Help me identify this WW2 artefact please:)

Discussion in 'WW2 Militaria' started by Tim Dawson, Aug 1, 2020.

  1. Tim Dawson

    Tim Dawson New Member

    I was recently going through my grandfathers ww2 possessions and found this tag. Does anybody know what it was used for and what the writing on it means too? Image attached.

    Fought in western desert FYI
     

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  2. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    It's French.
    The 3e & bis tells me that.
    Can't get what it says after the 3e.
     
    Dave55 likes this.
  3. Tim Dawson

    Tim Dawson New Member

    A slightly better photo for everybody:)
     

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  4. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Could also be Italian
     
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  5. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    As Owen points out it is French...troisieme indicated by 3e as an abbreviation,similar to third, "rd" in the English language ..."bis" looks to be "with an address" which I would say in this case refers to the military unit.
     
  6. Jenfen32

    Jenfen32 New Member

    I found a similar item in my late father's WW2 collection, thought to be from an Italian PoW sailor, my father was stationed in Alexandria / Cairo. I've attached it for you to see, just out of interest. I would love to return it to his family but that could be very difficult !!
     

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  7. JDKR

    JDKR Member

    Possibly ‘Btr’ after ‘3e’, ie abbreviation of ‘Batterie’.
     
  8. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    Welcome to the forum.
     
  9. Richard Lewis

    Richard Lewis Member

    Looks like 3º to me. The masculine ordinal indicator, º, was used in languages such as Spanish, Portuguese and Italian (Well done Robert-w). I haven’t seen the underlined version used in French. “Pte” could be the abbreviation for Puente (Spanish) or Ponte (Italian) meaning Bridge. So, possibly, it was an address and attached to a set of keys.

    p.s. The º should be underlined, but the fonts available on here don't allow it!
     
    Owen likes this.
  10. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Cool.
    Glad to be proved wrong.
    Learnt something today.
    :)
     
  11. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    It's a very stylised font. The stamps look almost like 'local production' and they're not struck cleanly. Without thinking too hard, I read it as....3e Qtr. G. bis...

    "Quartier Général" perhaps ?..but which ?
     

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