Our very own
dog-tag msyery
A few of the members of Miss Drop 44 have a history of relic hunting, I fell out of love for the hobby a long time ago when my so called friend back then went behing my back and started sabotaging what I was doing with someone he didn't like, he also revealved the location of a site full of British dog-tags that I was slowly returning to veterans and families as wwhat felt like an atempted 'fuck you' in my direction becuase I said "I suggest you leave me the fuck alone" as I wanted nothing to do with him anymore. So the location of these tags, that he always said that he wouldn't give the location away as he loved and supported the fact I was returning them, was given to just about anyone the he knew would go out and dig the site. I guess his words meant very little. I stopped the project of returning these tags, stopped paying for subscriptions and memberships on research sites, stopped paying for postage and got on with my life. Anyway... I digress, despite digging up tens of thousands of British dog-tags, I always joked that I'd rather dig one American tag to a thousand British ones. After quitting the hobby I didn't go and dig anything for years, focusing on Miss Drop 44. Due to talking with the lads about all the stories and recounting all the amazing things we found over the years, sparked an interest with a few members... so a few of us have been out, revisiting old sites and it's almost woken a slumbering beast inside me. I was at a loose end one day, Sarah was out, the house was empty and I decided to jump on Leyla, armed with my digging burgan filled with tools and shot off to one of our old sites. I expected to get old bottles, however... after an hour of digging a stopped for a drink. Then I looked back down in the shallow hole and there it was, a single US dog-tag looking back at me.
I picked it up gingerly and could see that it was fairly fragile, so I placed it to one side, wondering what the hell it was doing here! I continued to dig, not very aware that I'd have to change digging style. I was looking for dig bottles that are impossible to miss... but these tags, if there were more, then it could be very easy to throw them out in the spoil. I check my bag, typical, no pinpointer. So it was to dig slowly, carefully and methodically. I ignored my spoil pile and started to dig really slowly, surely enough, another tags popped out, then another, then another. I struggled to understand why, I could see that all the names were different, even without being able to read them fully. I snapped a photo and sent it to Miss Drop 44 via Whatsapp. Lot of puzzled people with lots of WTF sort of comments.
8 tags, I could barely believe my luck! We've always said the "one find that's good enough for the cabinet, makes the hard work worth it", I had 8. I sent photos to Jay, who was amazed and said "are you free tomorrow?". So before I'd even got home, the plan was to return the next day and see if there were more. I continued digging slowly for the rest of the day and when it was time to pack up, mainly as the heat was killing me I had recoved 21 tags and apart from some minor damage on a couple, they were complete.
I got home, cleaned up the tags and then started what felt very familiar - an Excel spreadsheet. Punching in all the details of each tag. What made the least sense is where they were, this isn't a military site, it is effectively a rubbish dump, so why and how did they end up here and why was there so many? I entered them into the Enlistement records website, got dates of brith and then entered them into FindAGrave website. On a few of these, it revealed that they were 9th Infantry Division, some of which even stated the regiment, the 39th. A couple even had the same company... K Company.
The tags didn't reveal much at first, I logged onto Facebook and to a US Militaria forum and put up my questions. Are these all 9th Inf Div, my guess was that they were all the same unit. however, it wasn't long before I got a reply from a Matthias Milo who gave me the units of all the guys... hmmmm, maybe I was wrong, the units ranged from Engineers, MPs, one paratrooper... yes I shit you not, infantry from the PTO and all sorts. Well, fuck goes my theory then. We chatted about the tags and I asked how he got this information and he gave me a link to a fantastic website, with possibly the shittest search tool ever. I planned to use it after I got back from digging the next day with Jay.
So another early digging morning I met Jay at a petrol station and we then went of to the site together. Him quizing me on what I knew, had found out and if he thought we'd find any tags. I was convinced we would. Out of the 21 I have only made a couple of pairs, so logic would dictate that at least all tags had a friend at one point. We said we'd do what we always did and just share out the tags equally. We started digging and boom, out pops a tag with big smiles from us both, I put it on a piece of broken plate, then going through the spoil reveals another.... the day whizzed by, despite the heat. Ending with 11 tags. 6 for me, 5 for Jay (of course I get the extra one). I also got a 1937 Coronation medal and a Polish Ww2 cap badge! I know.... who knows why that was there either! At the end of the day we decide that we'd return early next week.
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So, the tags and cleaned, added to the database, Jay gives me the details from his tags and those are added on also. I update the story on the US Militaria FB page and Matthias Milo messages me saying that one of the tags we just got, he owns a set of tags and a tunic along with other items to thae same guy. THEODORE. C. WISNIEWSKI 32002906. He asked if he was able to purchase it, typically it was one of Jays and I explained, but passed on his name to Jay and if he wanted to sell it, he'd make contact. Which is exactly what happended next.
I then really started to get my head down and working out who these guys were, already knowing that a few were K Company 39th Infantry Regiment, I assumed that all were, at least at one point. I know a lot of infantry company's kept a montly roster, but could I find the ones for Company K. Sure as shit I could, thank you Matthias again! I had them from almost the day the unit was initiated, along with tranfer lists of soliders to build the Company and then rosters from Aug 1940 to June 1942. I printed the lot! Yes, it was a mountain of paperwork. I then went through each list, highlighting each member on a roster.
August 1940 had only 5 of these guys on it...
September 1940 had 8
October 1940 had 8
December 1940 had 10
January 1941 had all 23 guys on it!!! "WOAH GOT THEM!"
Febrauary 1941 again had all 23
March 1941 again had all 23
April 1941 again had all 23
May 1941 again had all 23
June 1941 again had all 23
July 1941 had only 19
August 1941 had 19
September 1941 had 20
October 1941 had 20
November 1941 had 19
December 1941 had 19
So from January to June 1941 all 23 soldiers that we have tags for were all in Company K, 39th Inf Reg, 9th Inf Div. So we now can connect all the tags to each other... still no clue why there were burried there.
All these tags are early war, all have next of kin, no religion letter, none have blood groups nor tetnus yearly stamps. They could all have possibly been swapped over for a different pattern... but whats odd about that is, despite these tags all being from the standard style between Dec 1940 and Nov 1941, the next pattern isn't really that much different. Only adding in the blood group and religion. The pattern that looses all the next of kin details doesn't start until July 1943! The problem with this is that one of these guys was killed on Kasserine Ridge on the 20th February 1943. So did the army really make me swap one set of tags for a nearly identical set. Both would have had the next of kin details, so is the reason? Seems a little odd to me, but still possible.
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