National Markings

The Balkankreuz, or German national insignia, was used to identify Wehrmacht vehicles from before the outbreak of war. These markings were usually reserved for armoured vehicles, though occasionally some softskins (especially captured ones) used them. 

Poland - 1939

During the Polish campaign, the Balkankreuz was a solid white cross affixed to prominent surfaces of German tanks.  The markings were found to be too highly visible, especially by enemy gunners, and so the centres were obscured with mud, or painted in dark yellow (a colour used also for divisional markings in panzer divisions).

After Poland, the "correct" national insignia design was finalized, being an open white cross, with no black authorized for either a border or the centre of markings.  The size varied from vehicle to vehicle, but on the Panzer III and IV was about 10" or 25 cm tall.  This insignia remained the authorized national insignia until the change from dark grey vehicle paint to dark yellow in 1943.

In 1943, all new German vehicles were produced in a base colour referred to variously as Dark Yellow or Ordnance Tan.  Many older vehicles were painted in the new camouflage colour as well. The standard German Balkankreuz was again modified (as it had been on the light coloured vehicles used in Africa from 1941 on) by painting the centre of the crosses black.

Variations

There were many, many variations of the "standard" German cross seen on vehicles; they were often applied in the field, whenever new field-applied paint schemes were done, for example.  These variations had black borders, longer arms than normal, narrower arms on the cross, etc.

Aerial Identification

The most common forms of aerial identification were either a painted swastika on the roof of vehicles, or more commonly the use of a cloth flag strapped to the rear decking, roof or hood of the vehicle.

Tactical Markings

1940 - 1942

The most common reference source for field units was printed before the advent of the panzer division and well before the outbreak of war, and expanded on after the outbreak of hostilities.  In January 1943 this source was amended and many changes and additions were instituted.

In general, the prewar system consisted of three types of symbols.

Tactical Signs
Weapons Branches
Method of transportation

By combining the three types of symbols, in combination with other special designators, all the major units of a division could be described.  There were many variations from the "official" symbols.  As well, numbers were sometimes used to indicate subunits (ie an infantry company or assault gun battery).  Company sized units were also indicated by thickening one side of the weapons branch symbol, usually the left side.

These tactical symbols were painted on the driver's side of the vehicle on both front and rear; on fenders or directly on the body.

Headquarters were designated by flags of specific shapes, sometimes combined with the symbols above.

Some specific examples follow;

	This symbol would have designated the 10th Company of an Infantry Regiment.  The square represents infantry, the two wheels represent motorized method of transport, and the Arabic 10 designates the company.
	The 1st Company of a fully motorized reconnaissance unit would have used this symbol; the A stands for "aufklärungs", or reconnaissance.
	An example of the tactical sign for a motorized transport company.
	The 2 designates the second battery while the symbol designates towed artillery battalion.
	Vehicles belonging to a Battalion headquarters bore this symbol.
	This symbol was most likely carried by a vehicle belonging to the HQ of a motorized artillery regiment.

The addition of tanks and other armoured vehicles to the German Army resulted in the adoption of special symbols for these types of units

Pennants

Vehicles used by officers and commanders were marked with pennants, usually affixed to the fenders of staff cars, though some commanders also used armoured halftracks as command vehicles.  The different levels of command had different pennants; a Divisional pennant was triangular, black over white over red.

Battalions within a regiment had a black bar across a waffenfarbe background

Independent battalions within a division had a black cross across a waffenfarbe background.

Armoured reconnaissance units used a golden yellow pennant with black vertical bar.

Officers (or officials with officer-equivalent rank) and Generals had authorized rank pennants; until April 1941, this pennant was as shown at right; a grey pennant with white border and national emblem.  In April 1941, generals received their own pennant, with a more elaborate gold border replacing the white border, and a gold eagle replacing the white eagle.

Command pennants were carried on the left (driver) side of the vehicle, and officer pennants on the right (passenger) side.

The pennants were covered with cloth covers when the officer was not actually using the vehicle. 

Units of battalion, regiment or brigade size were designated by a flag bearing the Waffenfarbe, or arm of service colour, associated with that unit.  In a division, infantry units would have used white, artillery red, signals lemon yellow, pioneers black, reconnaissance golden yellow, etc.

