On advice from JCFALKENBERGIII I'm putting this here.

I have a friend that has a Russian motorcycle/sidecar rig that he's retrofitting to an M72. That's close enough to fool most people at reinactments and airshows. What he or I can't seem to find are markings/insignia/symbols the Soviets may have used on their rigs. Can anyone help us out by either letting us know or sending us to someone that might?

Thanks in advance

Barbosa

I'm not surprised you are having difficulty finding markings, the Soviets were not big on marking transport vehicles at all. Most seem to have been painted green and left at that:

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There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

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Happy Trails,
Clint.

Thanks guys. Other than asking the Russians themselves, you're my last stop. I've spent way too much time looking this up.

All I can say is it must have been a logistics nightmare for the Russians. Can you imagine a 15 mile convoy and having to look at everybodies papers to see where they were supposed to be?

Why? The numbers on the sides of the vehicles rarely told people where they were supposed to be, commanders ensure their guys are in the right order and so you just have to talk to one guy and count the trucks behind him. Allied vehicles had little useful info on them, registration plates, a unit insignia, nothing too relevant.

That said, I have seen all manner of soviet vehicles with patriotic slogans across them, that might be cool for your bike.

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There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

Well, when you have any number of units coming down a road to a jump off point, I would think an MP would like to know what unit was what and be able to point them in the right directions.

My point above?

I'll tell him. Thanks.

You are assuming that the MP's manning road crossings know where units are going and who is who. They don't. Their job is to ensure traffic moves smoothely and safely, it is the responsibility of the commanders of the vehicles to know where they are going and to get them there. If they need directions they might ask an MP but that is another matter. Also keep in mind the security considerations that might prevent every MP from being told who was moving where and when.

Also worth remembering Soviet units didn't usually have destinctive markings as western units did. The best you might get is a Guards badge or a patriotic slogan, there were no regimental flashes or divisional patches. Even if that were not the case, you assume that MP's therefore recognise every unit patch, flash or insignia which is again simply not the case. In the British army different brigades and corps used different markings in addition to or in lieu of regimental markings and so on, no MP could learn them all much less know where they were all going.

So if I were you I wouldn't worry about it, MP's probably wouldn't know what the unit was even with markings and definately wouldn't know where they are going.

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There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

gonna try to load a pic of that model for ya again, probably won't work since this is the first time I've tried this.

djnepr-M-72.jpg

If this doesn't work, here is the URL that I am trying to "lift" the pic from:

http://www.miniatures.de/int/dnepr-motorcycle.html

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Happy Trails,
Clint.

Again, thanks. Learned something I didn't know. And thanks for the pic brndirt1.