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During the Second World War the Germans captured thousands of armoured vehicles from their opponents, and although they rarely used them on the front line, did make extensive use of them in secondary theatres.
French and Italian vehicles were different. In both cases Germany gained control of the industrial base to support these vehicles at the same time as capturing them, so was able to continue to operate them. However French tanks didn’t suit German tactics, and most Italian tanks were outdated by 1943, so again they remained second line vehicles.
As you would expect given the small size of the book and large topic, some of the chapters are very small – Polish tanks get half a page for example. In most cases there is very little detail given on the actual vehicles, other than describing them as tankettes, light tanks etc. This makes sense, as the actual vehicles are covered in other books.
In contrast French vehicles get 17 pages of text so fill almost half of the book. This isn’t surprising – in 1940 the French had the most highly regarded armoured force in Europe, and its defeat at the hands of the Germans came as a surprise to most. Nearly 5,000 French armoured vehicles were captured (although 1,200 of them were the Renault UE armoured tractor). AS a result we get more details on the actual vehicles involved. This reveals that many of them didn’t suit German tactics – the two most numerous types, the Renault R35 and Hotchkiss H39 had the same one man turret, making them far less effective than contemporary German tanks.
Although not many of the captured vehicles were used as front line tanks, the Germans did find many uses for them. The most significant was to use them as the basis for self propelled guns, with a wide range of new vehicles produced. Many otherwise unwanted turrets were dug into the Atlantikwall, making well armoured strongpoints. We get good sections on both of these uses.
Although the Germans captured a sizable number of British tanks, there was less organised effort to make use of them. The most significant example was Hauptmann Alfred Becker’s work to convert a Mk VI light tank into a self propelled gun armed with a 10.5cm howitzer, which led to the large scale work on French vehicles. The most famous example was Rommel’s AEC Dorchester armoured command vehicles, two of which captured in 1941 and used by him until he left Tunisia.
A vast number of Soviet tanks were captured on the Eastern Front. However most captured in 1941-42 were obsolete light tanks that the Germans had no interest in using. One surprise is that the Germans didn’t make more use of captured T-34s
Italian tanks became a major source after the Italian armistice of September 1943. The Germans disarmed most of the Italian army, capturing their tanks intact, and also gained control over the industrial north of Italy. As a result Italian tanks replaced the increasingly obsolete French ones in German use, in particular for security and police units. The only Italian vehicle to see significant front line service was the Semovente assault gun, which could be used instead of the StuG III.
This is a good overview of the German use of captured armoured vehicles, showing how limited that use actually was, apart from the use of French and Italian vehicles for policing duties.
Chapters
Polish Tanks and AFVs
Dutch and Belgian Tanks and AFVs
French Tanks
British Tanks and AFVs
Soviet Tanks and AFVs
Italian Tanks and AFVs
American Tanks and AFVs
German Identification Numbers for Beutepanzers
Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Edition: Paperback
Pages:
Publisher: Osprey
Year: