However, in the case of the British Army the material chosen was compressed fiber, which was not very durable. These were usually made of some form of lightweight metal such as aluminium.
Starting around the time of the First World War, nations began to issue their service personnel with purpose-made identification tags. As a result, if someone was killed in action and their body was not recovered until much later, there was often little or no chance of identifying the remains unless the person in question was carrying items that would identify them, or had marked their clothing or possessions with identifying information. Until around 1912, service personnel in most countries were not routinely issued with ID tags.
