Did Germany issue captured American weapons such as the M1 Garand and M1 carbine? Was there any effort to copy these weapons?
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The Germans certainly had a history of doing this with the weapons of conquered nations – especially AFVs, artillery and motor transport – usually using them to equip paramilitary and fortress troops to free up German gear for front-line service. I doubt they did this with American weapons to any great extent, as they’d be capturing them in the dribs and drabs with only limited ammunition during combat in Tunisia, Italy, and (later) France. They didn’t capture any major ammunition sources, and American ammunition (.30-06, .30 Carbine, and .45 ACP) weren’t produced anywhere in Europe at that time, so far as I know. Manufacturing ammunition is a capital-intensive industry and in wartime you want all of your plants producing the sizes of ammunition most of your forces already use, not proliferating the types you need to produce and distribute.
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