American Panzers to British MP40s – How the Allies Reused Enemy Weapons

This video will concern itself with the Western Allies. I will be dealing with the Soviet capture of German weapons and equipment in a separate video. First off, regarding small arms, we are not talking about battlefield pickups and trophies, that is weapons found by Allied troops from the battlefield and reused on an individual basis, such as these MP 40 armed Allied soldiers.

Many Allied soldiers took enemy weapons and used them, the MP 40 being a favorite, or took weapons as trophies. For example, in the Italian campaign, my maternal grandfather carried a Thompson submachine gun as his standard issue weapon, but he also had a trophy Beretta semi-automatic pistol on his person that he had taken off an Italian officer.

As far as I know, he never used it in anger. It must be pointed out that Allied soldiers were usually discouraged from using captured weapons on the battlefield due to their distinctive sound compared to Allied weapons, which could result in friendly fire incidents. Soldiers were taught to recognize the types of weapons being fired by their sound.

>> The German 9-mm machine pistol, called the Schmeisser, against our Thompson caliber .45. Their rate of fire is practically the same, but our weapon is more accurate. And our new submachine pistol caliber .45 M3. >> Ready, man? Firing. >> What we are looking at here is the organized use of Axis weapons by Allied troops, which though rare did occur

occasionally from small arms all the way up to tanks and even planes. The British did actually use captured German MP 40s in a more organized fashion, arming certain special forces units during World War II that were dropped behind enemy lines. The SAS used them, for example. Having a folding stock and being lighter than the Thompson submachine gun made them ideal for parachute operations.

forces soldiers could use captured German ammunition, for example through the resistance network. Both Special Operations Executive SOE and its American equivalent OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, used German Walther PP and particularly PPK pistols, issuing them to agents going undercover in occupied Europe.

These weapons’ compact profiles were perfect for concealment and of course once again ammunition could be easily sourced from resistance groups. The Luger also saw adaptation as a silent killing weapon. This is one of two modified Luger pistols from a Luger batch prepared by SOE armorers that in this case were to be used in a planned assassination attempt on Hitler and probably also for other such wet work inside Germany.

I examined this one at the Combined Military Services Museum at Maldon in Essex, which has a huge collection of covert use weapons. Check out the link to their website in the description box. Also, the famous Welrod assassination pistol was later deliberately chambered in 9 by 19 mm Parabellum, so that SOE agents could execute targets using captured German ammunition behind the lines.

Not much Japanese equipment was used by the Allies. And apart from battlefield souvenirs, some US scouts and snipers were equipped with Japanese Type 97 or Type 99 sniper rifles, which were noted for being a very decent sniper rifle with an incredibly low muzzle flash and smokeless propellant, making a sniper harder to spot.

Quite a number of these rifles were used officially by US snipers in the Pacific War. I guess occupying a bit of a gray zone between battlefield pickup souvenir weapons and weapons that they were using officially. Quite a number of Japanese machine guns were used against their former owners by US troops, but they were basically battlefield pickups and would be discarded once the ammunition ran out.

Japanese weapons were seen as greatly inferior compared to US and British ones, except their sniper rifles, and no widespread issuance of captured Japanese weapons or kit occurred. One of the problems faced by the US 82nd Airborne Division during Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands in September 1944 was a shortage of heavy anti-tank weapons.

The US bazooka was not plentiful enough during this parachute operation and its rocket was not fully effective against heavier German tanks and assault guns that were deployed against the paratroopers. The problem for the Americans was the ammunition. Not much came in initially with the first drop, and subsequent supply drops were often widely scattered, and a priority was given to small arms ammunition, food, and medical supplies.

Gliders also were likewise loaded with priority items such as ammunition or vehicles. The reason for the lack of anti-tank weapons was perhaps because the planners had not believed that the British, American, and Polish paratroopers and glider troops landing to seize a series of bridges in the Netherlands would actually have to face much German armor, a serious miscalculation.

Also, the ground element of Market Garden, the British 30 Corps and its armored units, were expected to rapidly relieve the surrounded paratroopers, and the British tanks and anti-tank guns could then deal with any German armored vehicles. In the event, the paratroopers faced seasoned German troops and some armor. Fortunately, the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment overran and captured a German supply depot near Nijmegen that was stacked full of panzerfausts, the handy single-shot German shape-charge weapon that packed a much bigger punch

than a US bazooka. Crates of panzerfausts were distributed to the 82nd Airborne’s units, with many men already familiar with this weapon from service in Sicily and Normandy. These panzerfausts were used to great effect by US paratroops who found them exceptionally effective. Major General James Gavin, the commander of the 82nd Airborne, would write that the panzerfaust was, {quote} “the best anti-tank weapon we had for the remainder of the war.

