Captured firearms in Nazi-Germany

Hey guys,

I´m writing an article about captured weapons in WW2 and would need much more information about French, Polish, Russian, Czech and British weapons that Germans captured and pressed to their own use.

Any information or hints are appreciated. Especially I would need any information about quantities. There must be specific records about how many guns they captured and where from.

Also, if you have any information about certain troops which were armed with any of these guns, let me know. I have heard that Prinz Eugen was one of the largest groups that was totally armed with captured weapons (like tanks, etc.) - but did it include small arms as well? Any reliable information about this?

 

I know Vlassov's troops in Britanny , France, had their Nosin Nagants. Many were found there in 1944.
Some Germans in France had the old Lebel rifle . I have seen pictures of those in the Bordeaux area .
Vichy Milice used confiscated Stenguns. I have pics of those too .





about numbers : they were huge (check out beute gewehre on google). One instance:

Dans l'inventaire des armes de la 266 ID , à la date du 22 janvier 1944 , on trouve 52 fusils convenables pour les munitions allemandes "Gewehre für dtsch.Mun. geeignet" et 1.065 fusils de prise "Beute Gewehre" .

in other words 52 german guns vs. 1065 confiscated guns for the 266 Infantry division in 1944 Carabines et fusils

 

I'm sure you'll find this helpful.. Axis History Forum • View topic - Photos - Germans with captured firearms

 

Dietl's force at Narvik (especially the 'mountain marines' force) was equipped with 8000 rifles and 325 machine guns found/captured in Narvik and Elmegardsmoen. Almost certainly these were mostly Krag Jorgensen rifles and either madsen or hotchkiss MGs.

Source; the history of WW2, Eddy Bauer/Orbis

 

There is a lot of information about captured smallarms in George Markham's book 'Guns Of The Reich' ( A&AP, 1989 ).

 

"Captured Weapons And Equipment Of The German Wehrmacht 1938-1945" by Wolfgang Fleischer will be also a good read for you.

For the tanks : "Schiffer - Captured Tanks under the German Flag" talks mostly about Russian tanks used by the germans

 

Good info guys. If you have any specific numbers from any captured weapon quantities etc. I definately would be in need for that. I´ve been going through a lot of books about the subject, but none have any exact figures how many rifles were obtained from the enemy and how they were divided.

Obviously, in eastern front the use of captured weapons was so widely accepted that you cannot really make difference between first line troops that just used the guns that they just captured - or third grade units that were equipped with surplus weapons.

Also, has anyone ever heard about the case where first-line unit would have been equipped with "beutewaffen" which origins from the other side of the Third Reich - for example unit which would´ve been fighting in easter front would have been equipped with french weapons?

Anyone have any exact figures about Prinz Eugen equipment? Did they have only one rifle model in use or did they use whatever was given.

 

A lot of French equipment especially was used by First line Romanian units on the Eastern Front, are you interested in that aspect, or just German usage?

here's a good link with a lot of Prinz Eugen captured vehicle usage;
http://www.deutsches-afrika-korps.de/viewtopic.php?f=130&t=1613&start=15

and From;
http://www.dws.org.pl/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=15560

"6 Gebirgs SS Division "Nord"

In the summer 1941 in 1940 to 95% of the infantry weapons used by different units of the SS-"Nord" were of Czech origin. For example lots of light 7.92 mm MG 26 (t), MG 30 (t) *, Polish lMG 28 (p) and heavy MG 37 (t) ** MGS were used. The portion of Czech light MGS was 75% and 85% medium MGS! Also the percentage of Czech-made G 24 (t) rifles was about 40 to 50% and about 70% of pistols were ones Czech Republic (Cz).
It's interesting to note Also That SS-"Nord" had initially only a few MP 38/40 SMGS but lots of more typical SS-like 9.00 mm weapons Erma EMP and Bergman MP 35 SMGS instead. Germans' basic AT rifle was obsolescent and quite ineffective 7.92 mm Panzerbüchse 39 (Pz.B 39).
New weapon models arrived in Finland later but still Elsewhere Than the Amount of German-made weapons (Deutsche Waffen) rose Gradually So that in the autumn of 1944 division had about:
* 13,750 rifles (Kar 98k and G 33/40)
* 960 sniping rifles (Kar 98k with ZF 41 scope sight)
* 300 semi-automatic rifles (G 41 (W))
* SMGS 940 (MP 40)
* 4400 pistols (9 mm Walther P 38 and P 08 Parabellum, 7.65 mm Walther, Sauer and Mauser)
The exact Amount of MGS is unknown but it has been over 1000 pcs. MG 42 Appeared in Finland as late as at the beginning of 1944 and MG 34 was the main German consultants therefore LMG model used in 1944.
To the group of foreign weapons (Beutewaffen) belonged Among others:
* 350 Soviet SMGS (PPSh-41)
* 635 Norwegian Colt-Browning m/14 pistols
* Numerous Soviet Pz.B 783 (r) (PTRD-40) anti-tank rifles"

There is also more discussion and links on that page which might be useful.

 

Well, that interests me too. At least they were one of the axis countries and shared the same pool of captured equipment.

 

This has some info on the Romanian aspect;

WorldWar2.ro Forum -> Light Weapons in Romanian Service

 

you can also download this book from this link, although it takes hours;

Hotfile.com: One click file hosting: wa158.rar

 

I have two French MAS 36 rifles with small LK5 stamped on the butts. Various other counties rifles that the Germans fought against and/or were under German occupation have been observed also with either a LK5, LK7, or LK9 stamps
So far there is no information found what the stamp means only that it's pretty sure it was German applied. Some opinions are it was a Luft area designation and/or a rifle approved for rear troops. Even a British Enfield was found with that stamp. Hopefully info regarding this stamp will surface some day, Ray

 

The Germans standardized on certain weapons for front line use, as follows: kar 98 rifle, mp40 submachine gun, and later in the war (1944) the mp 44, although the kar98 remained standard til the end of the war, as the Germans never had enough mp44 (only about 500,000 were made). For pistols either the p38 or for officers, often a luger. The MG42 and MG34 were the standard machine guns of course (with the MG42 being the preferred of the two, since it was simpler and more reliable in battlefield conditions.)

According to Small Arms of the World by Smith, Germany manufactured "over 10 million small arms" during WW2. Apparently even these were not enough for wartime armament needs since German units operating in the rear often used whatever weapons were available, including captured rifles from all the countries under their control.

I have seen photographs of German guards in the watchtowers of POW camps equipped with French or Czech machine guns. Captured Russian PPsh submachine guns and even the American M1 carbine were favorites of German troops even when their own weapons were available (there are many photographs of German troops in the Ardennes Offensive in 1944, armed with the M1 carbine), and oddly enough, the FN Browning high power pistol was used by both sides during WW2 (the High power was a standard british pistol of the war, along with the webley revolver. Also the Germans had captured a factory producing these pistols in Belgium and simply continued to manufacture them for their own use.)

 

That's an understatement-- K98 production alone totaled ~ 14,000,000! While we love to fantasize every German tank battalion had Tigers & Panthers and every PG unit had 250s & 251s, it just isn't so. Same goes for homogeneous arming of infantry. Many HEER units started the war with Czech MG26 due to a shortage of MG34s. Losses (weapons do get damaged/destroyed/lost in combat) and rapid creation of new units were too much for domestic arms production to keep pace.

 

Hey - if anyone has photos ready for publishing (on a magazine) - let me know. Most welcomed are the ones that have beutewaffen-weapons from other countries than Russia or France.