German Armour naming system, how does it work?

[At Sea]

Hi,

having only known German armour by their colloquial names, and being a bit nerdy I was hoping on some pointers to decipher all the Sd.Kfz numbers.

were these sequential or  did they have some connection to design bureau?

 

Thanks in advance. 

[At Sea]

Answered my own question...

 

Very useful page!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sd.Kfz._designations

[Kingsman]

What that article doesn't make really clear is that when Kfz and Sd.Kfz numbers were introduced, they were planned to be applied to classes of vehicles, not individual makes/models.  Hence why there are both 6 and 8 wheel versions of the Sd,Kfz 232: all heavy armoured cars with radio were planned to be designated 232.  Later in the war we still see the same Sd.Kfz designation being used for command versions of PzIII, Panther and Tiger.  3-tonne Maultiers had a letter added to their designation to discriminate makes/models (uniquely?), but all were Sd,Kfz3.  However, it was soon realised that make and model discrimination was necessary as the variety of vehicles in service grew.

[At Sea]

It is interesting to me how the stereotypically logical and methodical Germans can make such a hash of such things.  Their aircraft are not much better;

Bf109, Me109.  The business of the Fw190 D evolvong into the Ta-152...

I messed around a lot with 1970's & 1980's BMW's and they are so logical in their metohodolgy and approach.

E numbered cars are all chronologically ordered, E3, E12(5 Series), E21 (3 series), E24(6 Series), E28(5 Series), E30(3 Series), E32(7 Series)...

Bosch parts are numbered for BMW cars so as to correspond to their destination...

I was looking at things and trying too see what the 'key' to the system was.  But I suppose the pace of development was so fast that the RLM's system of nomenclature must have had to keep pace with the companies rather than the other way around.

 

You kind of expect it from the Brits...

 

Spitfire I, II, V, XII, IX, VIII, XIV...