” {end quote} And crates of these weapons would be in divisional stores for issue during further combat operations during World War II. During late 1944 and into early 1945, the advancing Allied armies in Western Europe outran their own supply lines. With most of the Allied supplies still coming over the Normandy beaches and being trucked forward using the complicated Red Ball Express, ports that had been captured had mostly been badly damaged by the Germans to prevent their use by the Allies.

In the case of Antwerp in Belgium, captured intact, but the area of the Scheldt estuary was still in German hands and required costly British and Canadian operations to clear before supply ships could actually use the port. Shortages of fuel and ammunition soon appeared, and the Allied armies were forced to stop and dig in on the German frontier until the crisis could be relieved, giving the Germans a valuable breathing space to reorganize themselves and to launch a counteroffensive in the Ardennes in mid-December 1944.

The Allies had overrun and captured many German artillery batteries and also supply depots, with many of the weapons being in perfect working order. Due to a shortage of artillery shells for British and US guns, a decision was taken to re-equip some artillery units with captured German weapons, which had plentiful ammunition.

The US Army re-equipped two field artillery battalions with German 10.5 cm leFH 18 field guns, having captured large stocks of German ammunition as well. The 244th Field Artillery Battalion was re-equipped with the feared German 88-mm anti-tank gun and was used in an indirect fire role. The 733rd Field Artillery Battalion also used some captured 88s.

>> And of course, the British got in on the act as well. >> The Germans own guns captured were now turned against them. >> One of the most extensive examples of the Allies reusing captured German vehicles was that of the US 83rd Infantry Division, whose nicknames included the Ragtag Circus and the 83rd Panzer Division, the latter due to its use of captured German armored vehicles.

Many Allied units used the odd German tank or vehicle here and there. For example, the Fourth Coldstream Guards that captured and used a German Panther tank in the fighting in the Netherlands in late 1944, naming the vehicle Cuckoo. It was later abandoned due to lack of spares. The 83rd Infantry Division decided to use German vehicles en masse, also building up a large supply of spare parts to keep these vehicles moving.

The number and type of vehicles utilized was very impressive. A number of Stug III assault guns were resprayed olive drab and received the Allied white star along with a number of German SDKFZ 251 armored half-tracks. As well as various German soft-skin trucks. The headquarters was equipped with not only US Jeeps and trucks, but also German Kubelwagen field cars and some BMW and Zundapp motorcycles.

They even commandeered civilian buses and repainted them. Even more incredible was the addition of an air unit, a captured German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, repainted olive drab, given Allied stars, and on the underside of the wings was painted 83rd Infantry Division. In the campaign in North Africa, both sides pressed captured armor into service due to its value in the desert and difficulties with resupply.

The initial British campaign against the Italians who had invaded Egypt resulted in the numerically inferior British inflicting a series of telling defeats on the Italians, during which they captured an astounding 365 Italian tanks. 16% of them, or 60 vehicles, were medium types. And these were used to equip the 6th Royal Tank Regiment as it waited for the arrival of more modern British tanks.

The Italian tanks were overhauled and fitted with British radios. They were very unpopular due to their poor mechanical reliability and their thin armor. Three squadrons of the 6th Royal Tank Regiment were equipped with the 60 Italian M13/40 medium tanks. The cavalry unit of the 6th Australian Infantry Division captured and pressed into service more Italian tanks.

The Aussie tankers painted white kangaroos on the hulls and turrets to aid identification in battle. Two types of Italian tank were used, the M11/39 medium, armed with a 37-mm gun, and the slightly heavier M13/40 with a 47-mm main gun. 11 Italian tanks were used effectively by the Australian cavalry for reconnaissance and direct fire missions in support of their infantry until replaced by Allied types when they became available.

The British and US equipped free French Army that fought across France and into Germany in 1944 to 45 was well supplied with armor but occasionally used captured German vehicles as well to supplement its tanks. One French unit was fully equipped with abandoned German tanks and used to support the siege of the German occupied port of Saint-Nazaire which was well behind the Allied front line.

