I pride myself on being knowledgable on German Tigers. But I just realiszed that while I can tell you the unit a Tiger was part of by looking at the Turret Numbers, I don't know why turret numbers are used.

Units must have known thier own cammrades. Germany was the first to use radio in tank operations. So why turret numbers? For logistics?

Any insight?

Don

From what I understand a 3 digit number will give you the company, platoon, # in the platoon. Ie 324 = 3 rd company, 2nd platoon, 4th tank.

Don, turret numbers are for visual control. American Army tanks since late 1940s have used a 2 digit system (until recently) and had 2 HQ tanks; 6 was CO, 5 was XO and 3 platoons of five numbering 1 thru 5. 1-2-3 were heavy section, 4-5 light section. 1 was platoon leader and 4 platoon sgt. 11 was 1st plat leader (2lt), 24 was 2nd plat sgt.. 35 was last tank in 3d plat light section. Prior to Pentomic, under the older regimental TO&E, an Inf regt had a company of tanks for support, with 4 platoons, so the 4th platoon was 41 to 45. Marking was white letters but Marines used yellow and often included the company letter.

Germany used a 3 digit system, first digit indicating the company, 2nd the platoon, and last digit the platoon number. ;ie 124 would be 1 Zug (kompanie), 2nd platoon, 4th tank. 1942-44 had zeros to indicate command...;301 = HQ co, one of the 2 HQ or command tanks. Later in the war, many modifications or alterations were made which completly confused the issue. So a tank commander of 2nd platoon could look over the field and see 133 and discern that it was his company but tank 3 of the 3d platoon. Other markings as R indicated a staff vehicle and often used Roman numerals as I or II...so RO1 was the regimental CO, but the system gets more complicated and wheh you get into SS units, the system is different to suit the SS needs. A Wehrmacht regt had 8 companies in 2 battalions, some later Tiger units had 9 and a few 10, which brings the 4 digit system into play.

British markings are a total "absolute secret" and I don't believe anyone knows the system.[:-]

Along with the rationale stated, how about it also being a "return to sender" address after the tank was recovered from the field and or repaired? But i can envision a field commander sending a radio message based on his visual observations through field glasses. " Hey guys help cover #256 as he has just lost his track"

Thats so the enemy don't know just how many tanks we don't have.

Actualy I think they share tanks between regiments so that it looks like we have more tanks then we have.

I think it was a left over, radios were not all that reliable and command and control using them was in it's infancy If you take a look at the British they used a number of systems during the war but by the end you don't see them much.

Hi British marking were Circle ,square and triangle ,but dont ask me which was the lead or second tank.Regiment markings were on the front and rear of tank as were the weight code for bridges yellow circle with No 30 is a Sherman.

 regards pete

Triangle is A, Square is B, Circle is C.

Here is an excellent site that helps take the mystery out of Commonwealth markings.

[link=http://www.armouredacorn.com/index.html]Commonwealth armour markings[/link]

Identification of friend or foe is crucial in the fog of war. No army wants "friendly fire" and when it does occur it is usualy kept hush hush. Even the Germans with their coordination and superb optics shot their own tanks. Tank to tank was very rare but the anti-tank or arty gunners had issues, as did the Luftwaffe. Hence the tank ID flags used so much early on in the war. Large and unique markings made these tanks readily identifiable in battle.

The Germans were also pioneers in "Combined Arms" operations. Unit ID and tank numbers also provided reference points and defined the units sectors. Air, engineer, panzer grenadeer and Heer forces could always tell who was who and where. They valued radio communication and order of battle. The phrase is German is "Ordnung muss sein" auf Englisch "Everything must be in order". Why do you think so many police cars, fire and ambulance units have numbers ont their roofs? Air coordination and reference reduces chaos and confusion. A tank or unit mumber is much easier ot hear and pick-out on a radio than a name(how many Michaels were in Wittmanns unit?) or location (which was always changing or you didn't want your enemy to overhear on the radio).

Decorated units and Abteilungs were very proud of their units and or leaders. Guderian's armor units even painted a large "G" on their tanks to distuguish themselves.

OH! OH! I know this one!

This is so they know who's at the donut shop?


~ Jeff

[quote]ORIGINAL: Panther F



OH! OH! I know this one!

This is so they know who's at the donut shop?



Hi Jeff, From thecommander:

Rookie mistake....LOL [X(] We use Un-marked cars for that!![

RATTS!!! I figured by now you guys would know a way around that one.


~ Jeff

Oh...and never get the ones with the white powdered sugar. It gets all over the uniform.[:'(]

Looks like this thread has gone to more trivia time;


Why were early US WW II vehicle bumper & SNs painted in pale blue?

What was the purpose in the ring around the normandy white star?

Why were white stripes painted on US Army tank gun tubes (barrels in civilian terminology)?

I'll give the pale blue numbers a try...

So the markings would not show up in a photo. (Non-repro blue)

almost there.....photos in early WW II were only B&W. Light blue was nearly invisible, so to hide unit deignation etc, all IDs used this method. When higher sensitive paper and then color became available, this was discarded.

To help the Germans with their scoring.

50 points if they hit the star and 25 points if it hits inside the circle.

too many 88s did[:@] the circle was painted with a mix containing chemicals If specific wartime chemical agents were detected, the ring would change colors....blue or red....some debate on exact coloring in regard to certain chemicals. This was supposed to be the initial gas attack warning, but the normandy star was used only in this campaign and disconitued after it was fround that Germany was not using gas. Some variations were seen in Africa, but there are doubts that these were chemical treated...most likely units which served in Normany and later moved to Africa, still had the same markings. Vehicles marked with the Normandy star after the campaigne was over were in violation of (then) current Army Regs.