I often see images of German troops using captured allied equipment. Tanks, artillery, small arms, etc. What was the real extent of their use? Was it doctrine/policy to capture equipment? Was it effective? What about Italian and Japanese use of such captured equipment? Thanks!
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Short answer is all militaries to some degree used an enemy countries equipment, vehicles and aircraft.
The longer answer is using another countries military weapons and vehicles was a massive pain in the neck. First off you HAD to know how to use anything before actually using it as it just wasn’t as simple just grabbing it and using whatever equipment you grabbed. Add to that was logistical issues as you needed the right ammunition, shells and parts to keep the stuff working and that often wasn’t possible in the battlefield.
Many weapons you had to have training on the proper use of it as improper use could cause the weapon to jam, misfire or even blow up. Vehicles all operated differently so knowing how to start up a tank, Jeep, half track all required knowledge and training on how to start them. Then there was making the vehicles move and they almost always were stick shift so you had to know which RPM and order into which to shift the gears to make it move or stop.
Then the most important one was understanding the language written on the equipment, vehicles and aircraft as I guarantee you the average soldier could not read or speak the enemies language so jumping into a Russian tank as a German you had to know what you were touching and the same goes for a Canadian soldier jumping into a German vehicle you had to know what was what.
It’s not as simple as the movies make it seem and it sure is not easy in real life either.
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