This important U-boat base held out until the end of the war. The French unit had a Tiger 1, a Panther, 11 Panzer 4s and two StuG III assault guns. Post war, the French Army used 49 Panther tanks until a new French design entered service in the 1950s. Here again, a distinction needs to be made between aircraft captured by the Allies and reused for some practical purpose and aircraft that were captured and taken back to their home countries for scientific examination and extensive testing. We are in this case talking

about the former. During the desert campaign in North Africa, the Royal Australian Air Force captured an intact Junkers Ju 52 3M transport aircraft at El Gazala in Libya. It was adopted by number 450 Squadron as a runabout and repainted in Allied colors and given the name Libyan Clipper.

Every week, the Ju 52 would make two to three round trips between Cairo in Egypt and the front line in Libya moving various types of supplies for the troops ferrying pilots going on leave and carrying food supplies as well. And being Australians, one of its most important jobs was to bring up beer. There was nothing better than a nice cold one when you’re stuck in a trench in the desert.

The aircraft was a tremendous morale booster to the Australians. Another extremely popular German plane that was pressed into Allied service in huge numbers was the short takeoff and landing communication aircraft, the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch or Stork. Figures vary, but the British, for example, captured up to 145 of these excellent planes.

64 of them were handed to the French as war reparations, but the remainder in RAF service became the personal planes of Allied leaders. Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, for example, had a personal Storch in North Africa and then into Northwest Europe, as did Air Vice-Marshal Sir Harry Broadhurst, who had Rommel’s personal Storch, which had been captured in North Africa.

He used it to take Prime Minister Winston Churchill for a flight over Allied lines in Normandy in 1944. See my video all about these captured Storchs, link in the end screen. The South African Air Force also operated a number of captured Junkers 52s from the desert campaign. Several SAAF fighter squadrons, including numbers 1, 4, and 5, even adopted captured Messerschmitt Bf 109 F fighters as squadron hacks, that is, for use as utility and liaison planes, flying, of course, in South African Air Force colors.

These, then, are just a few examples of the reuse of captured Axis equipment by Allied forces. For more information on the Soviet use of German equipment, check out my video, link in the end screen. Thanks for watching. Please subscribe and share. Also, visit my audiobook channel, War Stories with Mark Felton.

You can also help to support both of my channels at PayPal and Patreon. Details in the description  box below.

 

 

 

American Panzers to British MP40s – How the Allies Reused Enemy Weapons

 

This video will concern itself with the Western Allies. I will be dealing with the Soviet capture of German weapons and equipment in a separate video. First off, regarding small arms, we are not talking about battlefield pickups and trophies, that is weapons found by Allied troops from the battlefield and reused on an individual basis, such as these MP 40 armed Allied soldiers.

Many Allied soldiers took enemy weapons and used them, the MP 40 being a favorite, or took weapons as trophies. For example, in the Italian campaign, my maternal grandfather carried a Thompson submachine gun as his standard issue weapon, but he also had a trophy Beretta semi-automatic pistol on his person that he had taken off an Italian officer.

As far as I know, he never used it in anger. It must be pointed out that Allied soldiers were usually discouraged from using captured weapons on the battlefield due to their distinctive sound compared to Allied weapons, which could result in friendly fire incidents. Soldiers were taught to recognize the types of weapons being fired by their sound.

>> The German 9-mm machine pistol, called the Schmeisser, against our Thompson caliber .45. Their rate of fire is practically the same, but our weapon is more accurate. And our new submachine pistol caliber .45 M3. >> Ready, man? Firing. >> What we are looking at here is the organized use of Axis weapons by Allied troops, which though rare did occur

occasionally from small arms all the way up to tanks and even planes. The British did actually use captured German MP 40s in a more organized fashion, arming certain special forces units during World War II that were dropped behind enemy lines. The SAS used them, for example. Having a folding stock and being lighter than the Thompson submachine gun made them ideal for parachute operations.

forces soldiers could use captured German ammunition, for example through the resistance network. Both Special Operations Executive SOE and its American equivalent OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, used German Walther PP and particularly PPK pistols, issuing them to agents going undercover in occupied Europe.

These weapons’ compact profiles were perfect for concealment and of course once again ammunition could be easily sourced from resistance groups. The Luger also saw adaptation as a silent killing weapon. This is one of two modified Luger pistols from a Luger batch prepared by SOE armorers that in this case were to be used in a planned assassination attempt on Hitler and probably also for other such wet work inside Germany.

