This may sound stupid, but what the heck do the numbers on the German WW2 Tanks stand for. I usually work on aircraft and they make sense with the squadron codes and aircraft # along with differnet patterns on tails etc. I have 3 model tanks they all have decals, but there is no explanation of what they stand for or what division/ battle group they came from. Did the tankers just have generic ID numbers or did they stand for something? I notice in references sometimes german tanks will have a letter or symbol representing the unit they were in. Very curious....

bison--This might help you understand Canadian markings in WWII at least.
More information can be found here.

Nic

Bison
IIRC, the 3 digit numbers are as follows
1st digit = company
2nd digit = platoon
3rd digit = tank # in the platoon

HTH

This is the best place I`ve found that makes all the numbes make sense.

http://panzerdiesel.com/english/emap.php

Some German tanks also used numbers prefixed with the letter R or Roman numerals.
These represented tanks used by regimental and battalion staff, for example:

R01 = Regimental commander
II01 = Second Battalion commander

Heck, the US Army still uses a similar system with tanks being numbered A-11, B-23, C-34, etc. Being pronounced "Alpha One One" or "Bravo Two Three" as opposed to "A Eleven" or the like.

Companies being identified by the letter, A, B, C, D or HQ (called "Headquarters"). The platoons are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, identified by the first digit. The last digit signifies which tank is which, #1 belongs to the platoon leader, #2 is his wingman, #3 is the platoon sergeant's wingman and #4 is the platoon sergeant. The -66 and -65 tanks are the commander's and XO's tank.

I can tell you how Italian markings worked in World War II.
The battalion was identified by roman numerals. The company was identified by the colour of a rectangle somewhere on the tank (there doesn't seem to be one fixed position for any Italian markings), 1st company would be red and 2nd company would be blue. In the rectangle there would be 1, 2, or 3 vertical white stripes signifying the platoon. Then tanks might have numbers of 1, 2, 3, or 4 identifying their position within the platoon. They didn't always have all this information on them and, as I said before, these markings could be seen in different places on different tanks.

Nic

Sabot,
Are they still using the colors Red, White, Blue, Green and Black i.e. Red 2, Black 6) when broadcasting on platoon and company freqs?

Hey guys.
First off, I just sent Jim an Article I wrote on Modern Bumper Numbers with a little help from Rob. This might not answer the original question, but it is a start.
As far as callsigns Bob, This past summer at my 2 week annual training in Ft. Bliss, we had 3 callsigns, Black Eagle, Red Eagle, and Green Eagle. Black was our lead vehicle in our convoy, Red was the center, and Green was the trail Vehicle. We had a young LT who wanted them to be Balck DONKEY and so on. Dont ask me where he got that from. While i was in NTC, the infantry unit we supported was called the Black Panthers, so the inturn used Panther 6, Panther 8 and so on.

Thanks, Pete. I guess the LT had some crazy thing in his mind!