Stolen German stuff used by Soviets

What happened to stuff like vehicles, small arms, and other stuff like communications that the Soviets capture from the Germans? How exactly would they be able to use captured tanks? I also see lots of pictures with Red Army troops with MP40s.

They didnt use them in battle as much like the Germans ( who were pros in that category!) . Many times they captured the tanks to let the science guys take a look at them to develop own better tanks or weapon against them ^^ The red army guys with mp40s are probaly men who wanted a smg for close combat but didn´t get their hands on russian smgs or maybe prefered german ones like slower fire rate, better cartridges etc .

Many of the smallarms they captured they later during the cold war sent to communist friendly nations to aid them. The North Vietnamese used tons of German ww2 weapons for example.
Even german helmets ( not absolutely sure about that one. But Iam pretty sure of have seen pics of it!)

Just that part we discussed in my old Vietnam thread ^^

http://easternfront.org/forums/index.php?topic=6279.0

i think somm's about summed it up. but i do think that the soviets used captured weapons and tanks when they were avaliable.

Your are so right Stealthy. Its not like they didnt use them at all! I think they used them. Just not in the same scale as the germans ;)
I know that the russians used panzerfausts as ¨dooropeners¨ in the battle of Berlin ^^

Actually the Russians used Panzerfausts whenever they could , they even had an official designation of RPG-1, iirc. Don't forget that they had few usable AT weapons other than American Lend-Lease bazookas which mainly went to Guard units if they ever went out anywhere, AT grenades which are quite useless in long range engagements,  and PTRD and PTRS AT rifles which were quite useless against anything with more armor than a Panzer 2.

Also many captured Panther were used, as a matter of fact I recall that they were often used as combat trophies, with high ranking Soviet Tank COs getting them for their crews and often using them until they ran out of spare parts or rounds. Again this occurred rarely in Guard Tank units, I doubt anywhere else however (maybe in Heavy Tank battalions, there was a rumor in my great-grandpa's staff office (he was the Chief Medical Officer of the entire Belorussian Front) that somebody from a Heavy Tank unit stole a Tiger II and rode around on it into Czechoslovakia, no photos of it though :( )

Soviets had quite a lot of SU-76i's built on Panzer III chassis, captured mostly at Stalingrad.



Also found these interesting images of Soviets with German tanks...

Last edited December 18, 2011 at 3:40 AM by BurroDiablo

You posted your pics twice burrodiablo :P

I like the StuG with the Red Star  ;D

Yeah, forum was being slow last night when I posted this ;D

Some pics:



Panzer 38t



Hummel



Marder



Thats a very interesting pic too: Shows a recaptured T70 and in the background german pows (near Kiev)

Last edited December 18, 2011 at 1:18 PM by Killar

Looks like that T-70 is missing a track-guard, Germans must have crashed it ;D

BurroDiablo wrote:
Looks like that T-70 is missing a track-guard, Germans must have crashed it ;D

Actually, the commander removed it to get a more authentic OffRoad-feeling  :P

the soviets captured many german tanks and used them for various purposes. a bunch of stug III and panzer III/IV were captured with a few SG122 assault guns armed with a 122mm howitzer, and the the rest into SU76i, which mounted a F34 76mm gun

SG122


su76i


Panthers which were captured were only given to guards units depending on how well they performed, pretty much giving the best to the best

Last edited December 18, 2011 at 8:03 PM by robotnik

I guess the conscripts or ordinary soldiers didnt get any German tanks did they?

I like these pictures! Where are you getting them? it's like porn  :) lol.

Most pics don't work for me  :'(

irik wrote:
I like these pictures! Where are you getting them? it's like porn  :) lol.

If that what makes you.............happy and............excited :P. w/e floats ur boat

hahahahaha. i was just joking around. but the pictures are somewhat good.

irik wrote:
hahahahaha. i was just joking around

Dont worry I realized that  ;)

Same problem like Tankbuster

oh that must really suck. But with any world war 2 picture, don't you always wonder what happened to them after the picture was shot? I always wonder that.

seriously! if you wonder that you should see flags of our fathers.

I love that movie! it's so good.

Whats flags of our fathers about? Was it good? I could look it up but I'd rather hear an unbiased review :P

Its about Iwo Jima. There is also the letters from Iwo Jima who is the same movie but from a japanese perspectiv!

i didnt like flags of our fathers, it was too boring for me but i like the letters from Iwo Jima better.

