Captured Armour

Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to make excuses for those who served the fascist cause in WW2. The anti-communist factor has much merit (particularly at that time in Europe's political history) but whatever their individual motivation the bottom line is they fought for Hitler. It may be true that most fought on the Russian front and may have justified it as a war against Stalin's Russia but that is a convenient piece of blinkered logic as in fighting the Russians they also strived against the ultimate aim of all the Allies - ie. the defeat of Nazi Germany.

 

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Yes , also understanding someone position doesn't preclude having a great satisfaction in fighting them,
the waffen SS are worthy of a lot of respect , still I would have no problem with having them all shot
people are usually the toys of circunstances
today , it's anzac day and we celebrate good young men who died for no particular reasons on an unlikely place for rather dim politicians and dumb generals,
" the good guys " probably were the turks, at least they were fighting home
irony of the times there will be a morning remembrance service in irak



... that's life !

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The famous Cuckoo, more infos here:
http://www.twenot.nl/cuckoo.htm

 

Haha, Tomgrey, check the opening post of this thread

 

Those guys look like Brits to me.Is that just a general recognition star?

 

Yes - all Western Allied armour officially had the white star for recognition purposes.

 

I wonder, what if the Italians shipped these tanks over and gave to the Ariete Division? :-?

 

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interesting idea , probably a lot of grief in the desert , the maintenance would have been a bich though
also it is customary , when fighting of not giving too much credit to the superiority of your opponent weapons ,

bad for the moral

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Yeahh, i missed it...sry

 

Once more...

 

WOW!!!
neat pic of the kt,
do you have more info on this tank or more pics?

 

4th page in this forum...

 

Foreign equipment was usually kept in the general region where spare parts and replacements could be obtained from the vehicle's supplier (the enemy). In other words, it would be highly unusual to see a T34 shipped off the Eastern Front.

 

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There is an old legend that the germans tankists in 41 were asking for a copy of the T-34 to be produced ,
hitler, rightly , is supposed to have nixed the idea .
Was there any thought of using the T-34 design in other allied tanks ,
they could hardly fault it ,
it was eminently suitable for mass production and some western basic improvements , like a radio , would have made it even better

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Similar discussion I found...

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 29bd361711

Apparrently the Germans used a grand total of ~300 captured T-34's during the war... So I imagine they didn't find it all that bad, with a few modificaitons to the optics and turret the German T-34's were often better than their Russian originals, assuming enough ammunition, spare parts and fuel could be found to run them...

Anyone have any idea as to how most captured tanks were 'converted' so to speak? I.e. Were they converted, crewed and re-painted in the field? Or were they sent back behind the lines for testing and all that, then returned to the front... Also would be interesting to know exactly what percentage of enemy tanks lost/destroyed were fit to be captured converted

P.S. Looks like our good friend and benevolent overlord, Christian Ankerstjerne is a moderator in Axisforums too
Soon he'll have a monopoly on all tank forums I tell you!
It looks interesting perhaps I will join there too

 

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I know of one "Standard " modification of the chassis as antiaircraft carrier

there is also the homemade modification by "das reich" of captured T34
in1943, the mods were made by the divisions workshops and included
commander cupola , radio and extra armor cannibalised from broken german tanks
the soviets would have been well advised to implement those for themselves

a battalion of them is supposed to have been fighting at kursk in SS Panzer Division "Das Reich".
since the SS in general and das reich in particular were a pretty independant minded bunch ,
it is not certain that official approval was obtained or even sought


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He was a moderator there before he even joined this forum. I think maybe the interference of Skua ("Skufr" at the AHF) and myself ("Dessek Warrior" at the AHF) may have had something to do with him coming over.

 

Well, that is a big question, and depends enormously on the theatre and the situation.

For example, I have seen it said that the vast majority of Soviet armour lost during 1941 was suitable for re-use by the Germans, and they did employ quite a lot. However, the sheer amount available completely swamped their workshops, who had enought on their plate keeping the German tanks running.


A rough rule of thumb, based on logic, is that if a retreat is quite rapid, it is more likely that only slightly broken vehicles will be abandoned. Therefore, for example, The early 'Blitzkrieg' campaigns would logically yield a high proportion of re-usable armour, while a more protracted retreat, like the Allied advance in Italy, would yield relatively little non-destroyed armour.

 

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seems right ,a good part of the russian losses in 1941 probably were vehicle running out of fuel , a disaster if retreating , an inconvenience if progressing

in the winter 43/44 on the southern front the germans had massive problems with moving around , panzers being send in counterattacks would pilfer fuel dump from infantry units on the way , the muddy condition was increasing consumtion maddly and slowing down supplies from the rail heads to a trickle
it took more fuel and more truck time to bring less
result , a large numbers of tanks left behind who could not be moved

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Not captured - but some GREAT shots of Matilda 2s in Soviet hands -

Here's a taster from the site at the end of the link - follow it for more >>>

http://rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/galleries/Lendlease/Matilda.htm

PS. Can anyone tell if some of the tanks on the link page have been upgunned ? Some of the guns look slightly big to me.