Tango01 | 24 Aug 2021 4:39 p.m. PST |
…Weapons Go? "World War II ended over 70 years ago – so what happened to the hundreds of millions of weapons that were made for it? World War II was like no other war: it was warfare on an epic and global scale…" Main page link
Armand
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ColCampbell | 24 Aug 2021 5:07 p.m. PST |
Hundreds of surplus aircraft and vehicles were dumped in the Pacific Ocean, it being too expensive to ship them back to the US. Jim |
Wackmole9 | 24 Aug 2021 5:24 p.m. PST |
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Murphy | 24 Aug 2021 5:34 p.m. PST |
I know of hundreds of M1 Garands and Springfields being dumped by the UK Government into the English Channel. Warships were either sold, sunk in testings, or scrapped. |
Inch High Guy | 24 Aug 2021 6:25 p.m. PST |
That's a King Tiger with a Porsche turret, not a Panther as the caption states. If you want to go deep down the rabbit hole of WWII weapons in use after WWII, I would recommend this blog highly: wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com |
chironex | 25 Aug 2021 6:38 a.m. PST |
Many went into civilian service. Fighters ended up as sport aircraft; one model manufacturer or another offered several fighter kits with Reno racing markings. Bombers ended up on airfield firelines, or as research and oceanographic platforms. Transports kept working for decades; airlines and air charter services would use a C-47 as readily as a DC-3, and flying boats served as both airliners and firefighting platforms. Tanks often ended up converted into agricultural or mining equipment.
Jeeps and trucks continued to be used, as they were simply vehicles. Amphibious vehicles could become tour vehicles, and transport ships could simply be used as a cargo ship. Many vessels ended up dumped in random locations. Some amphibious aircraft ended up as a "land-sea-air" yacht, which offers luxurious accommodation and conveniences in a private yacht/aircraft that must have smelled of guzzoline… link |
Barin1 | 25 Aug 2021 7:10 a.m. PST |
When I was a kid in 1970s, you could still see occasional Willis here and there, so not all of them were destroyed and returned. However there's one sweet memory I have in my heart… I think I was 7 or 8, and my father has taken me to Azov sea, to a small town of Eysk. We've learned there, that the town had the only plant in the Soviet Union, making attractions for kids entertaiment parks – so each time we were returning from the sea, I'was hearing low humming of engines and there were 3 Studebaker lorries transporting these attrations to the railroad station.
We've later met an old guy on the beach who told us a story how these cars were hidden when lend-lease teams were taking all these equipment somewhere to destroy or return and how their mechanics were keeping them running. I guess these old lorries were happy doing such a job in their retirement times ;) |
williamb | 25 Aug 2021 8:25 a.m. PST |
The Russian government has at least one warehouse full of WW2 weapons. link link |
Bill N | 25 Aug 2021 10:28 a.m. PST |
In a town near where I grew up there was a company set up in the early 1950s that was in the business of buying up and selling WW2 weapons. |
Murvihill | 25 Aug 2021 10:49 a.m. PST |
Many of the small arms are in basements across the USA. |
Mserafin | 25 Aug 2021 1:44 p.m. PST |
WilliamB - That first link will chill the blood of firearm collectors, what with all that talk of melting down all those German weapons and turning them into walkways, etc. On the other hand, gradually selling them off to collectors could fund the Russian Army for years. Also, I believe MosFilm has an impressive array of hardware: en.mosfilm.ru/dept/weapon |
Blutarski | 25 Aug 2021 2:02 p.m. PST |
A great deal of it was simply dumped into the sea (including live munitions). My friend served in the US Coast Guard during the early 60s and was stationed in the Aleutian Islands. He told me that, after the war, all the remaining war materiel on the island of Kiska (both US and Japanese) had been collected and unceremoniously bull-dozed off the cliffs into the sea. Some of HIS buddies would occasionally go souvenir (or spare parts) hunting among the stuff laying on the beaches. - – - Talking about WW2 "souvenirs", a friend of my father's managed to bring home an operational German StG44 from Europe. I saw it and ws permitted to handle it as a young kid. - – - A lot of Allied WW2-issue weapons were sold off or given to smaller nations after the end of the war. Right now, there is a large supply of US WW2 M1 carbines that have been repatriated to the USA from Ethiopia. These still have the original flip-up rear peep-sights (which means they never went through the US post-war arsenal refresh program which substituted windage-adjustable rear sights in their place. Worth some money, if you can get a good one, or a rare one (like a "Rockola" manufactured model). - – - And, to make things even stranger, a LOT of captured German WW2 gear, small arms, Mp38s and 40s, MG34s, MG42s, up to and including Pak40s and Flak guns were supplied to North Vietnam by the USSR in the early years of the Vietnam War. B
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Tango01 | 25 Aug 2021 3:42 p.m. PST |
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Marc33594 | 26 Aug 2021 8:16 a.m. PST |
Surplus M1 Garands and 1911 .45 pistols are available through the Civilian Marksmanship Program: link link link |
doc mcb | 27 Aug 2021 5:07 p.m. PST |
Every town had an army surplus store, really cheap good stuff. The steel mill where I worked had at least a dozen Sherman's cut down to use as mag cranes and bulldozers etc. I drove a Sherman bull dozer for a while. Hull was just a big bathrub between the treads. No steering wheel but levers to control each tread. Hard work to drive and very dusty. |
ROUWetPatchBehindTheSofa | 28 Aug 2021 8:23 a.m. PST |
Sure I've said this before. Documentary on UK TV late 80's early 90's about the arms trade visited a dealers warehouse, IIRC it was in Birmingham, pallets of WWII small arms, and may be some CW Sterlings. I'd have thought most it would have been written off or sold to prop companies. Can't see many people being interested in bolt-action rifles when AKs and there various derivatives and copies are so ubiquitous. Though some of the India state border forces involved in that incident a couple of months ago did have bolt action rifles. I picked up some 1:300 stuff awhile back, which included a list for a post-WWII South African force chock full of WWII kit. No idea accurate it is, it was literally written on the back of an envelope! |
donlowry | 28 Aug 2021 9:55 a.m. PST |
Our local airport has a B-25 or two that belong to the California Department of Forestry, used for dropping water on fires. |
Tango01 | 28 Aug 2021 9:15 p.m. PST |
This tank was displayed at a museum in Holland… It really makes you start thinking link
Armand |