I examined this one at the Combined Military Services Museum at Maldon in Essex, which has a huge collection of covert use weapons. Check out the link to their website in the description box. Also, the famous Welrod assassination pistol was later deliberately chambered in 9 by 19 mm Parabellum, so that SOE agents could execute targets using captured German ammunition behind the lines.

Not much Japanese equipment was used by the Allies. And apart from battlefield souvenirs, some US scouts and snipers were equipped with Japanese Type 97 or Type 99 sniper rifles, which were noted for being a very decent sniper rifle with an incredibly low muzzle flash and smokeless propellant, making a sniper harder to spot.

Quite a number of these rifles were used officially by US snipers in the Pacific War. I guess occupying a bit of a gray zone between battlefield pickup souvenir weapons and weapons that they were using officially. Quite a number of Japanese machine guns were used against their former owners by US troops, but they were basically battlefield pickups and would be discarded once the ammunition ran out.

Japanese weapons were seen as greatly inferior compared to US and British ones, except their sniper rifles, and no widespread issuance of captured Japanese weapons or kit occurred. One of the problems faced by the US 82nd Airborne Division during Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands in September 1944 was a shortage of heavy anti-tank weapons.

The US bazooka was not plentiful enough during this parachute operation and its rocket was not fully effective against heavier German tanks and assault guns that were deployed against the paratroopers. The problem for the Americans was the ammunition. Not much came in initially with the first drop, and subsequent supply drops were often widely scattered, and a priority was given to small arms ammunition, food, and medical supplies.

Gliders also were likewise loaded with priority items such as ammunition or vehicles. The reason for the lack of anti-tank weapons was perhaps because the planners had not believed that the British, American, and Polish paratroopers and glider troops landing to seize a series of bridges in the Netherlands would actually have to face much German armor, a serious miscalculation.

Also, the ground element of Market Garden, the British 30 Corps and its armored units, were expected to rapidly relieve the surrounded paratroopers, and the British tanks and anti-tank guns could then deal with any German armored vehicles. In the event, the paratroopers faced seasoned German troops and some armor. Fortunately, the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment overran and captured a German supply depot near Nijmegen that was stacked full of panzerfausts, the handy single-shot German shape-charge weapon that packed a much bigger punch

than a US bazooka. Crates of panzerfausts were distributed to the 82nd Airborne’s units, with many men already familiar with this weapon from service in Sicily and Normandy. These panzerfausts were used to great effect by US paratroops who found them exceptionally effective. Major General James Gavin, the commander of the 82nd Airborne, would write that the panzerfaust was, {quote} “the best anti-tank weapon we had for the remainder of the war.

” {end quote} And crates of these weapons would be in divisional stores for issue during further combat operations during World War II. During late 1944 and into early 1945, the advancing Allied armies in Western Europe outran their own supply lines. With most of the Allied supplies still coming over the Normandy beaches and being trucked forward using the complicated Red Ball Express, ports that had been captured had mostly been badly damaged by the Germans to prevent their use by the Allies.

In the case of Antwerp in Belgium, captured intact, but the area of the Scheldt estuary was still in German hands and required costly British and Canadian operations to clear before supply ships could actually use the port. Shortages of fuel and ammunition soon appeared, and the Allied armies were forced to stop and dig in on the German frontier until the crisis could be relieved, giving the Germans a valuable breathing space to reorganize themselves and to launch a counteroffensive in the Ardennes in mid-December 1944.

The Allies had overrun and captured many German artillery batteries and also supply depots, with many of the weapons being in perfect working order. Due to a shortage of artillery shells for British and US guns, a decision was taken to re-equip some artillery units with captured German weapons, which had plentiful ammunition.

The US Army re-equipped two field artillery battalions with German 10.5 cm leFH 18 field guns, having captured large stocks of German ammunition as well. The 244th Field Artillery Battalion was re-equipped with the feared German 88-mm anti-tank gun and was used in an indirect fire role. The 733rd Field Artillery Battalion also used some captured 88s.

>> And of course, the British got in on the act as well. >> The Germans own guns captured were now turned against them. >> One of the most extensive examples of the Allies reusing captured German vehicles was that of the US 83rd Infantry Division, whose nicknames included the Ragtag Circus and the 83rd Panzer Division, the latter due to its use of captured German armored vehicles.

Many Allied units used the odd German tank or vehicle here and there. For example, the Fourth Coldstream Guards that captured and used a German Panther tank in the fighting in the Netherlands in late 1944, naming the vehicle Cuckoo. It was later abandoned due to lack of spares. The 83rd Infantry Division decided to use German vehicles en masse, also building up a large supply of spare parts to keep these vehicles moving.

