Soviet army registration numbers in WW2 - meaning?

[ChristianK]

Gentlemen,

short question: Was there any deeper meaning behind the registration numbers seen on the doors and sides of so many red army vehicles (the six-digit ones)? More specifically: Did the letters or numbers refer in any way to the unit they served with or was it just a (more or less) arbitrary system?

 

Regards,

Christian

[modelldoc]

Do you mean that on the door?

It is the number plate.

The WWII trucks have no bumpers, so rhe registration was on the door.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21603181@N08/14115337224/in/dateposted/

 

modelldoc

[ChristianK]

Yes, I meant these number/letter-combinations. I already know these are number plates, I just wanted to know if their specific combination allows any conclusion about the unit(s) or any other kind of allocation of the vehicle. Like branch of forces, military district or similar..

[Kingsman]

This seems to be a subject about which almost nothing is known.  As others have said, with so many vehicles some sort of registration system seems essential.  IIRC over 200,000 Studebaker trucks alone went there.

 

Current Russian, and IIRC Soviet cold war, military vehicles carried registrations issued by the military district in which the vehicle served.  Not a fully-national system.  The WW2 numbers could have been a similar system.  But I think I agree that they were some sort of unit code akin to the US bumper code. 

 

Engines Of The Red Army has some unit marking examples here: https://www.o5m6.de/redarmy/units.php?group=all_mark&unit=all  Noting the size of the Red Army in WW2 there must have been more than are shown.

 

Several of those shown are in the format A-NN as the formation identifier: 1 Guards Tank Corps, 16, 23 and 31 Tank Corps for example.  Common formats on trucks seems to be A-NN-NNN and A-N-NN-NN.  So it isn't too much of a stretch to think that the 3rd and 4th number group could be a serial of the vehicle or of a sub-unit within that formation.

[ChristianK]

Yes, I agree. And many of your thoughts were mine also. Everybody knows these very prominent markings but almost no information can be found about them..