Wednesday 20 April 2016

Markings

Stereotypically, Soviet tanks drive into battle plastered with red stars, the more the merrier. Realistically, the system of identification markings was a little bit more complicated. For instance, here's an order that's sure to excite any scale modeler with the variety of options it provides:


Variant
Infantry, artillery, cavalry, and other units
Tank and mechanized units
1
Day: an angle made from white material, corner towards enemy.
Night: yellow flare in the direction of the enemy.
Day: white circle on the turret or cabin, 26 cm in radius.
Night: yellow flare.
2
Day: Arrow made from white material towards enemy.
Night: green flare towards enemy.
Day: white square on the turret or cabin with 60 cm sides.
Night: green flare towards the enemy.
3
Day: letter П made from white material, top towards the enemy.
Night: red flare towards the enemy.
Day: white equilateral triangle with 60 cm sides on the turret or cabin.
Night: red flare towards the enemy.
4
Day: letter T made from white material, top towards the enemy.
Night: green flare towards the enemy.
Day: white rectangle, 40 cm by 60 cm, on the turret or cabin.
Night: green flare towards the enemy.

Variant #1 is active on September 2nd, 3rd, 12th, and 13th.
Variant #2 is active on September 4th, 5th, 10th, and 11th.
Variant #3 is active on September 6th, 7th, 14th, and 15th.
Variant #4 is active on August 31st, September 1st, 8th and 9th.

7 comments:

  1. It's not clear to me exactly what "markings" means. Is the chart really saying that tankers are expected to remove and repaint a new shape on the side of their turret every day?

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    Replies
    1. To me that seems very intrusive. I imagine any tank crew that is in action and has a need for tactical symbols would have a lot of better things to do than paint those symbols every day!

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    2. Falls under routine maintenance and upkeep I presume. 'Sides, far as I know officers and such also needed to write up reports and whatnot too.

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  2. This is only from Sep. 1-15, so was this list of markings changed twice a month?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the idea was to prevent the enemy from camouflaging themselves as your unit. This way if they copy one day's markings, they will give themselves away the next day, and if the entire message is captured, they will only have a limited timeframe that a disguise would be successful in.

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  3. It's not unit markings, its aircraft recognition markings painted on the roofs of the tanks probably around '41. Russian units also had a colour systems of these above. Flares are designations showing other friendly forces enemy locations during night combat. Both systems were used to avoid friendly fire. As noted to prevent the enemy from figuring out your system it had to be changed frequently. Germans had a similar marking system but used fabric recognition panels, or early in the war Swastika flags, wrapped on top of roof or engine deck of the tanks. They also used a system of signalling using coloured flares or smoke.

    /Tanker

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