WWII Armor Colors and Markings

Germany

by Bill Rutherford

Europe, 1939 - 1943

German equipment at the war's start was finished uniformly in dark grey. Onto this were applied a specific set of markings and symbols. The Germans used the balkan cross as their national marking. During the invasion of Poland, this was a simple white cross applied to vehicle front, rear and sides (hull or turret, on AFV's). Discovering early on that these crosses made great antitank gun aiming points, tank crews painted out the centers of the crosses with yellow paint, or simply removed the crosses altogether. At the conclusion of the Polish campaign, the cross was revised to a simple white outline cross, the center being left in the dark grey of the vehicle.

Most German divisions had unique emblems. The division emblem was only about six inches tall and was carried on hull fronts and rears, and sometimes on the hull or turret sides. The emblems ranged from stylized pictures (bears, oak leaves, etc.) to simple geometric shapes (Y's, inverted Y's, fallen E's, etc.), were changed several times during the course of the war and were typcally white or yellow. Volumes have been written about German divisional signs; I direct you to Culver (#3 in the bibliography) for much more information about them. Some units below the division level also carried unique signs, but this wasn't as common.

In addition to divisional signs, most German vehicles except tanks carried tactical signs that denoted the vehicles' unit types and roles. These symbols, derived from German map symbols, were open polygons and were typified by the use of a rectangle with circles below it to represent wheeled transport. These were displayed in a manner similar to that of divisional signs and were about the same size. Again, I direct you to Culver (#3 in the bibliography) for further details.

Tanks originally carried little removable black trapezoidal panels - one on each side and one on the rear, that contained the vehicle number. By the Battle for France, turret numbers had made these obsolete, so they largely disappeared from use.

Another marking carried by most German vehicles except tanks was the registration plate - the license tag. This was a black rectangle with the vehicle registration number in white that was carried by vehicles front and rear.

German tank crews seemed to share the habit of their comrades in other armies of naming their tanks. I'm not sure how widespread or standardized this was, but many photos show names on hull and turret sides.

The final component in the German AFV markings suite was the vehicle number. This was carried on tank turrets and on other armored vehicle hull] sides. It consisted of three digits. The first digit represented the company (eg. 1, 2, 3), the second the platoon (eg. 1, 2, 3), and the third, the individual vehicle (eg. 1, 2, 3, 4). Company command vehicles carried the company number, a zero for the platoon number, and either a zero or one, or a one or a two. Battalion command vehicles carried similar markings, except that either a Roman numeral I or 11, or an A or a B replaced the company number. Regimental command vehicles replaced the first digit with an R. And there were variations... The various divisions and regiments displayed these numbers in various colors, but red or black outlined in white seem to have been common.

Early air recognition panels consisted of white rectangles or crosses on turret roofs. These weren't very effective, however, and were replaced during the France 1940 campaign with a simple, expedient, the red, white and black Nazi flag.

German equipment on the Eastern front during the winter of 1941 wasn't well supplied with white paint for camouflage. Whitewash, mud, and anything else that could be obtained was applied to break up the dark grey base coat and render German AFV's less visible. During the spring of 1942, Germans began to camouflage their vehicles with whatever colors were available, dark green and brown predominating. Mud was widely used, as well. In the Ukraine, sand colors were used in a manner similar to that in North Africa (see below). Vehicles originally destined for North Africa and painted to that end were frequently shipped to the East front instead, further confusing things. Culver (#2 in the bibliography) does an excellent job of describing the chaos of colors and patterns used during this period. During the winter of 1942, German equipment was supposed to be shipped from the factories with a washable white paint coat, though this wasn't always the case. The white paint was much more available from that winter on, however, and was widely used.