The number and type of vehicles utilized was very impressive. A number of Stug III assault guns were resprayed olive drab and received the Allied white star along with a number of German SDKFZ 251 armored half-tracks. As well as various German soft-skin trucks. The headquarters was equipped with not only US Jeeps and trucks, but also German Kubelwagen field cars and some BMW and Zundapp motorcycles.

They even commandeered civilian buses and repainted them. Even more incredible was the addition of an air unit, a captured German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, repainted olive drab, given Allied stars, and on the underside of the wings was painted 83rd Infantry Division. In the campaign in North Africa, both sides pressed captured armor into service due to its value in the desert and difficulties with resupply.

The initial British campaign against the Italians who had invaded Egypt resulted in the numerically inferior British inflicting a series of telling defeats on the Italians, during which they captured an astounding 365 Italian tanks. 16% of them, or 60 vehicles, were medium types. And these were used to equip the 6th Royal Tank Regiment as it waited for the arrival of more modern British tanks.

The Italian tanks were overhauled and fitted with British radios. They were very unpopular due to their poor mechanical reliability and their thin armor. Three squadrons of the 6th Royal Tank Regiment were equipped with the 60 Italian M13/40 medium tanks. The cavalry unit of the 6th Australian Infantry Division captured and pressed into service more Italian tanks.

The Aussie tankers painted white kangaroos on the hulls and turrets to aid identification in battle. Two types of Italian tank were used, the M11/39 medium, armed with a 37-mm gun, and the slightly heavier M13/40 with a 47-mm main gun. 11 Italian tanks were used effectively by the Australian cavalry for reconnaissance and direct fire missions in support of their infantry until replaced by Allied types when they became available.

The British and US equipped free French Army that fought across France and into Germany in 1944 to 45 was well supplied with armor but occasionally used captured German vehicles as well to supplement its tanks. One French unit was fully equipped with abandoned German tanks and used to support the siege of the German occupied port of Saint-Nazaire which was well behind the Allied front line.

This important U-boat base held out until the end of the war. The French unit had a Tiger 1, a Panther, 11 Panzer 4s and two StuG III assault guns. Post war, the French Army used 49 Panther tanks until a new French design entered service in the 1950s. Here again, a distinction needs to be made between aircraft captured by the Allies and reused for some practical purpose and aircraft that were captured and taken back to their home countries for scientific examination and extensive testing. We are in this case talking

about the former. During the desert campaign in North Africa, the Royal Australian Air Force captured an intact Junkers Ju 52 3M transport aircraft at El Gazala in Libya. It was adopted by number 450 Squadron as a runabout and repainted in Allied colors and given the name Libyan Clipper.

Every week, the Ju 52 would make two to three round trips between Cairo in Egypt and the front line in Libya moving various types of supplies for the troops ferrying pilots going on leave and carrying food supplies as well. And being Australians, one of its most important jobs was to bring up beer. There was nothing better than a nice cold one when you’re stuck in a trench in the desert.

The aircraft was a tremendous morale booster to the Australians. Another extremely popular German plane that was pressed into Allied service in huge numbers was the short takeoff and landing communication aircraft, the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch or Stork. Figures vary, but the British, for example, captured up to 145 of these excellent planes.

64 of them were handed to the French as war reparations, but the remainder in RAF service became the personal planes of Allied leaders. Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, for example, had a personal Storch in North Africa and then into Northwest Europe, as did Air Vice-Marshal Sir Harry Broadhurst, who had Rommel’s personal Storch, which had been captured in North Africa.

He used it to take Prime Minister Winston Churchill for a flight over Allied lines in Normandy in 1944. See my video all about these captured Storchs, link in the end screen. The South African Air Force also operated a number of captured Junkers 52s from the desert campaign. Several SAAF fighter squadrons, including numbers 1, 4, and 5, even adopted captured Messerschmitt Bf 109 F fighters as squadron hacks, that is, for use as utility and liaison planes, flying, of course, in South African Air Force colors.

These, then, are just a few examples of the reuse of captured Axis equipment by Allied forces. For more information on the Soviet use of German equipment, check out my video, link in the end screen. Thanks for watching. Please subscribe and share. Also, visit my audiobook channel, War Stories with Mark Felton.

You can also help to support both of my channels at PayPal and Patreon. Details in the description  box below.