Oxen in the German army - Ox Shoes

[FieldForge]

I have some German Ox Shoes (i.e. 'horseshoes' for Oxen), which came from the same (German) blacksmith's estate as some WW2 German army horseshoes & farriers equipment.
Some of those Ox Shoes are stamped with a Crown.
Other Ox Shoes, which appear to be later in date, have an ‘H’ stamped on them, with a number '2' above.
Other Ox shoes are stamped with a ‘V’ number. ‘V3’, as well as a maker's stamp and an 'L' or 'R' for Left or Right hoof.

I am aware that:
(a) Some Imperial-era German army equipment was marked with a crown, the shape of the crown varying depending on whether it was Prussian, Bavarian, Saxon, etc): see here: https://militaryriflejournal.wordpress. ... cceptance/
(b) WW2 era German army horse shoes were marked with either an 'H..' number or a 'V...' number - e.g. 'H1', 'H7' or 'V7', 'V8', 'V12'. The larger the size of the horseshoe, the bigger the number which follows the H or the V. (See my previous post on that topic)
(c) there are photographs of oxen being used by the German army in both WW1 (e.g. pulling artillery in Romania) and WW2 (e.g. pulling field waggons on the Eastern Front, extracting motor vehicles stuck in the mud, moving heavy aircraft-listening equipment, etc).

I don't know whether the Ox Shoes which I have are of military origin or not, but was wondering whether anyone knew:
(1) Did the German army in either WW1 or WW2 have Oxen on their normal complement of service animals, or were they simply commandeered from civilian sources as and when they were required?
(2) Did the German army in either WW1 or WW2 have standard Ox Shoes as part of their farriers equipment, in the expectation that oxen (commandeered or otherwise) would be used for transport from time to time?
(3) Does the Crown stamp on some of my Ox Shoes look like an army stamp (Prussian?) from the Imperial era, or might it simply be a private manufacturer's logo?
(4) Whether the Ox Shoes stamped with an ‘H2’ and ‘V3’ are indeed WW2 era German Army Ox Shoes (given the 'H..' and 'V...' numbering system seems to be similar to the numbering system on German army horseshoes.

Any information very gratefully received!

[Ralph Lovett]

Certainly an interesting subject. As we talked about in an earlier email, I sure hope someone on the Military Horse Forum has more knowledge about this than me.

[FieldForge]

Further to my post above, here is a photo of another Ox Shoe from a pair from the same source, marked with "H1" and the manufacturer's initials "AH", as well as respectively "L" and "R" for left and right.
I have seen WW2 German Army Horseshoes with the same manufacturer's stamp, "AH", dating from 1939 and 1940, and likewise stamped with "H..." numbers, from "H1" upwards - the larger the horseshoe, the higher the "H" number (as per my other post re German army horseshoes).