The Soviets seemed to use German tanks out of curiousity and novelty, whereas the German used captured equipment out of necessity. Panthers and Tigers would be given to many veteran units as a "reward" and they were used until they broke down or ran out of ammunition(usually they broke down first and very fast).

I didin't want to start a new topic but I found this interesting; here in this video you'll see how they found a Stug 40 which was lying under the soil since WW2. This happened in 2002- Russia. Lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0gopUsvzDc&feature=player_embedded

Last edited November 1, 2012 at 1:37 PM by Riggsman

The condition if this vehicle was astonishing. The mud conservated it very good. However after recovering this stug rusted in a russian military camp for some years and parts were stolen. Now its repainted.

Photos of recovery:
http://www.detektorweb.cz/index.4me?s=show&i=2988&mm=1&vd=1

How it looks today:

German steeeeel !:) Fuckin sexy ain't it?

You notice the "Ostketten" ? Thats what i makes look badass

You mean the tracks right? Yeah it gives that "Monster Truck" feeling.

I think its rather unneccesary to make a entire new thread about it. So I change the subject a bit, instead of German stuff used by the soviets I would like to ask about the Finnish
Soumi M31 smgs that were in use of the germans. Did any of these end up on the western front or were they eastern front entirely?

THANKS <3

Fairly sure that the Germans never got their hands on a large enough number of Suomi M31s to standardize them in any way. They never fought each other on the Eastern Front and any hostile action they had was too late in the war to allow any (if any were captured) weapons to be moved to the Western Front. The few weapons they got due to finds on mutual battlefields were probably kept exclusively on the Eastern Front.

According to wiki over 3000 were bought.

3,042 were ordered by Germany from Finland during The Second World War and likely issued to the Wehrmacht and SS. Also 120 Suomi KP's were presented to the German troops of AOK Norwegen in 1942 for use on the Finnish Front. Most of these weapons left Finland with German troops in 1944 and were subsequently used in other theaters of the war.

Iam mostly woundering if it would be completely crazy to like.. encounter a german soldier with a M31 during the battle of the bulge for example?

Interesting.... Wasn't aware of this purchase :o. Well in this case its quite possible that they did use them all over. I'd like to get my hands on a German Purchase KP-31 now

Myes. Its a nice piece of weaponry. Thanks for your help! :D

Ah Sommarkatze you are an mg nut and always come up with interesting questions. The little info I have gleaned indicates use of Finnish equipment by Waffen SS troops so the Battle of the Bulge is a possibilty. I suspect that much of the "imported equipment was issued to "foreign" troops in the Heer or SS. A starting place to look would then be the Coastal defence Division pictures in Normandy and Pictures of the 6 SS division. Good luck.

Thanks Otto! :D
Yes. Many of the captured smallarms if I understood it right however did end up with like support units or units that didnt see quite much of smallarms combat compared to front units like you you said, coast defenses, luftwaffe, guard units, navy and training programs ( see picture below!)

However towards the end of the war many of these support units went to the front because in lack of units ;>
Iam pretty sure front unit got a great quantity of captured smallarms as well and as we all know these are the guys who captured them in the first place so they sure had their share ;)

Here is a great picture of a Navy man with a thompson m1a1 smg that I got from axishistory forum!

try looking for the pictures available for the Normandy Invasion. Many of the troops faced were foreigners and there is a large number of pictures available for these troops. Sorry I'd suggest the divisional numbers but my head is ferhuddled for numbers right now. The Tommy gun picture has an interesting tie-in to the Sk31. Both weapons had the same high manufacturing costs associated with their production that was the cause of their removal from service, not obsolesence.

Hehe yes. That new movie my way shows it if I remember correctly. Speaking of which, I read about small italian units that happend to be in Normandy during the landing and fight along the german ones.
Where there any other ones from germanys allies/ former allies? Not volunteers or forcibly recruited men from other countries but offical army troops. Italy I know of but that makes sense if you think about that little part of French that Italy occupied. But the others? Not Normandy in particulary but the whole western front.

I read some guy comments on a site that nobody ansvered on , but it seemed to him that there were romanians fighting on the western front? :S

Pretty OT.

IIRC there were a good number of Balkan States nationals, "Free Ukranians" and Russian Ex-POWs in the Heer Divisions in Normandy. I do not believe they were non-Heer units involved though. None I've ever heard about at least.