German issue identity disc : Lieutnenant R W Lister, 2/1 Australian Ordnance Stores Company

Places
Accession Number REL29325
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Personal Equipment
Physical description White metal
Maker Unknown
Place made Germany
Date made c 1941
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Description

Rectangular white metal identity disc perforated horizontally across the centre so that it can be broken in half in the event of the wearer's death. One half would be left on the body and the other half removed for record keeping purposes. Both halves of the disc are impressed on one side only 'Kr.Gef. Oflag X/C Nr:3525'.

History / Summary

VX7502 Lieutenant Ronald Walter Lister served with 2/1 Australian Ordnance Store Company. Born in 1918, he had served with the militia before the Second World War, and was working as an etcher and lithographer for CHT Pty Ltd in Melbourne before he enlisted in the AIF, on 24 November 1939. He sailed with his unit for service in Palestine in 1940. In 1941 Lister took part in the Greece and Crete campaign and was captured by the Germans on Crete, on 1 June 1941. Flown by the Germans to Athens, and then transferred to Salonika, Lister was then sent to Oflag X/C at Lubeck on the Baltic Sea, arriving there on 29 July, where he was issued with this identity disc. On 9 October 1941 Lister was transferred to Oflag VIB at Dossel uber Warburg, and in summer 1942 to Oflag VIIB at Eichstatt, where he remained for the rest of the war. In April 1945 he was briefly moved to Stalag VIIA at Moosburg before being liberated by American forces on 29 April. Lister was discharged in Australia on 24 April 1946.