Hey guys,does anyone know how much information / can or cannot be gleamed from a soldiers service number .? Many thanks,Lee.
If we are talking about British service numbers then this may be of help: http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/4837-army-number-block-allocations/ I remember adding the following: Geoff I feel must tell you and others, of my experience this morning on testing out your admirable CWGC Search Engine. My Army number was 14300260. I decided to enter only the first six digits, i.e. 143002 in the "number" field and see if any one who joined the Army near my time had been killed in WW2. The search produced, amongst others a Trooper Fletcher, Reginald Water who died on the 12th of March 1945, is buried in The Reichswald Forest Cemetery and who's Army Number was 14300257. Trooper Fletcher's number is just 3 digits lower than mine and he must have joined on the same day, 1st October 1942. Truly a case of "There but for the Grace of G-d go I" Ron
Here is a blurb about US serial numbers: http://33rdscb.tripod.com/id49.htm IN short you can decipher : Enlisted or Officer, Location of induction and wether they were draftee.
That is a very useful document. I have a DB with about 4800 names of members of the 449th BG with s/n's for about 4000 of them. Some are 7 digit numbers, usually beginning with 6 or 7. Would it be correct to assume they entered service prior to 1 July 1940? Do you know of way to decipher those?
This would be a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_number_(United_States_armed_forces)
Hey guys ,so what could I find out about this army service number,with your help.? 11255381 ? Thanks again ,Lee.
According to this site:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_number_(United_States_Army)#World_War_II it looks like he was Regular Army, Enlisted (not an officer or draftee)and enlisted after 1940. He enlisted from region 11 which included the Sate of: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusettes, Rhode Island and Vermont. I tried plugging your number in to this database: http://www.wwii-enlistment.com/ and it came back with "No Results"