WW2 ORIGINAL GERMAN DOG TAG MILITARY RAILWAY ENGINEER PIONIER RELIC from KURLAND

The dog tag comes from a collection of my deceased friend, unfortunately I'm unable to ask him precisely how it was found, but knowing him it was, most likely, dug by him on one of the surrender sites in Kurland. Hard to read, but the tag reads Sta. Stamm Kompanie Eisenbahn Pionier Ersatz Bataillon 1. Personal number 57, bood group A, which stands for a. Instructor Company of the 1st Railway Engineer Replacement Battalion. Railway engineer units were tasked with changing raiway gauge from Russian to European, repairing railways, building new narrow gauge railways for unit supply and when Germans were retreating, with destroying the railways. I suppose that this dog tag was self-made to replace the lost one, but later on thrown away when the properly made one was acquired. Great item, will look great in any WW2 collection.

Left as found, not cleaned. Scroll down to see better photos. Like the previous days the major attack on 23 December took place south of Frauenburg where the 4th Assault Army with 119, 360, 357, 378, 145, 239, 306, 164 and 158 Rifle Divisions stormed against the HKL of 18th Army on both sides of Pampali. The frontline defended by 16th Army was attacked by the 10 Guard Army with 56, 65, 53, 85, 30, 29, 119 Rifle divisions and 7 Guard division and the 42 Army with 2, 268, 256 and 48 Rifle Divisions. The German soldiers defended themselves fuious against this numerical much stronger enemy and was able to hold their lines.

The 205 Infantrie-Division repulsed the attack of three Rifle Divisions. The 16th Army along with the 18th Army was cut off in the Courland Peninsula when the Soviets launched their summer and autumn offensives of 1944.

It stayed trapped there until the end of the war. After the war, 250,000 German troops trapped in the Courland Pocket were marched into captivity, many were never heard from again. All my items are 100% ORIGINAL!

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