Kill markings on tanks

I don't know for sure if I've seen pictures of it on tanks, but I have seen pics of kill marks on at guns, mainly the german 88

I have seen pics of German W.W.II armour with kill rings on the barrel .... but of course I can't seem to find one on the net.

I have not to my knowledge seen kills rings on any W.W.II British or American vehicles.

Did someone say kill rings??







Wittmann with the 88 "KR's" photo and drawing of the same, with a look at the "KR's" on the barrel. The smaller rings toward the muzzle break are for singles. The larger bands denote 10 kills each.

as Erock has mentioned about Wittmanns kill rings, there are also kill rings on a photo posted of a Nashorn on a funny winter camo, ive forgot what the post is called
htey were normally at the end of the gun by the muzzel brake, but could be anywhare on different AFVs
on the Anti Aircraft they were on the barrel or/and sheild
im not sure if these are kill rings on this pather, but there at the right place for the panther

Thanks for the pictures. I have also seen pictures of kill rings on german tanks, but I have not seen any on allied tanks.
mark956

I just can't lay my hands on the book at the moment but Im sure of seen photos of British tanks in Africa during world war II with kill markings applied to the side of the turret in a similar manner to how kill markings were applied to aircraft.

heres some kill rings on a Kingtiger

Just wondering.
On current IDF armor they have rings on the barrels.
Are those kill rings or some sort of unit mark?

On a side note,I once saw an M1A1 with kill rings near the muzzle during desert storm.
Also during that time I also saw a Navy A-7 with cammel kill marks on the side of it.
I could never figure that one out.

As for US markings in WW2, I recall there are photos of the T26E3 Pershing or an M-10 TD mantlet with several white painted swastikas on it.

If memory serves me... I believe those kill markings shown on Wittmans Tiger were for publicity pics. As a tanker, you would NOT want to draw attention to yourself by doing something like that. I am sure that in the annuals of armored warfare there are more than one tank crews who have in some way designated kills on their vehicle

the Kingtiger photo ive put up was of Karl Brommanns Kingtiger

On most modern tanks (US for sure) any rings on the barrel are for identification and are not realted to "kills". Its very rare today for commanders to allow vehicles to have kill markings painted on, or even applied temoprarily. Jdeltaarrow hit it right on the head with the comment that crews do not want to draw any more attention to them selves than need be.

In all the units that I have worked with they have used Red, White, and Blue, for Platoon names. Each armor platoon has four vehicles and they are numbered 1-4. If the tank has four red rings then it is Red 4 (more than likely the Platoon SGT of 1st Platoon), if it had one blue ring than it would be the Platoon Leader of 3rd Platoon and so on. Most times any black rings would go with senior leadership such as Company Cdr, Executive Officer, BN S-3, BN Executive Officer and Battalion Commander.

Different units use different markings and call signs that are worked into or based off of the markings on their vehicles. I have used many different ones and have never used the same ones or styles for very long.

I too have only seen them on German tanks mainly SPG's. Jon, how many kills did Karl get?

its got about Karl Brommann here http://www.achtungpanzer.com/gen10.htm
he got a big score in only a couple of months

If I remember right the M1s in my unit could put a black ring on there barrel depending on how well they qualified on the gunnery ranges, but I think they were on the bore evacuator.

Starting in Desert Shield/Desert Storm, the rings on M1s were platoon markings, 1 ring = 1Plt, 2 = 2Plt, etc.  Painted black on the bore evacuator.  Nothing standard before then.  To my knowledge, no modern US armor was allowed to sport kill markings (Vietnam onward).  Makes us look too violent (sheesh!).  I do WW2 re-enactment (US 36 Inf),  I've done a lot of research for correct markings, etc.  I haven't found a photo yet of any kind of kill marking on a US tank or tank destroyer.  Just names, cartoons & official markings.  The Germans are the only ones I've seen in photos sporting them (haven't looked at the Soviets).  And not just publicity photos.  Kill rings would not be readily visible beyond a couple of hundred yards.