Trivia: Weapons that were used by both sides

mmarsh

mmarsh

Active member
I thought I'd start a little game of naming weapons that were used by both sides. Note: this excludes captured weapons, unless put into production by the other side. Lets says either produced or purchased by both sides. To increase the scope lets say all wars not just WWII.

I can think of two.

1. The Browning HP pistol was used by the Waffen SS after the capitualtion of Belgium AND it was used by the Canadians as the Browning corporation had just opened a factory in Canada where the pistol was produced under license.

2. The Oerlikon 40mm Anti-Aircraft gun. This gun was sold by Switzerland to both Germany, Japan and the USA. The funnying thing was both the IJN and USN used this gun as their principal AAA defense on capital ships.

Ok that should get the ball rolling, can anybody think of anything else?
 
To increase the scope lets say all wars not just WWII.
Click to expand...

This will make the list almost endless, so are you sure you want to expand to this scope? I will not even get into swords, knifes and the likes of that.

1) 1852 .58 Lee Enfield was used by the confederates and union soldiers.
2) Stinger AA missiles, during Desert Storm.
 
Majority of Civil wars could be characterised by both sides using the same weapons. The American War of the States was a little bit different.

Mmarsh, you have said that the captured weapons should be excluded.
Why then:

1. The Browning HP pistol was used by the Waffen SS after the capitualtion of Belgium AND it was used by the Canadians as the Browning corporation had just opened a factory in Canada where the pistol was produced under license.

The Chinese and the Vietnamese forces in 1979 have used the same Soviet weaponry - AK's, RPG's, etc.
 
Almost every country has some form of or captured Mauser K98 rifles, including the USSR. The Walther PP and PPK have been used by every police force and armed forces since it was first made.
 
The Russian built there Version of the B29 after a number of B29 landed in Russian Territory during WW2
 
The AK-47 has been used on both sides of every war in Africa since the 1950's. The only exceptions were the wars involving South Africa and then Rhodesia, both of whom used their variants of the FN-FAL. All of the wars north of that area involved AKs, AKMs, RPKs, RPGs, and every other former Soviet Bloc weapon they could find.

Dean.

EDIT The AK-47 variants were also used against each other during the Sino Vietnam war.
 
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I'm sure the UH-1 Huey has seen both sides of a war or two considering it's pervasive usage throughout the world.

Iran and Iraq had a lot of the same hardware in their war simply because they were both buying weapons from China and Russia. The list there would be a bit long. Mikojan/Gurevich and Sukhoi both show up a lot. :)

I would imagine that the F-4 saw both sides of the Yom Kippur war, but I'm not sure exactly when Egypt got their hands on F-4's of their own.
 
mmarsh said:
I thought I'd start a little game of naming weapons that were used by both sides. Note: this excludes captured weapons, unless put into production by the other side. Lets says either produced or purchased by both sides. To increase the scope lets say all wars not just WWII.

I can think of two.

1. The Browning HP pistol was used by the Waffen SS after the capitualtion of Belgium AND it was used by the Canadians as the Browning corporation had just opened a factory in Canada where the pistol was produced under license.

2. The Oerlikon 40mm Anti-Aircraft gun. This gun was sold by Switzerland to both Germany, Japan and the USA. The funnying thing was both the IJN and USN used this gun as their principal AAA defense on capital ships.

Ok that should get the ball rolling, can anybody think of anything else?
Click to expand...

After the invasion of Soviet Union in 41, Germans fell in love with many Russian weapons. The 76.2 MM anti-tank / anti-personel was much prized. The Germans were so impressed they grabbed as many as they could find. This gun found it's way on every front.
The Germans also fell in love with the PPSH 41 sub-machine gun and aquired thousands of them. Certain British and Canadian troops fell in love with the STUG 44, the first assault rifle made. For a while, in the first month of the Normandy campaign loads of ammo for the gun was found. Most commanding officers dissaproved of the practise because of the sound the STUG 44 made. It was definatly German and could confuse other troopers.
 
Germany built copies of the Sten gun during WW2 called MP3008.

Known as the Volksmaschinenpistole ("people's submachine gun"), the weapon was closely based on the*Sten MKII*submachine gun, except for its vertical magazine; some even featured additional pistol grips.

The Gerät Potsdam, another version of the Sten Mk II produced by Mauser in 1944, was an exact copy of the original Sten, right down to its manufacturing stamps in an effort to conceal its origin for clandestine operations. About 28,000 were made.

Interesting is that Germany captured more original Stens than they produced. Today nobody knows why the Germans produced these copies.
 
I'll stick to WW II, but will include tactics as weapons.
The Wildcat and several obsolete British planes, artillery, etc, were used incredibly effectively by Finland.
Germany used tanks from Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc, and trucks from every country in Europe in Barbarossa.
Both sides used Bofors AA guns, but the German version was much lighter, hence much better for offensive operations.
The Germans not only copied, but greatly improved the Bazooka going from a wimpy, nearly useless 70 mm to the most useful 88 mm Panzershcreck, which would have changed the outcome of the war, had it been available for Barbarossa. It is surprising that with their mastery of rocketry, Germany wouldn't think of such a weapon when facing the invasion of the USSR (which had 28,800 tanks, to Germany's 3,600)
The Americans copied the German magnetic mine and wolfpack tactics and used them to anihilate the Japanese merchant fleet and hence to starve Japan and deprive it of fuel.
The allies were very impressed by the capture of Crete with paratroopers and created several divisions but much more effective. The Germans lost lots of paratroopers in Crete because they did not have their weapons when they landed, but had to retrieve them under fire from containers that might fall hundreds of meters away from them. Allied paratroopers were ready to fight when they landed.
The Japanese navy and the Germans used Radar invented by the British very efectively.
Lend-Lease was invented by Stalin who supplied Hitler with oil, grain, chromium, manganese, platinum, etc, on credit until June 22, 1941, so Hitler could invade Poland, Norway, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, etc, and fight the BoB and in North Africa, etc,
Since the USSR sided unofficially with the axis and even applied for admission in 1940, we can argue that all the Soviet weapons in 1939 and 1940 served on both sides (Stalin invaded Poland together with Hitler).
Germany produced British paper-money a most important weapon.
The Greeks beat the hell out of the invading Italians using Italian weapons and ammunition captured by the British in Libya. The Greeks almost captured Albania from the Italians and might have, had Hitler not intervened and defeated Greece.
Since Vichy fought the allies in Morocco (using Curtiss H-75), Africa, Syria, Madagascar, Dakar, etc, many French weapons fought on both sides.
Since Finland, Romania, etc, were forced by the USSR to declare war on Germany in 1944, all their weapons fought on both sides.
 
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