French trucks and Jeeps

[jms]

I've been watching a lot of videos on Youtube about the war. It's hard to get a clear view of truck and Jeeps as far as the insignia and numbers on them. Were the numbers related to unit designation or were they serial numbers or ? Seldom can get a good look as the trucks are either getting it down the road or the camera angle just doesn't focus on it well. Does anyone know the why and wherefore of the markings? I may never get a vehicle of the period but it is a pipedream of mine.

[craigtx]

Good question... I'll look to see what I can come up with. I've never even thought about it TBH.

[Kenneth]

I couldn't possibly explain the whys and wherefores of the practice but, judging from photos of the period, all vehicles appear to have had an identifying number like a registration number. In almost all cases, the number appears in front, exactly the way a license plate would be displayed. In some cases, the number is on an attached plate, in all other cases, painted directly on the vehicle, usually on the bumper, if it has one, or on the front of the hood. Usually the number is on one line but one armored car has it on two lines, rather like the British practice. On one vehicle with a front mounted winch, it's offset to the left. I didn't see any photos that clearly showed the rear of a vehicle.

US practice is to display unit and formation markings, with vehicles serially numbered in some fashion, all numbers being displayed on the bumper or similar location. But I don't recall there being a "registration number" displayed anywhere. A bridge class is nearly always displayed, too, something I haven't noticed on a French vehicle of the period.

[Kenneth]

As a follow-up to my previous post, I note that WWII vehicle markings included a number that approximates a registration number. I do not know if French vehicles of the time had a permanent vehicle identification number (VIN) like vehicles do now but they may have. There's rather more information to be found on armored vehicles, though, and they generally had a plate somewhere on the vehicle with such a number. I still have no idea of how numbers were allocated. French armored vehicles sometimes had rather large identifying markings that were apparently assigned within a company or platoon. Playing card symbols seemed to have been used more than others and tanks were sometimes given names.

More recently, on wheeled vehicles, I have seen unit markings displayed on bumpers that were of the sort used on maps.

[earlymb]

In WW2, US made vehicles got a VIN from the manufacturer, this was usually stamped into the frame. Then, after inspection and acceptance by the government, a military registration number was applied with paint, usually on the hood. This would happen at the factory, before delivery to the military. There is some some correlation to the VIN number and the hood number, but it varies slightly as vehicles were taken from the row to have flaws corrected before passing inspection, and depending on what side of the row the painters would star applying numbers.

Finally, after delivering the vehicle to its designated unit, the unit markings were applied (usually to front- and rear sides). The quality of these dependent on the conditions; sometimes this was done in motorpools with professional tools, sometimes by an uncaring GI who had pissed off the sarge that day...

[Kenneth]

In spite of being in the army for three years, I have absolutely no memory of any army registration number (not the manufacturer's number) on vehicles beyond the company-assigned number. I might have a photo or two somewhere but I don't know where they might be. However, the unit assigned numbers were just stenciled on with white paint. They indicated the actual unit and the number of the vehicle within the unit, presumably assigned in order of the receipt of the vehicle. As far as I know, all vehicles got these numbers, including trailers. Our company even had a house trailer (for the division CG). We also had armored vehicles, which also were numbered in exactly the same way. None of the vehicles had anything on the sides that I recall. That's something I must check.