Post foreign made tanks pressed into service by the Germans.I find these really interesting that they were doing this, and had an extensive naming system for each type of vehicle. But also I can only imagine the logistical nightmare that was trying to source ammunition and spare parts for a vehicle made by a country you are at war with
The fact that friend or foe was often identified by silhouette rather than markings or coloring likely caused constant anxiety among soldiers operating captured weapons.
>>65162029Germans made extensive use of captured foreign equipment and their logistics were indeed a complete clusterfuck. Think they had over 800 beutepanzers in service alone in 1943 with the majority of them being French but even then they had also loads of captured guns not necessarily being used on a beutepanzers but on their own vehicles resulting in situations where there may be dozens of 75mm, 105mm 155mm etc guns all being used that cannot share any ammo with each other.
There used to be a site called Beutepanzer.ru that was a fantastic collection resource. I heard it got canned by the Russian government after the Great Zigger War of 2022-Current started.
>>65162152Probably failed to sufficently extol the sacred struggle of the Great Patriotic War by revealing how many Soviet AFVs fell into German hands intact, or something like that.
>>65162197That or the creators got sent to the front in a Russian pooppanzer
>>65162029How did that work in terms of maintenance? I guess you could scrounge parts from another captured tank, but what about stuff like ammo?
>>65162260Some cannons were compatible with shells for other guns and in some cases they modified the tanks.Factories in Czechoslovakia, France etc fell under German control.
>>65162268>Some cannons were compatible with shells for other gunsI'm now imagining Hanz going, "Just jam it in bro it's close enough 7.5cm is 7.5cm bro."
I messed up with these, in that the German version is on top and the original Soviet version below1/2
2/2
>>65162296Funny enough the Pak 97/38 could use the same rounds as the 75mm Shermans because both guns are the French modèle 1897 when it comes down to it.
>>65162260I think a lot of the time they ran them til they puked
There's almost as many captured tanks in this image alone as the number of A7V produced.
>>65162090>>65162090B1 Bis my beloved...
SU-76i Beutepanzer. Panzer III's and Stug III's captured by the soviets were turned into SU-76i SPGs, this one was then captured by the germans, who then later abandoned it and was captured back by the soviets.
>>65162852That thing is the equivalent of that one Korean dude captured by the Americans on D-Day
>>65162080MFW PzKpfw M4 748 (a).
For me, it's the PzKpfw KW II 754(r)
>>65162197>German captures: woke BalkenkreuzMeanwhile in Finland...
>>65163327They used the swastika for longer, and before the Germans
>>65163327Fuggpanzers
>>65163373I know that, just that not many of them were painted with oblique swastikas and then there's this guy
>>65163384It appears he was trying to maximize his swastika-drawing space
>>65163327the chudmobile
>>65162029So uh, how did you drive in something like that and not get blasted by your allies? Couldn't allied troops just paint up a T-34 or M4 with German marks and pretend to be a captured tank?
>>65163709A. There's a reason almost all the images of these beutepanzers are plastered with german symbols.B. Something something, the rules of war, something something
Even Ferdinand and Jagdtiger were attacked by their own allies simply because they were unfamiliar AFVs.
>>65162029They used them until they broke down and then abandoned/destroyed them. They don't really fix or maintain captured vehicles beyond getting it to work. Exceptions when they captured entire factories like in France and Czech.
greetings fellow M10s
>>65163853>I'm looking for General Eisenhower's HQ, it's really important
>>65163976
>>65163853Come join the 83rd Panzer Division!
>>65162069are there any memoirs of tank crew that used used enemy tanks? I don't recall coming across anyinterested what they say about that anxiety and logistics. I assume they hung back where they could
>>65163965Adolf was really desperated.
>>65164306Maybe not lived long enough to write somethings about that.
>>65164299Interesting. Got more?
The captured T-34 units in the Southern Kursk theater, organized at the tank company level, were probably the largest operational example, but details of their combat operations are rarely heard.
>>65164371I remember hearing somewhere most of the old french tanks captured wound up being used for training and internal policing actions rather than combat
>>65164401I wonder if they felt they were being given 2nd class tanks, in that the commander's workload doubled and the driver had to be Arnie Schwarzenegger tier strong to operate the controls.
>>65162080Me having the German Sherman on War Thunder, a game I don't play any more and aren't even max level on.
>>65164476Depends on the tank. If you are talking the likes of the Renault FT, AMC 35 etc then yes. If you are talking about the S35, H35 and Char B1? No those are being used in the frontline role especially early war. A lot were modified but they were still good tanks even in 42.
