WWII Armor Colors and Markings

USA

by Bill Rutherford

American camouflage and markings -remained relatively constant during WWII despite continuing modifications to the regulations governing it. Vehicles were painted overall olive drab. Camouflage painting of various sorts was authorized, but was never universal. Bumper markings (applied as well to hull fronts and rears) and serial numbers (applied to vehicle sides) were generally white. Early in the war, these markings might (but usually didn't) appear in yellow. The primary national marking was a white star, which, in service, could appear on a vehicle anywhere there was room for one. This star might, as the war wore on, have a white circle surrounding it.

Tunisia 1942 - 1943

American AFV's (mainly the 1st Armored Division) in Tunisia didn't generally carry bumper codes. Instead, they were marked with geometric symbols - turret bands, bars, circles, etc. Many vehicles carried full color, or alternately, white stencil, American flags on their sides. Camouflage paint was not applied, but during the campaign many vehicles were smeared with the local light grey mud to break up vehicle outlines. Also, the markings of many vehicles in Tunisia were in yellow, including the national insignia. The national insignia were often painted out, especially on armor, due to their high visibility (to the Germans...) Again, Zaloga (#15 in the bibliography) is a primary reference - see him for additional details on specific markings, and especially for the series of tactical geometric symbols.

Sicily and Italy, 1943 - 1945

Prior to the invasion of Sicily, the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions were camouflaged with bands of earth yellow paint over their olive drab base coats. Use of circle surrounds for the star insignia became more prevalent. After the initial round of camouflaging vehicles, things relaxed a bit - replacement vehicles and repaired/repainted vehicles weren't automatically camouflaged. New vehicles that were camouflaged seem to have been camouflaged using bands of black over the basic olive drab.

There were specific instructions governing how the camouflage colors were to be applied. There were twelve standard colors and a number of standard schemes available for use on armored vehicles - see Zaloga (#15 in the bibliography). How the paint was actually applied, however, was left to the discretion of the engineers doing the painting; vehicles only received coats of olive drab when leaving the factories. Zaloga notes, in fact, that of available US Signal Corps color photos of camouflaged tanks, all but one show black as the camouflage color. He estimates that as much as ten percent of tanks in service may have been so camouflaged. Markings were of the type noted in the opening paragraph, except that 2nd Armored Division used geometric tactical symbols.

NW Europe 1944 - 1945

Armor was typically olive drab overall. Some vehicles, notably those of the 2nd Armored Division, carried a varied camouflage of black, earth brown, or light green bands sprayed on by the engineers. The percentages noted by Zaloga above apply here as well.. During the winter of 1944-45, American crews applied whitewash to their vehicles. Thin bands of the base olive drab were supposed to be left visible, but this was rarely done, individual crews whitewashing their vehicles in any and all manners. Markings consisted of bumper codes, serials, varied geometric tactical symbols (stripes, bars, circles, etc.), sometimes vehicle names, and, of course, stars, frequently surrounded by circles. The stars might appear in only one or two places and be very small, or might appear in as many as seven or eight places and be quite large, depending upon the crew's preferences.

Flourescent cloth panels in red and yellow were issued to Allied AFV crews for use in air recognition - this was quite important, as most of the aircraft over NW Europe were Allied. The panels were tied down onto the rear decks of vehicles and provided a reliable means of identifying American vehicles to aircraft. In Europe, at least, turret numbers were not common (no matter how convenient they might be on the game table to keep track of your models!)

Painting American armor is as simple as it gets. Numerous companies market sheets of American markings in all scales, though most of these are in white, not yellow. In the smaller scales, serials, vehicle names and bumper codes can be white squidges. Camouflage should appear on only a minority of your vehicles and needn't be consistent. High vehicle attrition and replacement rates, varied engineer painting services, and limited paint availability all contributed to the wide variety of camouflage appearing on American armor. Camouflage should be light grey (mud) for Tunisia, yellow earth for Sicily, black (most common) for Italy and Europe, with a few vehicles camouflaged with earth brown or light green in Europe.

Incidentally, a major factor in the general disuse of camouflage paint by the Americans was their view that it simply wasn't effective. A coat of dirt, mud, snow, dust, or whatever, quickly rendered the most carefully camouflagepainted tank into a simple yucko brown drab blob. Much more popular was the application of foliage and natural materials that could be changed at will.

More WWII Armor Colors and Markings Europe and North Africa

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