"German tank ace on the T-34" Topic

Somehow I have never come across such an interesting fact before:

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Did I read a while ago that the German army had a whole department dedicated to supporting captured equipment?

Very pragmatic but it must have been a logistics nightmare to keep this stuff running & supplied. Personally, I'd also be nervous about blue-on-blue from gunners firing at the silhouette without seeing the markings.

Well, the Germans were well-known hoarders, who happily used a lot of captured equipment. In Riga, the Germans created a plant for repairing Soviet captured tanks in 1941, which operated until 1945. For some time, Soviet equipment was repaired in Kharkov. Since 1943, the Merzedes-Benz (plant in Mrienfelde) and Wumag (plant in Goerlitz) firms also repaired Soviet captured tanks. Repairs were carried out not only in the interests of the German army, but also of German allies. Special standards were developed for re-equipping tanks to meet German requirements.

I think there were no particular problems with replenishing ammunition and spare parts. A lot of Soviet equipment and military warehouses were captured in 1941.

Well, using trophies always carries certain risks. But there are also known advantages to such use. A captured tank is better than none at all.

great links, very interesting.

A bit of exotica. The Allies also had to meet with the German T-34-85 in France. The reconnaissance battalion of the German 21st Panzer Division was on a "business trip" on the Eastern Front, near Tarnopol, in April 1944, and grabbed the newest captured tank, returning to France.

Very interesting article. Also noticed the article about the bomber with 80+ sub machine guns installed!
Thank you for posting.

This is very interesting. Thanks, Caprum!

Interesting.

There are several photos of Soviet tanks in France in 1944. Captured equipment was meant to be handed in but most Units just kept quiet and hung on to it. Rewards (usually booze!) were offered for things like working sights from the T34 but it never really worked and most German Units had 'off-the-books' access to Soviet vehicles.
The German Invasion of The Soviet Union in 1941 would not have been possible without the captured Czech, French and British vehicles equipping the expanded German Army

I'm remembering Robert Crisp's comment that they'd left every (early Cruiser) tank of their regiment behind in Greece, but weren't worried. No sane nation would send men to war in them.

You find a few of everything used locally, or until they broke down, but for serious numbers, it's the Czech stuff (mostly built after the were annexed) Matildas in North Africa, T-34's mostly in Russia, SOMUAs also in the east, and Stuarts everywhere. Those show up by companies and battalions. The rest are just a joy for modellers.

Softskins are another matter.

For a different approach, I understand the Greeks did not paint their own insignia on captured Italian L3/35 tankettes. In many cases, they didn't even bother to paint over the Italian markings.
Captured L3 tanks formed two of the four companies in each of the three armored battalions of the Greek 19th Motorized Division. I suspect the 19th Division's tankettes were more likely to have the Italian markings painted over than individual L3 s used in the early phase of the war.

Grelber