.
Absolutely love your series on discovering missing German soldiers. Your insight, concern for family members and the thoroughness in discussing your topics is acknowledged and appreciated. Keep up the great work!
Thats good work you are doing there. These soldiers all have families who were worried sick about them during the war and although their immediate families may not be alive (although one was as seen in this video) it is still an important job you are doing letting their families know they have been found etc.
Thank you. in this video you can actually see what the brother of one of the soldiers I managed to indentify has to say: m.th-cam.com/video/e319AnGgVzU/w-d-xo.html
Your great work and dedication to historical documentation translates into such outstanding video productions. You are providing many lost and missing young souls proof of their existence during a tragic period in world history. Thank you for your generous contribution to mankind!
You really have done some excellent work, especially with the tags that if not for you the owners would have never been properly identified.
Fascinating video! It amazes me that the Germans, known for their efficiency in almost everything else, would use such an inefficient system for their soldier's ID tags.
it is very efficient, minimal effort. i doubt they had any forethought of Identifying soldiers 80 years later though.
They still identify hundreds every year, from all over the world. My grandfather’s records were sent to me and the only thing I gave them was his name and place of birth and whatever service snippets I learned from my grandma ( stationed in Kiel, also served in WW1, etc).
Next thing I know I get a letter with most of his info minus that lost after an air raid in 1943 which hit the navy records particularly hard.
Once again , this is great work you are doing ! Very intelligent , professional ways , that you go about it ! I'm sure many families are great full for the time you spend on research ! ✔️👏👏👏👍
That was fantastic very informative I loved how you cross referenced the ID tags to be able to identify the soldiers who might of just had a nameless head stone absolutely well done 👏
Thank you, and your team for all the hard work bring these boys home finally providing closure for their families!!
Incredible work - please keep posting!
Thank you for clarifying. I always wondered why the German ones looked so odd. And thank you for the work you do. No one deserves to die without a name.
Thanks for another great video and very informative. You guys do a fantastic job.
Notorious bad for the many oversights. Glad many actually scribbled their names or last names on them.
Thank you for doing this. Such a pity that an otherwise splendidly organized army failed so miserably in providing reliable means of identifying their fallen soldiers. I can only imagine this provides some level of peace for their families.
Amazing work you are doing. Thankyou for all youdo and telling these wonderful stories.
Amazing detective work. I'm sure the families are very appreciative.
Amazing detective work for you and all of your team involved in all of this discoveries. God bless you sir and thank you for returning all those lost one's back to their families.
First time ive watched your channel.. fantastic what you do, such in depth research to find the names of these fallen soidiers.. first class work, be very proud of what you do!!
This is my fav channel by far
Wow, just wow. I admire the work and effort you put into finding out who those remains were.
Thank You for all that you do, Respect to you and your team
Well done the producer of this clip, and thank you for your determination, I was a British soldier but it pleases me that you are doing good things for these German soldiers.
Thank you so much for your hard work and dedication, we had good dog tags in the US Military and you better believe I wore one dog tag around my neck and one in my bootlaces in case it become dislodged from my neck or whatever, I wanted to be identified if I went down with the ship or whatever happened! It mattered to me! I was concerned about that, also this German made a conscious effort and it's amazing the one guy that had the forethought to scratch his name on his dog tag and because of this, he was identified years after the war is amazing! But without your hard work and caring, it would never have happened! Thank you very much!
Thank you very much. The families will appreciate your work. 🌸
At the start of the mass recruitment phase of the military machine, I would imagine those in charge did not think or believe it would go on for so long, that so many lives would have been lost or, on so many fronts.
Good and important excavations, thanks for explanations on the German tags and errors at the Deutsche Dienststelle
Thank you gentlemen for all that you have done to reunited loved ones with they're family so that they can finally get some closure for the person that was lost during the war's ❤❤
I'm sure that the majority of the weirmacht were just ordinary people, but had no choice other than to fight for the Nazis. A large number of dissenters were either imprisoned or executed for high treason.
