A friend of mine had a father in the American Army during WWII. They never got much information out of him about what he did. Unfortunately his records were amongst those destroyed in the fire in St. Louis. However, he did give my friend a uniform he brought home from the war. I had an opportunity to look at it this past weekend.
It is green wool with light brown stitching. There is the standard eagle over the right breast pocket. Generally it seems to be in pretty good shape.
Now the interesting part - Stamped on the inside is a unit designation. This is NOT hand-written but actually stamped like any other maker's mark. It says:
1./JR 79
2.KP
III
To me that translates as: 3rd Platoon, 2nd Company, 1st Battalion, 79th Jaeger Regiment. The shoulder strap is trimmed in yellow. Both buttons holding the straps in place have a '2' - on the left shoulder it is the number 2, on the right it is Roman Numeral II.
I wasn't aware that uniforms were stamped as such. Can anyone shed any light on that? I'll post this in the uniform forum as well.
I did a quick search on the web for JR 79 and the only thing that popped was the SS-Freiwilligen GR 79 from the 31st SS Division. Was there another or is that the only one?
Thanks for any information.
Uniform - 79th Jaeger Regiment?
Moderator: John W. Howard
-
Ralph Persico
- New Member
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Sun Aug 24, 2003 3:45 pm
Yes, everything was stamped. I'd be surprised if the factory stamp was not there also, where the uniform was manufactured.
As for the unit markings I was under the impression that the ' 1 ' would stand for Reg.1 /79. Jager Div and the III represented the abteilung ( battalion/detachment ). Usually the battalions markings were in Roman Numerals.
- ralph
As for the unit markings I was under the impression that the ' 1 ' would stand for Reg.1 /79. Jager Div and the III represented the abteilung ( battalion/detachment ). Usually the battalions markings were in Roman Numerals.
- ralph
Thanks for the information. I haven't found a Jaeger Regiment 79. Someone else posted that it may have also been and 'I' instead of a 'J' indicating 79th Infantry Regiment.
The only reason I speculated that it was a Regiment was that it says: '1./JR 79' - I'm assuming the R would stand for Regiment and not division.
The only reason I speculated that it was a Regiment was that it says: '1./JR 79' - I'm assuming the R would stand for Regiment and not division.