German Markings

German Branch Colors (found on shoulder piping, flags etc)

Branch	Colour
Artillery	Red
Infantry	White
Armoured Reconnaissance	Golden Yellow
Signals	Lemon Yellow
Motorcycle and some Armoured Reconnaissance Units	Copper Brown
Panzer	Rosa
Panzergrenadier (Motorized Infantry)	Grass Green
Jäger (Light Infantry) and Mountain Troops	Light Green
Smoke (Nebelwerfer) Units	Bordeaux Red
Medical	Cornflower Blue
Transport Units	Light Blue
Engineer (Pioneer)	Black
Military Police	Orange

German Vehicle Markings

Vehicle Plate Lettering	Branch
WH	Wehrmacht - Heer
WL	Wehrmacht - Luftwaffe
WM	Wehrmacht - Marine

Unit identification was often indictated 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.

Tactical Signs
Weapons Branches
Method of Transport
Headquarters Symbols

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

	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.
	This symbol was most likely carried by a vehicle belonging to the HQ of a motorized artillery regiment.

German Tank Numbering

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, specifiying only individual tanks or platoon/tank combinations.

A typical tank company would thus appear as:

THIRD COMPANY	1st Vehicle	2nd Vehicle	3rd Vehicle	4th Vehicle	5th Vehicle
First Platoon	311	312	313	314	315
Second Platoon	321	322	323	324	325
Third Platoon	331	332	333	334	335
Fourth Platoon	341	342	343	344	345

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.)