Outstanding video and presentation. Thank you for your great I formative video.
You doing a real good work,very professionelle,thank you for this information 👍
Incredibly important work you are doing!! May God bless you. 🙏
I found this video really informative. I’m looking at my grandfather’s WWI German army ID. The system must have been very different during the 1st WW and perhaps varied by region in Germany. Also, the ID maybe gave too much info about the soldier and his area of enlistment. The first line apparently lists his division and maybe his rank (“Ers.Abt. bay 7 Fd.Art.R.”). Next is his full name. The third line has his address (“Munchen Conradstr4). Finally the fourth line of the tag lists his date of birth (9. 2. 80). Thankfully, he survived and I have both halves of the ID.
Despite it's shortcomings, German record keeping was still fastidious and efficient! Rather than stamping a customized tag for each recruit, you just had to give him the next tag in line. As for keeping the paper records safe, well of course, Germany wasn't going to loose!
Soviet soldiers did not have dog tags - they were not introduced until after the war. What they did carry was a small enclosed Bakelite cylinder, often painted black, containing paper documents. There might be additional ID, such as a Communist Party or Komsomol membership book but they did not preserve information as well as dog tags.
Such an important work you do. I salute you.
Very thoroughful explanation, thanks.
You are doing great work. Many lost souls finding peace.
November 2022 has been a good month. First I am introduced to LU Veritable Petit Buerre biscuits and Carte Noire Classique coffee, and now I come across your excellent channel. You have a talent for telling the stories of long ago soldiers. Thank you!
Where were you introduced to Lu Petits Boeurs? ;)
@@CrocodileTear In Laos. A Lao man returning on a visit gave me a pack of them.
wow. seeing the tag with the carved in name was heartbreaking.
Outstanding job you are doing.
Thank you for all your hard work for finding the forgotten soldiers and finally returning them home. No matter what your political belief is the 19-year-old soldier deserves to go home he was just a small pond and a big war.
Good Job, keep up the good works
My father was in the Royal Signals Regiment. I remember him showing his dog tags to me . . .there were two...one was fireproof and the other was water resistant. I dont recall what was stamped on them though.
Outstanding work !
Decided to drop you a like and subscribe for the effort and dedication you showed in this video in tracking down the owners of the dog tags yourself. Fortunately my grandfather came home from the war (German), but to imagine those who never knew what happened to their family and relatives.
You bring out the human element in otherwise inhumane acts. Keep up the good work to you and your team.
Thank You for all that you do, Respect to You
Absolutely amazing and keep up your incredible work.
Great work! Thank you
Thank you very very much for your koind work to give them back their names. All the best to you!!!
We still don't have our names on our dog-tags in today's Bundeswehr. On mine, for example, you can read my nationality, my religion, "290687-S-32628", and my blood-type. What makes things easier with our modern "PK-Nummern" is that it contains our dates of birth in the first part and the first letter of our last names in the center.
Aus was fur Metall sind die BW Marken heute hergestellt?
Ich habe den NVA Wehrpass von meinem Onkel samt der Erkennungsmarke und sie ist scheinbar normales Aluminium.
@@teutonalex Alu war ja beinahe das Einzige, was es in der DDR im Überfluss gab. ;-)
Die Erkennungsmarken der Bundeswehr sind, wenn ich mich nicht irre, aus Edelstahl.
This is good work you are doing. Thank you.
You Sir are a True Scholar and Gentleman.
Oh man thank you so much for your hard work
Very interesting! It's the stereotypical German overengineering mindset at work here. Just want to say thank you for your work. Nobody seems to care about WW2 German soldiers. It's sad and I feel so sorry for those men and their families.
Imagine what the guy who wrote his name on the id tag thinking...
If he could have imagined some French dude would be the one to read that for the first time in 80 years....
@@CrocodileTear exactly and man what you do is amazing, thank you for all the hard work you do
@@unrecognizedpiano1100 Thanks mate
He could have been thinking I have to wear this thing then I want my damn name on it. It’s plausible that a few of his mates may have followed suit.