>>65163327The pussywagon, guaranteed to drop panties or your money back
>>65164299Ah yes, the classic "USA" written on every vehicle. Comes standard with a big mac meal for everyone on board with each halftrack
Captured French tanks were also used for training German armored divisions that were resting and reorganizing in France, but shouldn't German tanks have been used for that purpose instead?
>>65164562They fought against the Finns in Lapland from late '44 to '45 too. There are pictures of frog tanks there, I forget if S-35s or something
Beutepanzers were typically captured on the battlefield, but the Germans liked the Panhard 178 armored car so much they actually continued to produce it for a short while after they had conquered France.
Panzer-Abteilung 211 were equipped with Somua S35's and Hotchkiss H35/H39's.
>>65164613A tank is a tank is a tank, isn't it?
>>65164613Germans kind of needed every panzer they could get their hands on so it makes perfect sense why they'd use whatever they could spare.
>>65163853>why do those road wheels look so famil-ACK
>>65163855One funny detail about Operation Greif was that it actually caused Ike's bodyguard detail to effectively lock him into his HQ for two weeks because some german prisoners invented a funny story that Skorzeny himself was in a jeep heading towards Paris with orders to assassinate Ike.
>>65164374Got an old copy-pasta:>This is an excerpt that was about Major General Isaac D. White of the 2nd Armored Division and notes the 83rd Infantry Division which had paced his division since landing on the beaches."On its right flank, tenaciously pacing the 2nd mile for mile and fighting all the way, was a wildly assorted collection of vehicles crammed with troops. From the air it bore no resemblance to either an armored or an infantry division. In fact, but for a number of U.S. Army trucks interspersed among its columns, it might easily have been mistaken for a German convoy. Major General Robert C. Macon’s highly individualistic 83rd Infantry Division, the “Rag-Tag Circus,” was going hell-for-leather toward the Elbe in its captured booty. Every enemy unit or town that surrendered or was captured subscribed its quota of rolling stock for the division, usually at gunpoint. Every newly acquired vehicle got a quick coat of olive-green paint and a U.S. star slapped on its side; then it joined the 83rd. The men of the Rag-Tag Circus had even managed to liberate a German airplane and, harder,had found someone to fly it, and it was spreading consternation all over the front. First Sergeant William G. Presnell of the 30th Infantry Division, who had fought all the way from Omaha Beach, knew the silhouette of every Luftwaffe fighter. So when he saw what was obviously a German plane heading in his direction, he yelled “ME-109!” and dived for cover. Puzzled when there was no burst of machine gun fire, he raised his head and stared as the fighter sped away. The plane was painted a blotchy olive-green. On the undersides of the wings were the words “83rd Inf. Div.”
>>65164786>If their compatriots were confused by the 83rd’s vehicles, the Germans were even more so. As the division rushed pell mell toward the Elbe, Major Haley Kohler heard the insistent blowing of a car horn. “This Mercedes came up behind us,” he recalled, “and then began passing everything on the road.” Captain John J. Devenney saw it, too. “The car weaved in and out of our column, going in our direction,” he remembered. As it passed, Devenney was astounded to see that it was a chauffeur-drivenGerman staff car with a full load of officers. A burst of machine gun fire stopped the vehicle, and the bewildered Germans were taken prisoner in the middle of what they had supposed to be one of their own columns. The Mercedes, in top condition, received the usual hurried paint job and was immediately put to use."
>>65162444>can use the roundand>will hit what you're aiming atis two different things
>>65164824See early APDS?
>>65164783>when your reputation is so feared that the story of you coming alone to pop a cap in the enemy generals ass is taken seriously KEK
>>65164900where did they get these? Bataan?
>>65164583S35 are cool
>>65165051France had such good tank designs at the start of the war, excepting their poor turret rationale and lack of radios.
>>65164924Skorzeny deserves his own movie, seriously. It would be a fucking baller movie too
Rare picture of captured American equipment in German service
>>65165612Wowie zowie
>>65163976feels like one of those AI pictures of shit that almost looks like and object, but remains ambiguous enough to piss you off
>>65165858>>65163976There is nothing confusing about the picture, its a German posing with a train equiped with both Renault FTs and TKS tankettes. The train was probably either moving the tanks or the tanks were intended to defend the train, Ideally by dismounting from the train and engaging the enemy before they get close enough to completely fuck any passengers/ the train itself.Poland really seemed to like armored trains, whether they were purpose built or not.
This thread is giving me a lot of ideas for model kits to think about doing and leave unfinished on a shelf
