Erkennungsmarke in Katwijk, The Netherlands
June 2025
Early 2025, we received an e-mail from someone who has found a Erkennungsmarke. An Erkennungsmarke is simply an identification tag worn by German World War II soldiers.
A German World War II identification tag consisted of two halves. Soldiers wore the tag as a single piece, and if they were killed, one half was broken off the tag, which then was recorded. This way, they knew that the owner was killed in action. The other half stayed with the remains of the killed soldier.
Due to website server issues, we received the email well after the reporter contacted us. In June 2025, we contacted them to request further information. Since we had not responded to their email for a long time, we feared the finder would not respond to our message.
Fortunately they did. A few days after our e-mail, we received a message that the amateur detectorist had found the tag near Katwijk in the Netherlands. A photo showed that it was a complete German Erkennungsmarke (Identification tag), so both halves were present. However, the tag was in very poor condition, and the text on it was barely legible.
August 2025
Deciphering the data on the identification tag proves difficult. We can read the information below, but the center of the tag is damaged.
| A | 36 | |||
| 1/LE | ART | ABT | *** | 555 |
The internet learns that it is definitely the German 1st Light Artillery Battalion 555, which was stationed somewhere near The Hague, protecting the Atlantic Wall. There is no name on the tag, so we don’t know who it belonged to.
Number 36 is a “Stammrollen”. This might help us determine who the owner was. We are submitting a request for information to the Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives) asking if anything is known about this identification tag.
Inquiries, however, reveal that requests to the German World War II Archives can take a long time. Therefore, we should expect a response time of several weeks. As far as we know, very little archival material is available digitally.
November 2025
An email from the Federal Archives, which we received at the end of October, indicated that no information was available. If we want to know more, we might have to consult another archive. Early November we’ve sent an email to an archive in Koblenz.
December 2025
No data is available in Koblenz either. However, they suggest a more in-depth investigation is possible for a fee. We decide to pursue this option and submit an official request for investigation.
March 2026
A message in our mailbox from the German archives. They’ve determined that it’s probably about:
-36- 1/Le.Art.Abt. (mot) 555
Name: Ludwig Stevens
Birth: 17 August 1903, Aachen
Status: Unknown
The missing part of the identification tag could indicate “mot,” but that doesn’t get us very far. We do now have a possible name for the bearer, which opens up possibilities for further research. It remains unclear whether he is missing or dead
April 2026
We issue a request for more information at the Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (German Red Cross). It could be that Ludwig Stevens was Killed in Action, recovered or returned after the war and maybe the Red Cross is able to provide us anything about the circumstances of his loss or any other detailed information. Again, waiting…
Study Group Missing Soldier appreciates that she was contacted. The person that found the tag took the right decision. We hope that many will follow this example.
Please note that the published photo on this page was published with written permission of the owner of the photo.