"Dogtags in WWI?" Topic

Can someone say if some kind of dogtags where used by US troops in WWI? And did uniforms bear personal nametags?

Don't know about the dogtags other than they had them. The uniforms did not have personal name tags, I think that is a post WW2 phenomenon.

Jim

I just did a Google search using "WW1 dog tags" and got a bunch of web sites and some images. Most appear to have been round.

Jim

I have my wife's grandfather's tags from WW1-there are two sets: one pair in leather and one pair in what appears to be lead. I have not yet had the opportunity to do any research on them yet.

Google – of course!

Indeed there are several good examples like this:

picture

Apparently there where two identical tags. The French seem to have used the break-off type widely adopted later on.

I have my grandfather's dog tags. One is round, the other square with rounded corners. They are inscribed with name, rank, company, and regiment.

I also have my grandfathers tags. They are oval stamped metal with 2 holes. Name, rank, and home town. Sounds like they could have been a private purchase item.

The reason that dogtags come in pairs is so that one can be left with the body (normally jammed in between the front teeth) and the other taken with the unit. A record is made of body's location and then the graves registration unit recovers the body and brings the soldier to a central collection point.

Jim