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Gallery.Captured Axis vehicle under allied ownership.


Rick W

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There are plenty of pics around showing beutewagens, captured allied forces vehicles, from WW2. But I have never seen any, apart from one, captured axis vehicle under allied forces. The pic Im thinking of is a Schwimmwagen being driven by GI's. Is there a reason for this? Was it not a done thing to drive around in captured vehicles? I know that the axis commissioned workshops to convert captured vehicles. Has anyone got any pics they care to post up?

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There are plenty of pics around showing beutewagens, captured allied forces vehicles, from WW2. But I have never seen any, apart from one, captured axis vehicle under allied forces. The pic Im thinking of is a Schwimmwagen being driven by GI's. Is there a reason for this? Was it not a done thing to drive around in captured vehicles? I know that the axis commissioned workshops to convert captured vehicles. Has anyone got any pics they care to post up?

 

I think the Germans used a lot of captured vehicles because they didn't have enough.

The Allies probably avoided them to reduce the risk of being shot by their own forces.

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I think the Germans used a lot of captured vehicles because they didn't have enough.

The Allies probably avoided them to reduce the risk of being shot by their own forces.

 

Thinking of how trigger-happy some of the Allied forces were, I can understand this.

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A lot of vehicles were left from the BEF intact, however once the allies advanced across Europe, I would expect most of the Axis vehicles would of been badly damaged during the ensuing battles. This would be due to the Air dominance the Allies had and were able to disable many of the vehicles before troops on the ground got close to them.

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Actually there are quite a few pics around of German light vehicles under `new ownership` - just need to know where to look !

 

The Americans clearly anticipated such a scenario and produced a manual for maintaining the VW82.

 

From my understanding, Kubels and schwimms tended to be used in secondary roles - chaplains, press, airfield run-arounds etc. Most of the pics seem to validate this (with a couple of exceptions)

 

Try www.vw166.com for starters.

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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Plenty of axis vehicles being shown in photos "under new management".

Not as many as the Germans used, but they were critically short of motor transport and had access to more "left behind" items!

Ernest Hemingway had a Kubelwagen, as he bounced around Europe.

09101stairborne.jpg

As did these chaps from the 101st Airbourne!

KTiger-506-Captured-Big.jpg

These GIs look quite happy with their run-about! (Co B, 129th Ord. bat)

h39resistance.png

H39, recaptured by the French Resistance.

belgianresistancemarder.jpg

Marder III in use by their Belgian equivalents.

ussrforeignpanthercompard0.jpg

Well-known Russian unit of Panthers.

tankscapturedfi3.jpg

Ozzy M11/39

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Your Schwimmwagen?

As has been noted, driving around in a captured vehicle does have many risks, US vehicle recognition isn't good at the best of times!

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