I received this letter this morning and had to share with you. I will translate later for those who do not speak French, but basically it says that this gentleman is a researcher and found an army camp in France, and discovered dogtags of a 540th engineer. He found the name on my site and says this soldier received a purple heart. He asks if I want photos of the camp. You bet! Here's the letter. I will post photos of the dogtags in a bit, but have to open the store right now...
--------------
Bonjour,
Je suis collectionneur de militaria de la seconde guerre mondiale depuis assez longtemps.
Résidant en France, dans l'Est du pays à la frontière avec l'Allemagne, je pratique la détection.
J'ai découvert un ancien camp de l'armée américaine et j'ai trouvé cinq plaques d'identité de GI.
L'une d'entre elle est au nom de WILLIAM COX, (N° 14020473) grâce à votre site j'ai appris que ce soldat avait été décoré de la PURPLE HEART et qu'il appartenait au 540 th combat engineers.
Merci à vous
Je n'ai pas d'autres indications sur ce soldat.
Avez-vous d'autres informations sur WILLIAM COX. Je suis à la recherche d'une photo et de tout renseignements
Merci.
Voulez-vous des photos du camp US j'ai trouvé en foret ?
Désolé pour le texte en anglais mais je ne maitrise pas votre langue.
Salutations, Ã vous lire
Damien
Don't speak no French personnally (ich can' ein bißchen Deutch sprechen) , but the story is great! What a find.
Translation
Hello,
I am collector of militaria of the second World War for a long time. I live in France, in the country East to the border with Germany, I do research.
I discovered a former camp of the American army and I found five sets of GI dogtags.
The one is the name of WILLIAM COX, (N° 14020473) thanks to your site I learned that this soldier had been decorated with a PURPLE HEART and that it belonged to the 540th combat engineer. Thanks to you!
I have not any other iinformation on this soldier. Do you have other information on WILLIAM COX? I am researching the photos and of all pieces of information, thank you.
Do you want photos of the camp US I found in the forest?
Sorry for the text in English but I not versed in your language.
Greetings,
Damien
Real interesting info regarding his date of injury, which was D-Day for Operation Shingle, which was the Anzio landing, January, 22, 1944.
I am going to look through my paperwork when I can, to see what else I can find out about S/Sgt Cox. How did he come to lose his dogtag in France. I just love this kind of detective work!
This has NOTHING to do with S/Sgt Cox, but this happened a few days later at Anzio. I found this when reading the daily journal reports from Jan 44.
This excerpt is taken from 29 January 1944:
...At approximately 0330A, Pvt Zerface, Co. "E" fatally wounded when accidentally run over by dukw, while asleep in his tent.
Jesus, what a hell of a way to die; in your tent in the middle of the night, fast asleep. Poor guy didn't know what the hell hit him. It wasn't Anzio Annie, or bombs, or rifle fire, or a grenade. The poor soul gets run over by one of our own vehicles. Whew! 
How wonderful! So Sgt Cox was regular army from the "4th army/corps" area ,right?
That's the significance of the 1st two numbers on his dogtag, isn't it?
I know that my father's army sn# started with "3" cuz he was a draftee and then "1" for 1st army or corps area which included Massachusetts.
Wouldn't it be great to locate S/Sgt Cox's people!
m2
