Help, please with personal ID.

[tcolvin]

A Frenchman is asking for help in identifying the owner of the plaques pictured in the attached.
They were found in a crashed aircraft in 1944 in Lorraine.
Eyewitness testimony is that they belonged to a Canadian pilot of a Mosquito or B17(!).
Any help would be welcomed.

Tony

[tcolvin]

The picture did not attach - file too large.
Here it is.

Tony

[dp_burke]

The serial Number matches this US service man:
Name: Floyd De Camp
Birth Year: 1921
Race: White, citizen (White)
Nativity State or Country: New Jersey
State: New Jersey
County or City: Burlington

Enlistment Date: 16 Sep 1940
Enlistment State: New Jersey
Enlistment City: Mount Holly
Branch: Infantry
Branch Code: Infantry
Grade: Private
Grade Code: Private
Component: National Guard (Officers, Warrant Officers, and Enlisted Men)
Source: National Guard

Education: Grammar school
Marital Status: Single, without dependents
Height: 70
Weight: 130

From the enlistment records at:
http://aad.archives.gov/aad/series-list.jsp?cat=WR26

I can't just now see where he was shot down or similar. But we will find out.

Note that the enlistment details above appear to be for an infantry man and he does not appear to be Canadian.

regards from Ireland

Dennis

[dp_burke]

Social Security death indices would indicate that he died in 1994 in Hainesport, Burlington NJ. Perhaps contacting the local papers might help?

What are the details of the crash? Might it be a transport aircraft? Were the crew supposed to have died etc.

I can;t find a mention of Floyd De Camp (or Decamp) on the

http://www.wwiimemorial.com/

Suggesting the owner did not lose his life in the war.

Dennis

[tcolvin]

Thanks, dp. You cracked it.

The Frenchman wrote - and not even to me;
"Pourrais tu m'aider,un ami m'a remis une plaque avec un nom et un matricule,d'apres ce qui a ete dit,celle aurait ete recupere en 1944,suite a un crasch en lorraine(france)
Suivant le temoignage il s'agirait de pilote canadien ,je n'ai pas plus de renseignements a te fournir,peut etre avion mosquito ou B 17".


This translates as:

"Could you please help me. A friend has sent a plaque with a name and number, saying it was recovered in 1944 following an air crash in Lorraine in France.
According to a witness, it refers to a Canadian pilot.

I have no more information to give you, but the plane might have been a Mosquito or a B17".


We'll wait and see if your information elicits anything more from the Frenchman.
Otherwise it looks as if Pfc Floyd Decamp lost the article either while helping clear wreckage of a Canadian Mosquito or US B17, or he was in the B17 and walked away from it.


I knew the number was not Canadian, as they had a 'C' prefix and were only five digits long, I believe, and it was not British since they had seven digits. It makes sense that it was US as it came from Lorraine where Bradley's lot were fighting.



Tony

[dp_burke]

For more background to Canadian service numbers this old thread on RAFCommands explains a bit more.

http://www.rafcommands.com/cgi-bin/d...D6&archive=yes

I'd be interested in finding out how this mans item ended up as it did. try fidn out if the area of the crash was occupied by German or Allied troops at the time perhaps.

regards

Dennis

[Kutscha]

I knew the number was not Canadian, as they had a 'C' prefix and were only five digits long,

My father's service number began with a 'R' followed by 6 digits. My name sake's service number began with a 'J' followed by 5 digits. Both were RCAF.

[tcolvin]

Thank you, Kutscha. I stand corrected.

T
Did you know that the 'R' and 'J' denoted the recruit's military district, according to this Wikipedia entry under 'Service number' for Canada;


"During the Second World War, units were allocated blocks of Regimental Numbers to issue out, usually in the 5 or 6 digit range, though extremely low numbers were also possible due to the blocks.

• X12345 - the X was an alphabetic character denoting the Military District the soldier was recruited in (A represented MD1, B MD2, etc.) Up until 1945, officers never received numbers and were identified by name and rank only."

Tony

[dp_burke]

Tom,

if you refer to the link I pasted above, Hugh Haliday has studied RCAF men inside out and in my limited experience of RCAF personel related to Ireland, the RCAF personel have the C/ or R/ or J/ when commishioned. I imagine the Wiki article above relates to the Army.

If you do a search on Geoff Sullivans CWGC serach engine for a Canadian regiment, you will see that the Army casualties have various letters infront of their serial numbers as stated in the Wiki article.

http://www.hut-six.co.uk/cgi-bin/search39-47.php

Also using that site, taking a random sample of unit number 427 and Canada for regiment, shows 427 Squadron casualties almost exclusivly have R/ or J/ numbers.

I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule but J/ and R/ seem to be RCAF prefixs along with C/ also.

The number of numerals was not restricted, I've seen some late war men with more than 5 digits, which stands to reason.

In any case, this is about Mr. De Camp's bracelet.

cheers, Dennis

[Bill Walker]

Just a small note about Canadian Army numbers: they did use one or two letter prefixes that indicated the military district where the member first signed up. My father joined in Ottawa in 1940, and was ZC10171. I believe the Z prefix indicated regular army (as opposed to militia), but I'm not sure. By the way, he became an officer after the war, and retained this number. The RCAF was a branch of the Army (sort of) up until the mid 1930s, so many adminstrative details were copied over from the Army.