Germany - Third Reich: German Army Complete Identity Disc (Erkennungsmarke) for a soldier serving with a Replacement Depot / Magazine supply the 12th Infantry Division. Aluminium form (hence produced up to-1941), stamped on one side on both halves: ’E.M.d. 12. J.D.’ and ‘42’, and an ‘O’ for Blood Type O, whilst the reverse appears to be plain. As worn by a serviceman with Ersatz-Magazin der 12. Infanterie-Division (Replacement Depot / Magazine of the 12th Infantry Division). This unit partook in the invasion of Poland in September 1939, the assault on France and the Low Countries in 1940, and then during Operation Barbarossa and the invasion of the Soviet Union during 1941 when part of Army Group North as an element of the 16th Army when it partook in the capture of the Latvian city of Daugavpils, and then swept north-eastward to Leningrad where it was finally stopped in its tracks during the siege effort.
Condition: some heavy corrosion to faces, overall about Fair Condition with part details requiring careful scrutiny in order to read.
As worn by a serviceman with Ersatz-Magazin der 12. Infanterie-Division (Replacement Depot / Magazine of the 12th Infantry Division). The number ’42’ reflects the individual roster number (Rollennummer) of the specific person to whom the disc was issued. The 12th Infantry Division was known as such between October 1934 and July 1944 when it was destroyed during the Soviet advance as part of Operation Bagration. It was reformed and retitled in September 1945 as the 12th Volksgrenadier Division (12. Volksgrenadier-Division), and existed a such until 18 April 1945 when serving on the Western Front.
This division was moved to Königsberg in East Prussia prior to the German invasion of Poland, and then took part in the invasion. During the 1940 assault on France and the Low Countries, the division helped beat back an Anglo-French assault on an associated Panzer column in the hopes of relieving troops besieged in Belgium during their full-on retreat. Following the campaign, the division remained stationed in the region until May 1941 in an occupational capacity, when it was ordered to return to East Prussia. In June 1941 the division joined Operation Barbarossa under Army Group North as an element of the 16th Army. It took part in Army Group North's capture of the Latvian city of Daugavpils, sweeping north-eastward to Leningrad where it was finally stopped in its tracks during the siege effort. During the early months of 1942, the II Army Corps was subject to a Soviet counteroffensive to relieve Leningrad, resulting in five army divisions (the 12th, included) and the SS-Totenkopf division being encircled along with several other elements of the 16th Army in the Demyansk Pocket. With support from the Luftwaffe, planes containing supplies were flown in to aid the divisions while they were in the pocket for some 81 days between 8 February and 20 March. Göring would later gloat about his success in freeing the pocket during the Battle of Stalingrad later that year when a similar airlift concept was applied.] While liberated, the 12th Infantry had left the pocket in a much-weakened state.
In 1943, with the German Army on the retreat, the division fought in the Belarusian city of Vitebsk. This resulting deterioration of effectiveness led to its capitulation during the Soviets' Summer Offensive in June 1944, soon after Army Group Centre's collapse in Operation Bagration.