North Africa, 1941 - 1943

The first German vehicles arriving in North Africa in February 1941 as the new Deutches Afrika Korps (DAK) were overall dark grey, due to the haste with which they'd been dispatched, and the fact that Germany didn't have a standard desert camouflage scheme. These vehicles immediately accumulated dust and mud which altered their color to a greyish brown. AFV crews helped this process along by applying thorough coats of mud to their vehicles in an effort to camouflage them. In March, yellow brown (a light sand color) and grey green were standardized for camouflaging vehicles in this theater. Supply problems made a joke of this. Vehicles were left mud colored, had their dark grey oversprayed with yellow brown, either entirely, or using various mottled patterns, had their yellow brown oversprayed with grey green mottling, or even (not commonly) were entirely oversprayed with grey green. When available, captured British paints of the appropriate colors were used to alleviate the paint shortage.

Repainting was a frequent necessity, due to the ravages of the desert. Dust storms stripped paint; bare surfaces quickly rusted; paint bleached and faded; dust covered everything. It was sort of like the automobile commercial where they demonstrate the furnace used to test the finish on the car.

In March, 1942, new camouflage colors were mandated. A new, darker sand color was specified. A new dark grey, the same dark grey, strangely enough, that the first vehicles arrived in back in 1941, was specified as the camouflage color with which to overspray the new sand color. The supply situation being what it was, any older German colors and any British colors (such as were captured after the fall of Tobruk) continued to be used. In late 1942 and early 1943, replacement vehicles arriving in North Africa may have been painted in the then-new dark yellow color (yet another shade of yucko yellow brown - but more on that later.), either as a base coat, or as an overspray over dark gray. Near the end of the campaign, some dark yellow paint, as well, was delivered to the DAK, and was applied to vehicles as needed.

The markings of the DAK were standard, with one exception - a new DAK emblem (a white palm tree with a superimposed swastika) was added. This doesn't appear to have measured over twelve inches tall, and was painted on the vehicles in various locations. During vehicle repaintings, existing markings were often simply masked out while the painting took place, resulting in oddcolored backrounds for national markings, turret numbers, and tactical insignia. In order to make it visible against a light colored backround, the national marking had its center filled in with black, giving rise to the black cross with white outline.

Europe, 1943 - 1945

Things got interesting. Dark yellow was specified as the new base color, applied at the factory. Two other colors, olive green and red brown, were specified as camouflage colors. All three colors were supplied to the troops in the field for local application to their vehicles. Vehicles in the field weren't to be repainted immediately, but were to use the new colors to camouflage their vehicles as needed. Vehicles were repainted in dark yellow as they cycled through the depots.

This sounds simple, but in actuality, was anything but simple. Initially, there was (as always) a shortage of the new colors. Many vehicles remained overall dark yellow without overpainting. The new colors (supplied to the field in paste form) were soluble in water, gasoline, and paint thinner, and had a slightly different tint, based on the thinning medium and the thickness of the paint when applied. The green varied in appearance from a very dark black green to a pale olive green. The brown varied from a dark chocolate brown to a pale red brown.

The fact that the camouflage was crew-applied meant that schemes were rarely standardized at anything above the platoon or company level. Many schemes were applied with the spray painting rigs with which all AFV's were equipped. Some were applied with paint brushes. Some were applied with mops, and some were even applied by simply slopping the paint onto the vehicle!

Vehicle markings didn't change noticably from what had gone before, other than that they became more irregular. The balkan cross changed, as in North Africa, to a black cross outlined in white, but most other markings remained the same. As German air superiority became less frequent, air recognition markings (especially the Nazi flag) gradually disappeared from use.

Painting German equipment is fun. Divisional signs and tactical symbols can be hand painted or omitted altogether in the smaller scales. I recommend painting them on - it's not hard, and it adds (at least when you get close enough to the model) quite a bit to their appearance. For DAK vehicles, at least, you really should... In the larger scales, markings of all types are available as decals. Turret numbers and national markings are available as decals in all scales.

Because of the varied nature of German camouflage, you can have a field day painting your tanks if you want, giving them multitone camouflage, with oversprays and squiggles, or you can give them a simple dark grey or dark yellow finish, and still be within the bounds of reason. To get a good idea of what I mean, you should go to any of the references dealing with Germany -you will be amazed.

More WWII Armor Colors and Markings Europe and North Africa

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