Very informative brilliant work
These rank and file soldiers are away from home for too long. War criminals or not, they deserve to go home. I don’t have any connection to them and i’m not even European or live in Europe but as someone who is in the armed force myself i’m quite sensitive to these stuffs. Thank you for bringing them home.
So much for the famed German efficiency.
Man. This made my day another video 😁😁 thanks
Doing the Lord's work. This is ridiculously interesting.
Thank you very much for the explanation
Indeed this team is history digger , salute to all crew members , best wishes from Mardan KPK Pakistan
Canadian Army dog tags were made of aluminum after the war. They eventually switched to stainless steel. More resistant to corrosion and…fire.
This work you do for people you don’t know , the closer you provide for some people is very up lifting,🙏🙏❤️🇦🇺
I got a few items from Stalingrad from a former Soviet soldier who put these digs with teenagers on in the summers in order to get Soviet remains identified and properly reburied. They support their operations with the proceeds from the sale of German items that they find, which somehow seems appropriate.
At 69 yo I always think that is very dificult to identify the german ID tags.
Thanks for your kind work.
Excellent and interesting. Especially the comparison of the Dog Tags of different countries. Of course the Russian tags were the most problematic as they were paper scripts in a “capsule” and any water or moisture infiltration of the capsule would destroy the paper script. Thank you for another great video 🙏
The german tags have one big advantage that is sadly relevant today - They do not allow the enemy to know the soldier's name ( assuming he does not have any other means of identification). In the current Ukranian war, I've seen videos of soldiers through social media, be able to identify and contact the loved ones of fallen soldiers directly - Literally calling wifes, to tell them they have just killed their husband and sending them pictures to prove it - absolutely primitive and evil.
That is a very interesting comment.
Social media was of course not an issue during WWII. However the Americans discontinued showing the adress of the next of kin on the ID tags for similar reasons.
In any case, the German ID tag did not really have the advantage that you mention, because a freshly killed soldier would have had paper ID documents on him, such as the Soldbuch, that lists all his relevant personnal data.
All this means that your comment is IMO not really relevant for the WWII era, though it certainly is something to think seriously about nowadays.
Trained soldiers know that they should keep a low profile on social media while they are on active duty.
Ukrainians are fucking barbaric. They deserve everything they are getting and more.
Bakhmut has fallen. Wagner is cleaning out the last pockets of hold outs. Like the Azov steel plant, it'll take weeks to eliminate every rat they find in their hole. Just like the nazis in Stalingrad
@@Orweliannightmare good 👍
Perhaps it will send the Ivans a message to stay away. It need not be primitive and evil if Ukraine had not been invaded by Putin aggression.
@@krautyvonlederhosen Enjoying the Kool-Aid I see. Please enjoy it. Its good for you.
The care and attention given to the same men who had none for the people and countries they helped destroy.
Learning something new everyday
Great video!!! 🙂🌹
Very interesting explanation of German dog tags from WW2. Thank you for the education. Now I know how to read one.
amazing work you do..........
One of the reasons Germans were defeated was that they used to make simple things complicated...
and fighting enemy armies in 5 fronts
I wished the German Archive would digitalise those lists.... Would help us Researchers alot more if we could search on our own.... Becous geesh the German City archieves are not always help full. Having an isseu on a Research... I Will deff e-mail you
Reutlingen is like 6.8 miles away from where I live :D that’s crazy I was often there
Very interesting, as a reenactor, ive been told that many tags have incomplete information,such as blood type, or if from a reserve unit assigned to another unit as replacement troops...very confusing...add to that some tags were metal and rusted, or were disintegrated by artillery....
In finnish army we have a very smalle dog tag with only our social security number on it. After seeing these videos I will make sure to enscribe my full name on my dog tag somewhere, as well as put plastic cards with my full name enscribed on them inside both of my boots and my pockets, if i ever go to war.
Great work
Unbelievable how bad the design of Wehrmacht tags is, especially since traditionally the tags of the imperial army used proper information including name.
