I've been long wanting to depict a vehicle used on the home front in Germany itself, especially after having seen the movie "The Great Escape". I was wondering how it would be marked-plain, or with any markings besides the license plates? I thought of a service vehicle for a Germany-based installation.

Tom;

Hi! It's an interesting question! Germany had many civilian vehicles - which would have been any of many types of cars and trucks - all usually marked with standard license plates. In addition, NAZI-era Germany had various gov and party-organization (things like the Organization Todt, DAD, state agencies, local and upper NSDAP party units, etc.) civilian-type vehicles - again generally marked with standard license plates (and, for the "Bonze" politicos and party biggies, marked with little party flags and small emblems). Home military bases seem to have had - before the war and up to mid-war, at least - a wide assortment of civilian-type vehicles which had been bought by gov and assigned to posts and support-functions, etc. These vehicles were sometimes kept in all-black, or all-grey livery and generally were just like their true civvy cousins, save for having mil-service (WH, SS, LU and LF, among others) license plates and, in some staff-car cases, flag-holders.

But maybe you are thinking about later in the war... As the war progressed, the military and gov / party functions impressed more civilian vehicles - cars and trucks - to replace those sent forward to the fronts. Sedans were chopped and modified and became service cars - to replace real mil vehicles which had gone away. More foreign stuff appeared in Germany. Many of these later-war civvy vehicles pressed into service got repainted and sometimes even camo jobs. And generally EVERYTHING received a registration (license) plate. When pressed into army or Luftwaffe service, they often received those mil plates. Few probably received any other markings - no formal units and little unit structure in the various home-guard groups.

I've found it pretty rewarding to search various picture files on the web which deal with conscripted and impressed vehicles, civilian vehicles in wartime Germany, etc. There are lots of old pics which show wartime civilian-type vehicles in Germany and occupied Europe - and as the war progresses, fewer and fewer of those "civilian" vehicles remained in private hands...

Hope this helps your thinking a bit!

Bob

I was thinking of an existing military vehicle not being sent to the war zone, such as an Opel truck being used to deliver supplies to a military base in Germany itself.

Tom;

OK! Sounds like you are thinking of a vehicle actually belonging to some mil unit or organization back from any front... From what I have seen in pics over years, such "in-land" vehicles were commonly monochrome regulation base-coat with standard mil plates in earlier years (so, dunkelgrau up into 1943, and dunkelgelb thereafter), but some had some camo applied later in the war. German softskins were often left monochrome base, as camo was generally unit- or crew-applied and camo paint supplies prioritized to the front. Vehicles assigned to standing units in occupied France, Italy, the Balkans, Holland, etc. more often received camo, while vehicles attached to base-camp and training facilities in Germany less frequently did.

As training areas were full of "transients" new units being built-up for deployment and old units rotated back to Germany for re-fit and training, support vehicles at training and re-fit bases were indigenous to those organizations and temporarily assigned to visiting training units while on base, so often had no unit markings beyond registration plates.

My perception from various photos is that those training and school unit vehicles were seldom camo'd, sparsely marked, and often had older-style markings, such as white fender - marks for location, etc.

So, if I was thinking of an Opel Blitz serving at Grafenwehr or some other training base in, say, 1943 or '44, I would be thinking of a plain dunkelgelb item with only registration plates.

Just my thoughts on your quest!

Bob

Some WWll era Volkswagen Beetles had the rear cut down and a box body added for use as an ambulance, etc.

Something like this?
Kriegsmarine Propaganda Kompanie , U-Flot 6. St Nazaire ,France. 1942.

Or this?
Wood gas converted Reich Post delivery van. Luftwaffe used these (sans wood gas set up) as airfield ambulances.How, I don't know. the box is only about 4 1/2 foot long and not tall enough to sit in. Would have to wad up the poor injured and stuff him in. I'd've just had them shoot me!

MiniArt now offers versions of its light Opel Blitz with civilian markings. How about one of those impressed and roughly over-painted - at least with the markings painted over. I don't imagine there was much call for brewery wagons by 1945....... Or one of the Roden buses impressed from Reichspost, DR or a private operator? Think of Where Eagles Dare. You could do something with the ICM Ford 3000 or Renault. Maybe one of the ambulance/van bodies.

Maybe not much call for a brewery truck at the end of the war. Distillery, HELL YES!! If I was in Germany in Feb. of 45 I'd be wanting something stronger than beer!

When I was researching the VWs I found out a lot of the impressed civilian vehicles kept their civilian tags and had impressing services abbreviation painted (WH, WL, WM ...) in white on the fenders.

Someone posted this link when I inquired about Volksies. There home has topics for all sorts of vehicles. Hope this might help.

Here's a link to WW2 (and pre war) license plate codes. http://www.dr-herzfeld.de/kennzeichengeschichte/deutschesreich.htm

Oop! Other link did not post. https://forum.axishistory.com/viewforum.php?f=132

Just to keep us on an even keel regarding the fabulous VW beetle in WWII...

All of about 210 "KDF wagens" - civilian beetles - were built in 1939 before the VW plant stopped that work and switched over to kubelwagens and schwimmwagens. Of those 210 civilian beetles - almost all were immediately turned over to various party functions and to the military - which issued them for staff officer use. All subsequent VW production of all variants from 1939 through 1945 was destined for military use.

So, to be sorta blunt... there were almost NO civilian VW ever made during the war years. So very, very few ever became "impressed" private vehicles seconded to "home front" use - they were all already in gov / mil service.

Cheers! Bob

apparently the very few KDF wagens that were delivered to civilians before the war were just a propaganda move for photos and videos for the thousands of Germans who put their savings in the VW with the idea of receiving the car, after the delivery ceremony only the party hierarchs could actually take the car home.

It's true; as a matter of fact no civilians ever received the KDF-wagens they were promised by completing the stamp book which allowed purchase of a brand new VW. The first VW's produced post-war were just completion runs of the remaining Kubelwagen and Schwimmwagen stocks, and then a run of civilian models was ordered with a limit of 1000 cars a month; most of the early vehicles were purchased by British servicemen as they were pretty cheap compared to similar cars back home. By 1949 the British returned management of the factory to German hands and eventually to ownership as well. So definitely no civilian models there as far as the war is concerned.

But there are any number of other makes and models of such vehicles that would work. All type of Mercedes saloons and such. Truckloads of trucks.

Side note: The "Beetle" versions were never issued to North Africa like the Kubelwagen was.