That's an interesting puzzle, Rob. I too thought of banks of batteries when I first looked at it, but the front of the panel made no sense in that regard. These panels control generator and battery feeds to two separate banks of electronic equipment. It would not be logical to have the option of feeding a bank of batteries with another battery.
When you look at the back of the panels, there is an extra set of terminals, centre either side, the switches control electrical flow to, from either a gen source or battery source. These terminals match up with the ID labels of the front of the panel for the two 'banks', but the two banks would have to be connected from inside whatever cabinet this switch plate served as a cover for.
For large banks of electronics, needing 6 or 12 volts, I am thinking a large telephone relay setup. If these are military, possibly something used at a large HQ with a lot of incoming land lines. Not sure during the war, how much reliable commercial telephone system would be available for a large military installation so maybe the military had to bring their own.
David
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