A German soldier in Westende, Belgium washes a civilian car impressed into German military
service.
The tactical symbol for a motorized Pionier Company has been painted on the left front fender alongside a
small letter "K" and above the Wehrmacht Heer prefix (WH). The right fender carries an unknown unit
emblem.
The car still carries the civilian license plate IZ-226285 where IZ is the prefix for
the Rhine Provinz. Once officially incorporated into a German unit, the car would be assigned a military
license plate. The German military and government license plate prefixes during WWII were:
WH = Wehrmacht Heer (army),
WM = Wehrmacht Marine (navy),
WL = Wehrmacht Luftwaffe (air force),
SS [runes] = Schutzstaffel,
OT = Organization Todt,
Pol = Polizei,
DR = Deutsche Reichsbahn, and
RP = Reichspost.
Source: LoneSentry.com Collection.
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