Harkos The term Harko (Höherer Artillerie Kommadeur - Higher Artillery Commander) designated both an officer and a headquarters unit that co-ordinated all the artillery units within an Army.   The pennant at right, authorized in October 1943, was used to designate these officers/units.

Number Plates German soft-skin vehicles and armoured cars or APCs were given individual number plates, at first painted on metal signs and attached, but increasingly painted on the vehicle itself as the war progressed.  The plates were white, being rectangular on the front of vehicles and square on the rear, sometimes with two used on front and/or rear instead of a single plate.  Motorcycles had smaller plates, with the front plate being curved to fit the contour of the fender.  Numbers were issued from a series, and a prefix identified the branch of service.  Unit identification was often indicated by the use of a Feldpost stamp on the plate, bearing the unique numerical designator for that unit as assigned by the army post office.  These numbers were assigned at battalion and sometimes company/battery/squadron level.

WH Wehrmacht - Heer WL Wehrmacht - Luftwaffe Waffen SS

Vehicle Numbers

As an aid to operating in formation, a system of vehicle numbers was developed for German tanks (that was also used on armoured cars, armoured personnel carriers and self-propelled weapons).  These numbers were painted on turret and hull sides, in the main, and the style of numbers used changed throughout the war.

In general, the system involved use of 3 digits numbers; the first digit indicating the Company the tank belonged to, the second the Platoon, and the third the vehicle's position within the platoon.  Some panzer divisions and units used variations, such as one or two digit numbers, specifying only individual tanks or platoon/tank combinations.

A typical tank company would thus appear as:

Company command vehicles would have a second digit of 0 to indicate headquarters.

Battalion command vehicles would have a Roman numeral designating the battalion.  The commander of the first battalion of a panzer regiment might thus have tank I 01.  The second battalion commander would have II 01, etc.  Other officers were designated with higher numbers; in general vehicle 02 designated the executive officer, 03 the signals officer and 04 the ordnance officer of that battalion.

Regimental command vehicles had an R instead of the Roman numeral to indicate a staff vehicle.  R01 was the regiment commander, R02 the executive officer, R03 the regimental signals officer, and higher numbers designated other staff officers.

Some battalions and regiments used non standard numbers.    Other units avoided the use of the R, as it gave away the status of the officer commanding the tank.  Instead, "fake" company numbers, referring to companies that did not exist in a panzer regiment (for example, the 9th company) were used, as was the number 0 (ie 001, 002, etc.)

Divisional and Regimental Markings

The unit listing pages on this site will show the divisional markings carried on unit vehicles; some regiments adopted special markings also (especially panzer regiments), and independent units like heavy tank battalions or Assault Gun detachments also wore special insignia.  These markings could be found on all manner of vehicles, including tanks, halftracks, trucks, motorcycles, even horse drawn field kitchens were found to be marked with divisional markings.

Operation Zitadelle

Operation Zitadelle (Citadel), in the summer of 1943, represented a mammoth effort by the German Army to once again turn the tide of the war in the East, back in their favour.  While the defeat at Stalingrad had marked a massive change in German fortunes, the victorious fight to retake Kharkov in early 1943, widely heralded in the press, led to an optimistic plan for a major offensive from the salient created around the town of Kursk.

Extraordinary security measures were taken in preparing for what would be the largest tank battle in history.   This included special formation markings replacing the standard insignia used by German armoured and mechanized units.  These markings were temporary and worn in the majority of cases only in the summer of 1943; 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" was still using the Kursk insignia in late 1943.

There were many variations on this insignia; one source suggests that only three Army divisions used the insignia (6, 7 and 19 Panzer Division), in black.  Some of the SS insignia may also have been done in black, especially on the new Dark Yellow paint schemes that began replacing the Panzer Grey paint scheme in 1943.  The horizontal bars, also, were sometimes omitted.

3 Panzer Division		23 Panzer Division
6 Panzer Division		1 SS Panzer Division "LSSAH"
7 Panzer Division		2 SS Panzer Division "Das Reich"
11 Panzer Division		3 SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf"
19 Panzer Division		Panzer Grenadier Division "Großdeutschland"