prestoncohunter Posted September 18, 2017 Share #1 Posted September 18, 2017 We believe this buckle was brought back by my FILs oldest brother. We have very little unit info for this brother other than he was in the 9th Army for a while and right at the end of the war was transferred to the 1st. We have found a couple letters that he sent to my FIL just as my FIL enlisted in the Navy. In one of those letters he talks that he is being housed in a Nazi Youth camp dorm, talks about it's great conditions as it's only 2 men to a room and each room has a bathroom. Also talks about a strawberry field being right behind the dorm and if he was still there when they ripened he was making a shortcake. All of the above is why we assume this was his pick up. I really know very little about it, and another person told me it was Hitler Youth but if that is incorrect please speak up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dramos Posted September 18, 2017 Share #2 Posted September 18, 2017 You are correct. That is a Hitler Youth (also called HJ for HItlerjugend) belt and buckle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith Posted September 18, 2017 Share #3 Posted September 18, 2017 Could you post a pic of the back of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestoncohunter Posted September 18, 2017 Author Share #4 Posted September 18, 2017 I will this evening, don't have a pic of the back on this computer. If I remember correctly very minimal markings on the back. Sadly the belt fell to dust right after this picture, had been stored in a hot attic for too many years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestoncohunter Posted September 19, 2017 Author Share #5 Posted September 19, 2017 Blacksmith. Here is the back side. I played with color some on the one pic to try and make the markings visable. Beside the R inside the circle it looks like a 4 but is hard to make out. Do these markings mean anything to anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doyler Posted September 19, 2017 Share #6 Posted September 19, 2017 If you have the letters from him you can refferance the APO number(Army Post Office) and match it to a unit or command.May shed a light to where he was when he sent the letter.You can trace the unit to locations from on line records and unit histories Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith Posted September 19, 2017 Share #7 Posted September 19, 2017 Hi Preston - Those markings represent the "RZM" identification of the buckle manufacturer. RZM is an abbreviation for Reichszeugmeisterei, which you can think of like a centralized quality and materials control organization. Companies that provided certain items (daggers, armbands, daggers, etc) would be assigned a number, which they were to mark on every piece they delivered. The RZM mark on your buckle appears to be "M4/46", which would be Wilhelm Schroder & Cie, located in Ludenscheid, Germany. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestoncohunter Posted September 19, 2017 Author Share #8 Posted September 19, 2017 Great info, blacksmith many thanks. Thanks doyler we do have a couple V letters/envelopes from the oldest brother which has that info but I haven't really followed up on it. I really need to do that but we have been trying more to figure out my FILs service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWIIDADS Posted September 19, 2017 Share #9 Posted September 19, 2017 Any chance he might have been a combat engineer. My FIL landed on Omaha under the 1st Army, then with 9th Army during Battle of the Bulge, then back to 1st Army for the last few months. 82nd Eng Combat Bn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestoncohunter Posted September 19, 2017 Author Share #10 Posted September 19, 2017 No idea WWIIDADS. Hope to look at his letters this evening as see if I can figure out what unit(s) he may have been with. Most of the letters we have found were from late 45 but he mentions having been in the service almost 9 years and overseas for almost 5. He also says in one letter that while he was one of the high point men in the 9th most of the guys in the 1st were higher than he was so getting home would take a while. To be honest I may have the weather he was in the 9th then the 1st or the 1st then the 9th confused. I need to dig that letter out and reread it. In one letter (after V-E day) he mentions that he is monitoring/guarding a railway station. If I remember correctly that letter was from Marburg Germany in Aug of 45 a day or two before the first atom bomb was dropped. He writes a few days after the second saying "don't think the war will last much longer now" which was funny because it was written on V-J day but apparently he hadn't got the word yet. Most of the letters to my FIL from his brother were that he thought him getting into the SeaBees was a good thing and how to get thru basic. My FIL was the "baby" of the family and had enlisted at 17 so the older brothers were full of advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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