i heard they would captured French tanks for rear guard and anti partisan roles
not sure how true
but that a cool pic
i heard they would captured French tanks for rear guard and anti partisan roles
not sure how true
but that a cool pic
russian volunteers also used the t34s and other vehicles. They just switched sides. I would also believe these troops were mainly used for anti-partisan service.
I have some volunteers tankers pics somewhere- i will edit and add if i find them
Many uses for captured vehicles-as I mentioned, use in 1st line combat was rare but internal security, training, gun tractors and ammo carriers and conversion to SP guns mounting German weapons were common jobs for these-test evaluation as well-the large number of French vehicles captured in 1940 were of limited use due to the French practice of using a one man turret on all their tanks, even the large multi crew Char 2B-this meant that the tank commander was also the loader and gunner as well which was too much work for one man to do effectively in battle-their basic designs soon became outmoded by better armed and armoured tanks as the war went on-the Germans were always short on vehicles so used whatever was available, though often altered for other tasks-the Soviets used German stuff on occasion but not anything like as much-Britain used captured Italian tanks early in the Desert war due to crippling shortages of their own armour but again they were taken out of use as soon as possible
A large number of captured French Tank turrets were used in fortifications in the Channel Islands and also in Normandy, Dieppe in particular I believe....
I think in 1941 , the German would be happy to capture a T-34 and use it in combat as it was surely the best tank in the the world at that time , and one of the best of the War .
Again, using a piece of 'enemy' equipment like that in the confusion of combat was going to be a problem with your side having a natural inclination to shoot at it-also it uses diesel fuel while the Germans used petrol, uses different ammo and spares etc-a particular problem the Germans had was having so many different vehicles in service all needing different parts etc-nothing ever left service with them, just more new stuff joined the line up and getting the right support to the right vehicles in the right place was a constant struggle.
PS-the Germans thought the Soviet tanks to be poorly equipped-no radios or fittings like command cupolas or night/blackout driving lights-some of these features were fitted to captured vehicles if they got the chance and the vehicle lasted long enough.
I've also seen photo of captured T-34's with extra storage bins welded to the turret , to change the outline of the tank .
Russian ammo and diesel would have been no problem as the Germans captured vast quantities of both, there was always a good chance of "friendly fire" incidents using captured vehicles, that's why the Germans used the over sized Balkenkreuz painted on most sides of the vehicle and smothered them with swastika flags!...
You wouldn't see propaganda footage , IE news reels . Showing the use of captured tanks because it would look bad to the home front . Similar to the order from the High Command not to wear Russian Fur Hats ( fish fur ) when on leave . How could those Russians have anything better than us !
POA/RONA tankers.I have a photo of RONA member with black panzer wrap somewhere. I would really really like to have these uniforms in my treasure pile.
These guys used their russian armor, they just switched side and started to fight the bolsjeviks instead. So sometimes the germans not only got the t34s etc, but sometimes the crew were also included.
If the germans had treated the people in the occupied territories better, then alot more people would have died on both sides.
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