Wow, Christoph, your messages always take a lot of time to digest!
The logic you propose on the numbering scheme makes sense. I was just thinking because Siegburg was a Hospital that they kept track of how many got sent there - but that would be too complicated to track and know that some had been moved out of the Hospital so there was room for more. I could keep coming up with lots of combinations of what ifs, and then Siegburg could have been unique in how it was handled anyway.
One way for me to get more info is for Mr. Norton to request his records and see if there is a POW # there. But may not be a POW # on whatever records exist. My Dad was conscious of his number and used it in later paperwork.
But I am optimistic - remember the After Action Report on the liberating of Waldprol - I have the name of the lady who typed them up for the 309th Infantry Regiment. Now since she did this in 2004 who knows what her condition is or what was her connection to want to do that labor of love. I left a message on a telephone answering machine over a week ago and said I would call back. I said that I wanted to thank her for preserving the information and making it so available.
I am going to post cause machine just acted funny.
JJ