German markings

It's all from a book called Cars of the Wehrmacht, A Photo Chronicle, by Reinhard Frank, Schiffer Military History Press, ISBN 0887406874 ($24.95).

Excellent stuff, if a tad on the expensive side when 'translated' into UK £ by booksellers...

That was quite informative DJ, thanks. I printed it out and put it in my "notes" binder.

Mike

Thanks everybody: in the meantime i have founf a good ref. for emblem and markings: http://www.feldgrau.com

This is by no means an expert on the subject typing here, but I’ll tell you what little I know.

First, the applications of markings on German WWII vehicles was varied. This is due to the fact that some units existed for a very short time and did not have time to set up a standard. Other reasons include the fact that standard german markings were changed throughout the war. Some units did not have the proper manuals, the proper stencils, or just did not want to change from the older system.

Yes, you are looking at the divisional sign, the tactical symbol, and the last one that djmodels described was a service mark. Just as a side note, the crews usually painted over the service mark, and did not bother replacing it. Don’t forget the license plate number, this will differ according to the assignment of the vehicle.

Unfortunately I only have references to panzer divisions, and would not begin to know where to tell you to go for any infantry div. markings. You may try posting on other, more technical forums.

Good luck, and hope this has helped.

The markings on the door is normally the load class data of the vehicle (max. load, weight of the vehicle,..). There's usually 4 to 5 lines of data, but then a lot of vehicles do not seem to have them at all (al least not on the doors), and they are sometimes in a rectangle (often in black or a very dark colour), sometimes not (data is often in white then).

I might add that the black rectangle is sometimes made up of dotted lines, sometimes of four bars that do not touch each-other and sometimes is a complete rectangle.

On a typical 4-line marking you'll find:

1st line: type of vehicle
2nd line: Net weight (or in some cases Net weight + Max load)
3rd line: Max load
4th line: Load Class

In the case of a Kfz.2 car, you'd find:

Kfz. Kfz.2
Leergewicht 1225kg
Nutzluse 425kg
Vc.Kl. II

The actual load class (II in this example) depends on the vehicle weight and its length. I, Ia, Ib, II, III, IV, A and S are the different classes.