ID, ..........

Unfortunately, that's not valid in Russia (and in other areas of the former Soviet Union).
There are dozens and dozens of such 'fascist' soldiers' dog tags (occasionally Rumanian ones, too) coming from those areas popping up on various internet auction sites. They usually don't give a damn to the remains of the 'Nazi invaders'.

If there would be no buyers, there would be no market for such grim artefacts, so the dog tags would stay where they belong, in the ground, nearby the human remains of the unfortunate soldier.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on June 30, 2006 03:43 pm

I think the IT tages were broken in two when a soldier was put to rest in a temporary grave near the battlefield, one half remaining with the soldier for future identification and the other half being taken as evidence. Since this is a broken tag and it most likely points to grave robbery.

This is a morbid question : Did the Romanians practice placing the dog tags in the mouth of the dead in between the teeth and then closing the jaw down around the dog tag ? They do this because when rigamortis sets in, the dog tag does not get lost and stays with the body. If so, that would mean that the Russian treasure hunters are mutilating a lot of skulls to get to these tags.

I don't know about mutilating skulls, because after the flesh rots away the jaw just drops out of it's socket so a dog tag placed between the teeth would be quite easy to extract- However, that is still grave-robbing of the worst sort.

This ID-tag is found in a dugout.
To what arm of the service this person belonged?

The German soldier/officer would break the ID tag in half. Take one for identification of KIA and would kick the other half in between the teeth not just place them so the tag wouldn't come out (an SS vet told me they did this and not place). Most of the time they were buried in far away places long forgotten so it would be very difficult to monitor what is happening. However, there are very few good people left so you can figure they are coming from graves. However if the Romanians did this then they would have to have used the German style ID tag.

When a person dies, normaly there is a natural space between the teeth its not so we all die clenching the teeth together, many in fact die with the mouth open, and think of this:

The postion the head would have to be in to kick a thin piece of metal between the teeth, also standing over a corpse and and stamping the dog tag between the teeth, try holding a dog tag in one hand and kicking it with your foot, in a crouched postion, it would have been much simpler to pry the mouth open with a bayonet blade and push the tag in.
And remember only one half of the tag would be placed between the teeth of the corpse the other half returned to the Company HQ for documentation

So the statement about KICKING the tag between the teeth dosent make much sense!!!

Kevin in Deva.

This post has been edited by New Connaught Ranger on August 24, 2007 09:55 am

Kevin,

You can argue the with the SS vets here. They told me they kicked them in so that the ID would stay. I'll go with what a veteran who has done it told me and not any of us who were not there since we really do not know for ourselves. My grandfather said sometimes in the Pacific they wedged them into the deads' teeth with an untensil as well and on a few occasions he saw them wedged in then kicked.

Sorry, I just dont believe it, and I doubt if any US soldier would "Kick" a dog tag into a recently deceased comrades mouth either.

Sentiments tend to run high when your comrades are dead.

Again trying to hold a half a dog-tag and kick it at the same time would require some contorsions to be performed.

Kevin in Deva.