Allies and Nazi forces usuing captured equipment

KC72

Active member
I know that both sides would use captured artillary, and i've seen pictures of Shermans and Churchill tanks repainted and used by the Nazi's, i've also read about allied soldiers swapping the personal weapons for german MP40's and keeping any MG44's they could find, but what other things would they use? did Nazi soldiers use the M1 garrand for example or was it just down to individuals preferences?
 
KC72 said:
I know that both sides would use captured artillary, and i've seen pictures of Shermans and Churchill tanks repainted and used by the Nazi's, i've also read about allied soldiers swapping the personal weapons for german MP40's and keeping any MG44's they could find, but what other things would they use? did Nazi soldiers use the M1 garrand for example or was it just down to individuals preferences?
I don't know enough about infantry weapons to provide much detail as to why German soldiers would prefer the M1 Garand over the Mauser K98k. I know the M1 had a higher rate of fire but with the German squad emphasis on the role of the LMG this may not have been a big deal. With personal weapons there might be an element of the 'prestige' value of owing a foreign weapon - look how highly prized Lugers were for example. I know also that the Germans liked using captured 'Tommy' sub-machineguns when they were available too.

With regards to tanks the Germans certainly used captured T-34s but Shermans and Churchills? I had not been aware of that and in the case of the Shermans, those German tankers must have been pretty damm desperate! Got any links as I'd like to get more info on this.
 
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The British 3inch AA gun was highly prized by the Germans, they even made their own ammunition for it
 
Thanks for the links. I would imagine that the Germans making use of British tanks was out of desperation, whereas some other scenarios like German soliders choosing to use M1 Garands would be through choice. The gun on the Sherman Firefly was pretty good, but the basic faults of the Sherman design remained.
 
With the firefly tank many of the problems of the tank bursting into flames with any hit had largely been overcome. This had been done by stowing the ammunition in steel boxes to stop small lumps of red shrapnel hitting the shell casing and igniting the propellant. Now the Germans did use the Matilda Tank in the Western Desert, although it was lightly gunned and rather slow it was very heavily armoured
 
I'll try to mention things not mentioned before...

I have seen photos M4A3 with Iron Crosses, I think they were used for evaluation or training. There might have been a second line unit or two that had them.

There were 3 non-Russian tanks the Germans liked and used. The first 2 were French the Char-B bis and the S-35 Samoa. Both of these were superior to anything the Germans had in 1940 and were studied extensively. The Char-B was the first Heavy Tank used in WWII and it inspired the Tiger Tank. 161 Char were captured during the fall of France. The S35 was also used during WWII by the Italians and by the Germans and Vichy in West Africa.

The last tank I will mention, is the the Pz-38(t). Although the tank itself was obsolete, the chassis was a automotive masterpiece. German enginners captured several, removed the turret and fashioned a fixed turret with good sloping armour and a high velocity 75mm they could destroy any Allied tank except the Russian Super-Heavys. It was fast, menueverable, reliable, and was very difficult to destroy due to its small size. This became the German Jadspanther 38 Hetzer.

I will mention one weapon the Germans loved was the Russian PPsh-41. They tried to grab as many as they could and even figured out a simple field modification for it to fire German 9mm Parabellum rounds.

The Germans did have a respect for the American rifles, but they didnt use them that much because there own Gewehr 41 and 43 were starting to become available not to mention the fancier guns such as the Fg.42 and Stg.43/44. Also after 1940, The Germans had a clear preference for SMGs than rifles and tried to equip their units with them as opposed to rifles. This was espically true of the SS and Panzergrendier units.
 
Right i've found these


German Paratrooper with sten gun

3fjdfjr9sten7nr.jpg



Germans with Russian PPsh-41

3fjdfjr9sten7qh.jpg


German closest the camera with suspected M1 carbine

3fjdfjr9sten2lt.jpg
 
KC72 said:
I know that both sides would use captured artillary, and i've seen pictures of Shermans and Churchill tanks repainted and used by the Nazi's, i've also read about allied soldiers swapping the personal weapons for german MP40's and keeping any MG44's they could find, but what other things would they use? did Nazi soldiers use the M1 garrand for example or was it just down to individuals preferences?

I dont like the phrase "Nazi Soldiers" .

Nazi (German National Socialist Party, NSDAP) was a political formation. The German Army (and I mean the "Wehrmacht", not the Waffen-SS, SD or other Formations) was a regular Army, that respected the rules of war.

My grandpa was a farmer. In August '39 he got a mail from the war departement and 6 years later he returned as a completely different man....

He was not a member of the NSDAP, was not a war fanatic .... just a man
that cares about his familiy and was driven by the goverment into the hell...

Dont like the phrase "Nazi Soldier" ....
 
sorry about that macoy, the reason i used that term was to try to differentiate between the Nazi's and normal soldiers, but i got a bvit muddled up.
 
Macoy said:
I dont like the phrase "Nazi Soldiers" .

Nazi (German National Socialist Party, NSDAP) was a political formation. The German Army (and I mean the "Wehrmacht", not the Waffen-SS, SD or other Formations) was a regular Army, that respected the rules of war.

My grandpa was a farmer. In August '39 he got a mail from the war departement and 6 years later he returned as a completely different man....

He was not a member of the NSDAP, was not a war fanatic .... just a man
that cares about his familiy and was driven by the goverment into the hell...

Dont like the phrase "Nazi Soldier" ....
Good point. I don't really care for the term either. However, don't lump the Waffen SS along with the SD or General SS. The Waffen SS fought everywhere the Heer did and were commanded by Heer commanders at sometimes the operational and always at the strategic level. For example, 'Das Reich' was under the command of Heinz Guderian for the first 6 months of 'Barbarossa'. For all extents and purposes, the Waffen SS were really just another branch of the Heer, despite them being part of a seperate organisation. The Waffen SS were proper soldiers and the Heer committed just as many 'war crimes', although the smaller size and 'notierity' of the Waffen SS meant that historians have focused more on the latter.
 
The Wehrmacht did become politicized. An example of this that springs to mind is in the documentary Nazis a Warning from History when wehrmact poltical officer is interviewed.
 
the problem with using captured equipment is that you would have to capture more ammo whenever you ran out. you wouldn't be able to go to the supply dump and get some ammo, both sides used different ammo, which probably discouraged them from capturing weapons to use.
 
Macoy said:
I dont like the phrase "Nazi Soldiers" .
I can well understand why, however the sad truth is that the armed services of Germany were under the direct control of the Nazi party, so the term 'Nazi soldiers' is factually correct
Nazi (German National Socialist Party, NSDAP) was a political formation. The German Army (and I mean the "Wehrmacht", not the Waffen-SS, SD or other Formations) was a regular Army, that respected the rules of war.
The claim that the regular German army somehow evaded taking part in the Nazi mass killings is a myth, for while the regular German army may have on the whole obeyed the rules of war while facing the Western Allies whom they considered racial equals, on the Eastern front the regular German army took full part in the murder of millions of Soviet POW's and civilians.
 
The first country outside the Soviet Union to employ the SVT was Finland, which captured some 4,000 SVT-38's during the Winter War, and over 15,000 SVT's during the Continuation War. The SVT saw extensive use in Finnish hands, though malfunctions and breakages were common due to different Finnish ammunition and often an incorrectly adjusted gas recoil system. Germany and other Axis countries captured hundreds of thousands of SVT's during the Great Patriotic War. As the Germans were short of self-loading rifles themselves, the SVT (designated as SIG.259(r) by Wehrmacht) saw widespread use in German hands against their former owners. The Germans even issued their own operating manual for the SVT.


:cheers:
 
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