Dog Tag Returned To US Veteran After 69 Years

A World War Two veteran has been reunited with his dog tag nearly 70 years after he lost it in a field in France.

Irving Mann, 88, was serving in the 90th Infantry Division in German-occupied France in 1944 and suffered a leg injury while crossing the River Saar.

He was recently contacted by a French woman who claimed to have found his dog tag in her barley field, but was initially sceptical.

"You hear of so many scams going on, that somebody's going to fake it, do some research and say 'I would be willing to return your dog tag. However, it will cost you X number of dollars'," he said.

However, a series of email exchanges between Mr Mann's daughter-in-law and the French woman, Sophie LaFollie, eventually convinced him after she relayed the serial number on the tag - 42023412.

Ms LaFollie said she was not interested in a reward and sent the dog tag by post.

Mr Mann, a jewellery store owner in New York, said his unit had dug in near the village of Rethel in 1944 and traded army rations for eggs from a nearby farmhouse.

He recalled scrambling the eggs in his steel helmet, using his bayonet to stir the food.

"Any (doubting) thoughts I may have had disappeared immediately when I had the dog tag in my hand," he said.

"In 69 years, that field has been ploughed, tilled, planted. How many times did they turn that ground over and over again preparing it to grow?

"For my dog tag to show up after all that time, I consider that remarkable."

He added that he was unsure how he lost the dog tag, although it could have happened while he was digging foxholes.