German identity disc for a POW: Gunner Reginald Matthew Toohey, 2/2 Field Regiment

A rectangular German prisoner of war identity disc, with a line of five slots down the middle. The same information - 'Stalag VII/A / Nr : 92508' is repeated on both sides of the slots. The other side is blank.

German prisoner of war identity disc worn by VX15408 Gunner Reginald Matthew Toohey of the 2/2 Field Regiment while he was a prisoner of the Germans in Stalag VIIA at Moosburg. Toohey enlisted on 27 March 1940 and was attached to the 2/2 Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, part of 6 Division. They deployed to North Africa in 1940 where they saw action at Bardia and Tobruk. In 1941 the 6 Division moved to Greece, and after withdrawal, to Crete, where the regiment fought as infantry, having lost their guns in Greece.

Toohey was captured on Crete and was sent to Stalag VIIA, a huge prisoner of war camp just north of Moosburg in southern Germany. He spent the remainder of the war there, until the camp was liberated by US Forces on 29 April 1945. At that time it held over 75,000 prisoners.

This identity disc closely follows the pattern of the discs worn by German forces – although the German forces discs were oval, not rectangular, and different information was carried on them. However the material from which they were made (an aluminium-zinc alloy), and the pattern of slots across the middle (easily broken to provide two copies in case of death) is uniquely German. The number is the German POW number, rather than the Australian service number.