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Sonderkraftfahrzeug or Sd.Kfz numbers were ordnance numbers allocated to German military vehicles during the period of German re-armament in the 1930s and throughout the Second World War. The name can be translated as 'special purpose vehicle' or 'special ordnance vehicle'.
In the late 1920s the German army began to give its normal vehicles a Kraftfahrzeug (Kfz) number, which indicated the function of the vehicle. This was extended to include armoured and other military vehicles in about 1935, with the introduction of the Sd.Kfz numbers. At first an effort made to make sure that the systems didn't overlap, so if there was a Kfz 1 then there wouldn't be an Sd.Kfz 1, but this was eventually abandoned.
The system was introduced in order to give vehicles a clear identification number that was related to their specific task and not to the base vehicle. Several different command tanks thus shared the Sd.Kfz 267 number, which indicated the type of radios they carried (Panzerbefehlswagen III Ausf D1, Panzerbefehlswagen IV, Panzerbefehlswagen Panther ).
Sd.Kfz numbers were allocated in bands.
1 to 99 were for normal non-armoured vehicles - trucks, cars, motorbikes and others.
100 to 199 was for tanks and armoured vehicles including tracked artillery and assault guns
200 to 299 was for reconnaissance, infantry fighting vehicles and command tanks.
300 onwards was for minesweepers and cargo carriers.
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