Hi, can someone please tell me how the number on tanks and vehicles in the German forces were applied, what I mean is for example if a vehicle has the number 261 in black with white border, what that means? what diference makes the color of the numbers? I have seen red, blue and black. and some had none.

Thanks in advance.

Byron

Some info
here and here

HTH

Frenchy

The number usually meant first digit, company; second digit, platoon; third digit, individual vehicle. In most cases, colors meant nothing, though some Waffen SS units used color coding to indicate companies (redundant, since the number itself spelled that out).
One exception to the three digit rule was the Army's 506th Schwere Panzer Abteilung. On their Tiger I tanks, they used a large number on the gun mantlet sleeve to signify the company, and a two digit number on the gun tube to identify the tank within the company (01-14, skipping the platoon altogether). This meant that the 14th tank of the second company would be 214 when seen from the right side, and 142 when seen from the left (the 2 was much larger than the 14, so it's not as confusing as it sounds). When they switched to King Tigers, they marked the turret sides, and placed the company number left of the turret cross, and the two-digit speed number to the right.
Your example of 261 would be odd, because few units would have six platoons. However, the tank regiment within an armored division sometimes used company numbers 1 through 4 for the first battalion, and 5 through 8 for the second, so Panzer IV's with a high first number were sometimes seen. The final digit was usually no higher than 4 or 5, as that was a standard tank platoon.

Thanks Gerald, and in the case of vehicles in a tank regiment, for example a Sd.Kfz 251/22.
Thanks Frenchy.

Byron

Halftracks could be numbered, but usually were not, at least in photos. They had the usual fender codes and license numbers.

Hi Byron,

The standard method of numbering for German tanks was to use the first number to indicate the Company, the second number the Zug (Platoon) and the third number indicates the tank within the Zug. Therefore a tank with 643 as its identifying number indicates it is the 6th company, 4th Zug and the third tank in that Zug. Some vehicles had four digits, but all that indicates is that it is a higher numbered company. Command tanks were numbered differently, using the number 0, which did not appear in the normal tank numbering. Eg. R01 would be the Regimental commanders tank, 101 would be the 1st Company Commander's tank etc.

As to the different colours I don't think this was a uniform thing and it depended on each regiment as to how the colouring was done.

I hope this helps,

Paul

Thanks to all of you, very helpful info.

Regards

Byron