Don't speak no French personnally (ich can' ein bißchen Deutch sprechen) , but the story is great! What a find.

Translation

Hello,

I am collector of militaria of the second World War for a long time. I live in France, in the country East to the border with Germany, I do research.

I discovered a former camp of the American army and I found five sets of GI dogtags.

The one is the name of WILLIAM COX, (N° 14020473) thanks to your site I learned that this soldier had been decorated with a PURPLE HEART and that it belonged to the 540th combat engineer. Thanks to you!

I have not any other iinformation on this soldier. Do you have other information on WILLIAM COX? I am researching the photos and of all pieces of information, thank you.

Do you want photos of the camp US I found in the forest?

Sorry for the text in English but I not versed in your language.

Greetings,

Damien

two images

Here's the document he found on our main site, which helped him discover which unit this man belonged to:

https://ww2combatengineers.comdoc...0th/Awards.html

Real interesting info regarding his date of injury, which was D-Day for Operation Shingle, which was the Anzio landing, January, 22, 1944.

I am going to look through my paperwork when I can, to see what else I can find out about S/Sgt Cox. How did he come to lose his dogtag in France. I just love this kind of detective work!

This has NOTHING to do with S/Sgt Cox, but this happened a few days later at Anzio. I found this when reading the daily journal reports from Jan 44.

This excerpt is taken from 29 January 1944:

...At approximately 0330A, Pvt Zerface, Co. "E" fatally wounded when accidentally run over by dukw, while asleep in his tent.

Jesus, what a hell of a way to die; in your tent in the middle of the night, fast asleep. Poor guy didn't know what the hell hit him. It wasn't Anzio Annie, or bombs, or rifle fire, or a grenade. The poor soul gets run over by one of our own vehicles. Whew!

How wonderful! So Sgt Cox was regular army from the "4th army/corps" area ,right?

That's the significance of the 1st two numbers on his dogtag, isn't it?

I know that my father's army sn# started with "3" cuz he was a draftee and then "1" for 1st army or corps area which included Massachusetts.

Wouldn't it be great to locate S/Sgt Cox's people!

m2

Look here for serial number information everyone:

http://208.109.212.45/forum/index.php?showtopic=4555

Thought I'd place the info in the research section.

Wouldn't it be great to locate S/Sgt Cox's people!

 

m2

Sure would!!!

Here's his second email to me today. The dogtag was found in Barenthal, and this would fit in perfectly with the 540th's records. They were in Barenthal in December of 1944.

=========

Bonjour Marion

Et Merci beaucoup d'avoir répondu à mon mail.

J'ai trouvé ce dogtag à BARENTHAL dans le département de la Moselle (Est de la France près des Vosges)

Comme je te l'ai dit, j'ai retrouvé un ancien camp de l'US ARMY avec un peu de matériel dont les dogtags de cinq soldats et quelques collar disques du génie (engineer et collar US)

Je ne connaissais pas le régiment qui stationnait dans ce camp, j'ai tapé le N° matricule du soldat WILLIAM COX sur GOOGLE et j'ai eu la page de ton site Web (Awards, honors et décorations 42-45) et j'ai trouvé WILLIAM COX comme décoré de purple heart le 1-22-1944.

Merci à toi, grace à ton travail, j'ai appris le grade de WILLIAM COX que j'ignorai et quel régiment était stationné à BARENTHAL,

J'ai trouvé les dogtags des GI suivant :

1- TACKETT EARL - 34362528 - PRIVATE

2- LEONARD FLYOD - 39150331 - PRIVATE

3- CLAUNCH CURTIS - 34102886 - PRIVATE

4- LYMAN KAY - 19171144 - PRIVATE (Trouvé par mon ami qui fouille avec moi)

Merci d'avance de ton aide.

Je fouille ce camp depuis un an mais je peux m'y rendre qu'une ou deux

fois par mois.

Je te ferai des photos plus large de la foret et des trous individuels des soldats

(foxhall)

Best regards

Damien

Maintenant quelques photos des fouilles :

This is the kind of story I really like.

I myself got lucky too.

Recently, I obtained an Ike Jacket from a GI in the 5th Armored Division (liberated Luxembourg and saw action in the Hürtgen Forest).

There was a name "D D Smith" on it ........ Smith is like Jones ..... 75% of the Americans are called either Smith or Jones.

I sent an e-mail to Mr. Will Cook although I knew it was a long shot.

Mr. Cook replied ..... D D Smith was Staff Sergeant Donald D Smith of 10th Tank Bn - 5th Armored Division (unfortunately passed away in December 1994).

I just love it when pieces become part of history or even when you can put a face with them.

Erwin

Here's the translation:

Hello Marion:

Thank you a lot for replying to my email. I found this dogtag in BARENTHAL in the area of the Moselle (In France close to the Vosges)

As I stated, I re-discovered a former camp of the US ARMY and a little equipment and the dogtags of five soldiers and some collar pins of US engineers.

I did not know the regiment that was in this camp, I typed the name of the soldier WILLIAM COX on GOOGLE and I had the page of your website (Awards, honors and decorations 42-45) and I found WILLIAM COX was decorated with a purple heart on 1-22-1944.

Thanks to you and your work, I learned the rank of WILLIAM COX that I was unaware of and which regiment was in BARENTHAL.

I found the dogtags of the following GIs:

1- TACKETT EARL - 34362528 - PRIVATE

2- LEONARD FLYOD - 39150331 - PRIVATE

3- CLAUNCH CURTIS - 34102886 - PRIVATE

4- LYMAN KAY - 19171144 - PRIVATE (Found by my friend who searches with me)

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

I searched this camp for a year but I cannot return there more than once or twice a month.

I will show you the bigger photos of the forest and individual foxholes of the soldiers.

Best regards,

Damien

Yes, Erwin, that was great luck. I am happy for you. This too is a wonderful event. I can't wait to find more. I am looking through the records right now for Dec of 44 and their time spent in and around Barenthal. I am so glad this gentleman found me. Ah, so many questions are in the making...

Keep us updated.

I for one am sure interested in reading about these finds.

Erwin