Help with motorcycle insignia

[Ivan Ž.]

Hello, everyone

Does anyone have any idea what do these numbers (324, 314, 313...) stand for?

(Photos taken in present-day Macedonia, undated, possibly April 1941)

Veles-Prilep.jpg (95.29 KiB) Viewed 996 times

Veles-Prilep2.jpg (97.59 KiB) Viewed 992 times

Thanks in advance,
Ivan

[Christian Ankerstjerne]

Hello, everyone

Does anyone have any idea what do these numbers (324, 314, 313...) stand for?

(Photos taken in present-day Macedonia, undated, possibly April 1941)
Veles-Prilep.jpgVeles-Prilep2.jpg

Thanks in advance,
Ivan

My immediate guess would be that they are used similarly to tactical numbers on tanks, denoting company/platoon/vehicle. This is only a guess, however, and I haven't seen regulations for any standardization. This would probably mainly be an administrative aid, to easily identify which motorcycles belong to which unit, without having to remember the license plate at the low-unit levels.

These motorcycles from 1. Panzer-Division in 1940 in France have two-digit numbers instead, so it wasn't just in the unit above. There are no doubt many other such examples.

[Ivan Ž.]

Hello, Christian

Your guess does make sense. And thanks for another example of such numbering!

Cheers,
Ivan

[SIS 5]

Hi Christian, hi Ivan,

thanks. I had the same thought. So it could be the third company (all vehicles with the 3 in the beginning), first (311, 312, 313, 314, 315 and so on) and second platoon (321, 322, 323, 324 and so on).

Regards

Bert

[Ivan Ž.]

Ahoi, Bert

Good to see you Interesting thinking! It would be nice to find any kind of confirmation (or dispute) though, or at least some more examples.

Cheers,
Ivan

[Christian Ankerstjerne]

Have you had a look through the motorcycle photo thread?

viewtopic.php?f=132&t=184255

[Ivan Ž.]

Dear Christian... not only that I've never noticed that thread, but I've also missed the entire section!

Thanks for the link

I've found three (relatively) similar examples:
viewtopic.php?f=132&t=184255&start=150#p1824857


viewtopic.php?f=132&t=184255&start=465#p2048195


viewtopic.php?f=132&t=184255&start=375#p1998326


Cheers,
Ivan

[SIS 5]

Hi Ivan,

here another pic with numbers on the motorcycles, but that´s no confirmation of my theory. That´s the other way how to count the vehicles of a military unit, here the first company of a motorcycle batallion. Source of the pic: "Kräder der Kradschützen, Aufklärer und Melder 1935 - 1945" by Horst Hinrichsen.

Best regards

Bert