Mystery number on bren carrier

[jmark]

I'm not sure if anyone can help but I'll ask anyway. What does the number on this bren carrier mean?

http://www.leapinghorseman.com/305id_bren_carrier.jpg

The photo comes from a soldier in Pi.Btl.305 of 305. Inf.Div. (Bodensee-Division). All other photos in the album shows vehicles and men from this battalion, so I presumed this bren carrier also belonged to it. I scanned the photo as hi-res as I could, in order to make out the number. It seems to read "16251", or at the very least "16?51".

At first, I thought it was a Feldpostnummer, but the FPN of Pi.Btl.305 are 25152, 26596, 27838, 28218 and 29355. OK, perhaps it belongs to another unit of 305.ID. I checked all possible configurations of the mystery number (eg. 10251, 15251, 19251, etc) and after 20 minutes of fruitless searching, have come up with nothing.

So perhaps it is not a FPN. Any suggestions as to what it might be?

Thanks for any help.
Jason

[jmark]

Anyone? Any hypotheses?

I'm extremely curious to know which unit in 305.Inf.Div. possessed this vehicle. Would a pioneer battalion require a tracked vehicle? I can understand the panzerjäger battalion needing one. And would permission be needed from a higher authority (division commander, etc.) to add this vehicle to a unit's TO&E? I imagine it was difficult to acquire fuel for 'booty' vehicles.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.
Jason

[byterock]

I know few were in use on both the east and west fronts. The east one were captured after 42 as the brits suplied over 600 to the russians. I have a few phots in a book (at home of course) I will look them up tonight and try and get back to you.

[jmark]

I know few were in use on both the east and west fronts. The east one were captured after 42 as the brits suplied over 600 to the russians. I have a few phots in a book (at home of course) I will look them up tonight and try and get back to you.

Thanks for your reply. This photo was taken in late May/early June 1942, soon after the division's transfer from France to the Ostfront. Therefore, it is possible that this Bren carrier came with the division from France or was captured on the Ostfront soon after its arrival. Units of 305.I.D. participated in the Kharkov battle in May 1942. Did Soviet units use Bren carriers during this offensive?

Thanks
Jason

[byterock]

Well I checked a number of photos in my book and none have any numbers on the front.

I was thinking this might be and old Brit marking but from what I understand the 5ton marker would go there with the ID number on the side so no dice there.

As for it being brought from France or captured in Russia it is hard to say. Most of those in France where just used as simple haulers, snow plows, a few for air field defense and at least a doz were converted to a very odd Panzer Jaeger later in the war.

As for the east front a very large number were supplied to the USSR from Canada about 20% of total production but I have very little on it.

My guess this would be it was captured on the east front from the Russians

I will check a few other sources on my next trip over to the CWM on how many were shipped to the USSR.
Cheers