Military Stamp on Data Plate

[icanfixit]

Our car has a stamp on the data plate. Photo included. My father was told that is was for the Germany Army and that this was a staff car. I am trying to verify the stamp and get more info about it.

Chris

[John Ellis]

Never seen this stamped on a ID plate, but it is a WW2 German National Emblem with what appears to be a serial number for the vehicle.

[icanfixit]

I found out from another site today that it is an inspection stamp. I am not sure how rare it is, but this car has one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffenamt


Chris

[John Ellis]

So the number is like an "inspected by" label, with the number being the inspector identification?

[Ted]

Yes, that's it, army acceptance stamp, by Waffenamt /weapons or armament office/ inspector. That's for the regular armed forces, the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine had their own inspection system. I believe I have seen somewhere photos of Citroen front drive car with waa stamp.

[icanfixit]

It has been an interesting mystery for our family all these years. Many theories have been considered. We had settled on the car was stamped at the factory for us in the army as a staff car. Some of the info suggest that the stamp had nothing to do with the car going into the army and was just a quality control stamp. Considering the records and the lapse in time, we may never know the whole truth.

My father has had a large collection of various cars. I seem to be following him. The discussion of the 320 with the stamp has been a hot or cold subject, depending on who you talk to. The car is a part of history and mentioning the stamp has offended some people due to the feelings towards to Germany in WWII. An interesting conversation can turn cold and they no longer want to have anything to do with you because of that mark on the car.

The stamp is nothing but a interesting part of history. I have considered it adds something additional to the car because it adds to the story of the car. We will never know what the people who drove the car in WWII did but I can not see holding the car responsible or destroying it because of a small mark.

[Ted]

Some WaA codes are difficult to trace. There are several lists of WaA codes and probably all are incomplete, sometimes missing any information for some codes, other times giving just partial information. As said above, I think that  the inspectors sometimes moved from factory to factory, so in different year, a given WaA number can be found on different products, from different makers. This case seems exactly such. Tracing the movement of the code, we can get the impression of a vehicle technical expert, moving every year or two to another factory, but always vehicle related. Looking through several lists, in 1940 the 691 is found on a 8 cyl. Horch from the Auto Union factory at Siegmar. In 1942 - NSU Werke AG, Neckarsulm. In 1944 - probably at the Steyr factory, for the Steyr 1500 vehicles. And obviously has been at the Mercedes-Benz factory, too.

[icanfixit]

I would like to know if every car was stamped, every tenth car, or   How did they determine what was inspected? I wonder what inspector's name went with the stamp on our car?

Chris

[Ted]

I have never seen research of the names. These men were trained technical staff with military ranks, it was an office of the army.
I can only guess about the inspection. Every piece? Probably depends on the numbers! The company Holler in Solingen produced over 120 000 bayonets in 1943. Each of these had 2 stamps on the handle...  Or another thing, like the fuses for the 20 mm anti-air rounds. Must have been produced in high numbers. In such cases, I think the production came in batches. The inspector would check some sample taken from the batch, test it and approve the whole batch, if it meets the criteria. Then the stamping must have been made by a whole group of helpers, or maybe even a conveyor machine?
   But with the car, I would think each piece was inspected. A high end staff car, probably very few were ordered and I would be surprised if the inspector did not examine each one upon completion. 

[vorkriegsmercedes]

Hello , the HWa 691 means Heeres Waffenamt 691, it is the stamp from the Mercedes-Buromachinen und Waffenwerke AG in Zella Mehlis Thüringen.

There are many Mercedes-Benz cars with this stamp, my own car a 320 Pullman Cabriolet F has the same, like a a other couplle of 320 cars.
But not only 320 were stamped in Zella Mehlis, there was also a L1500A 4x4.

When a car was used for military use, some became weapons, guns etc. the car was stamped.

In this case it was done here Zella Mehlis.