Modern Bundeswehr tags also don’t bear names, but a personal identification number made up of birth date (DDMMYY), first letter of last name, three-digit number of the district recruiting office, a running number, and one check digit…
It’s moderately better, but not much.
Essentially every male german citizen has such a unique personal identification number. But should a catastrophe befall germany, it’s soldiers would yet again remain very difficult to identify.
these forgotten young were finally given a proper burial
Thank you, good job!
Great video
I have a question.
Let’s say a battle happens, and the Germans withdraw and some dead soldiers are left behind. Their comrades can’t get to them to take the bodies to the rear, and the dead fall into enemy hands. Assuming they are buried in graves, what information would the western allies record? Just put the dog tag information on a grave marker? Would the identification tags be sent to Berlin via diplomatic means so the deaths are known?
That seems to be where a lot of this comes into play. A mistaken tag when the dead soldier is amongst his own unit doesn’t seem like as big a problem. If he has the wrong tag, then when it is reported incorrectly the guy who is still alive can just say “nope, I’m still alive, it was this other guy that died”.
Did the western allies report dead Germans in their possession?
I can only speak of what the Americans did, for having read over their archives. They carefully noted down the German ID inscriptions, and if there was no ID tag they took finger and tooth prints exactly like for US soldiers. In the vast majority of cases the dead Germans were identified in this way, but there were problems in a few cases. I will make a future video about these unclear cases.
PS: the above was done when the bodies were handled by US Graves Registration personnel.
In many/most cases though the Germans were just buried by locals are POWs and nothing at all was recorded by the allies, just as in this case I made a video about: th-cam.com/video/C1nTdO30Pio/w-d-xo.html&t
Would the identification tags be sent to Berlin via diplomatic means so the deaths are known?
Yes - that's part of the Red Cross' role in wartime. They would be given lists of POW transfers, sickness, deaths, bodies found etc, and pass that info between the nations concerned.
The dedication to identifying these German remains is incredible. The dog tag system they used is baffling.
also on the german tag you find you mostly find a half of dog tag meaning these tags on these soldiers where accounted for what interesting is finding whole dog tags
You can find whole tags on accounted for soldiers, and half tags on soldiers not accounted for.
Very fascinating thx
thank you for your work...my great great uncle is missed in Stalingrad...he was 22 years old 😥
Take a look at this video I filmed in Stalingrad: th-cam.com/video/EHGgGqH7Uw0/w-d-xo.html
@@CrocodileTear thank you 🤗
Thanks for this, didn't realize how crap the German ID tag system was, even worse than the British WW1 system of serial numbers (I hope someone in Germany is digitising the registers (I'm sure a few euros can be spared for this))
I hope that lessons have been learned in all countries and that current ID tags do provide the real identity of any soldier found. Also with DNA evidence linked would be much safer in case of missing or more than one ID tag found in one body. Most Relevant work. Thank you for bringing home all those tragically lost lives.
My heart sank when it was reveled that one of these young men digging was himself, killed, Fuck war. God bless these young soldiers.
Knowing the German's passion for administration and bureaucracy, I cannot believe that there was not a good justification for such a system, in particular for not having the soldier's name on his tag. Do you know it?
FYI, I served in the Swiss Army and my tag bears (obviously twice, on each half of the tag):
- My full name
- My complete date of birth
- My matricule number
- My blood group, complete with complete rhesus classification
- My religious affiliation (a detail which, I guess, is uncommon among armies)
- On the reverse side is the Swiss cross.
As it is customary in the Swiss Army, the tag, as well as the collar chain, are made of beautifully polished stainless steel, and everything is engraved and not stamped... superb quality! 😉
There is no mention of a military unit, as it is quite usual to change units several times during the course of a military career.
These days almost all personal data are removed from dogtags as they can be used for identity theft. So in the future there might be the same problems as German WWII dogtags have.
The current American one has the same info, including religion, but not the birth date
This was absolutely interesting. So much for our „german efficiency „ ☺️