Loot weapon
Loot weapons are weapons or pieces of military equipment that are captured by the enemy in an intact condition . This is possible during the actual fighting, but also afterwards during the occupation of the enemy territory.
The looted weapons are often used as regular weapons by the troops , provided they are of military use and the supply of ammunition and spare parts as well as the repair is ensured . In many cases not only weapons are captured, but also the production facilities. This increases the military benefit, since production can continue to operate if necessary.
Captured production facilities provide important insights into the enemy's weapons technology, which is of great use for the (further) development of one's own weapons. Sometimes captured weapons also allow this, especially if they haven't been around for long and / or if your own troops have not yet fought them often.
In addition to their direct military use, prey weapons can also function as trophies if they are particularly well-known weapons (systems) that have a high symbolic value; they are then often presented or stored in a special way. Occasionally, such presentations also have the purpose of proving covert operations or making corresponding allegations credible.
Advantages of loot weapons
With the help of these weapons and equipment, the opponent can identify the state of the art in military technology and, for example, use it for their own armed forces through replicas . In this way, chance can provide him with information that would otherwise only have been obtained through complex espionage campaigns . A well-known example of the effects of prey weapons is the capture of the Enigma encryption engine .
Another advantage can be that the capture of working weapons increases your combat strength. This is especially true if the company's own production of armaments is too low, there are supply problems or the foreign weapons are superior to their own.
Disadvantages of prey weapons
The use of captured weapons in one's own army was mostly easy , especially in the armed conflicts up into the 19th century , due to the technical comparability of the armaments. The muzzle-loaders of that time mostly had no rifled barrels, so that the bullet was fired relatively loosely through the barrel and deviations in caliber were insignificant. In the later conflicts there were quite often logistical problems with the use of such weapons (for example in the procurement of spare parts and ammunition and in the labeling) as well as difficulties in the operation of foreign equipment.
More serious is the risk of self- fire when using prey weapons , that is, of mistaken fire by one's own or allied forces. Typical features of the captured military equipment (silhouette, engine noise) often led to serious confusion in the past. Striking examples of the unsuccessful - and ultimately aborted - use of enemy technology are the use of Soviet T-34 medium battle tanks by the German Wehrmacht and the use of British Lancaster bombers by the German Air Force during World War II.
Although the danger of confusion is most likely with heavy equipment, it also exists with the use of light infantry weapons. The Kalashnikov assault rifle, for example, clearly differs from Western rifles in terms of its acoustic signature. When fighting under conditions of limited visibility - such as at night or in bad weather - as well as in unmanageable jungle or urban combat , this can lead to confusion among infantrymen . For example, in the Vietnam War, US soldiers (apart from special forces who operated behind enemy lines) were not allowed to use Kalashnikovs captured by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese People's Army , as they could so falsely appear as the enemy.
First World War
The German army already chose the late 19th century with the introduction of 96 field gun C / mm as standard caliber for his field artillery 77, in contrast to the otherwise widespread 75 and 76.2 mm. The reason for this was that, in the event of a war, captured foreign artillery could be reamed to 77 mm and could be used with your own ammunition. On the other hand, captured German guns could not be converted to their own caliber by the enemy.
Large stocks of the Eastern Front captured Russian guns and ammunition made it possible for German artillery units with purely Russian material set up (for example, self-employed. Field Artillery - batteries ).
During the First World War, the German armored troops were mainly equipped with captured tanks . By the end of September 1918, a total of 170 enemy tanks had been captured in a serviceable condition. At this point, 35 of them were reported to be operational. In contrast, only 20 of the company's own A7V model were built.
The latter were armed with captured Belgian 5.7 cm casemate rapid-fire guns of the Maxim-Nordenfeldt type. After a few attempts, the Army High Command decided to equip all captured British Mark IV and Mark V that were brought back to service with these weapons as well.
Second World War
Use of captured weapons by the German Wehrmacht
Even before the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Heereswaffenamt introduced a system to systematically record data on all known foreign weapons and other military equipment (e.g. motor vehicles). These were collected in a loose-leaf collection titled Identity Sheets of Foreign Equipment . This collection, which was divided into a total of 14 volumes, was constantly updated when new weapons and equipment fell into German hands.
Each weapon and each device was assigned a third-party device number. This usually consisted of the German name of the respective object, a (usually three-digit) number and a lowercase letter in brackets that referred to the country of origin.
| Letter | meaning |
|---|---|
| a | American |
| b | Belgian |
| d | Danish |
| e | English |
| f | French |
| G | Greek |
| H | Dutch |
| i | Italian |
| j | Yugoslavian |
| n | Norwegian |
| ö | Austrian |
| p | Polish |
| r | Russian |
| s | Swiss |
| t | Czech |
Examples:
| Weapon or device | German name |
|---|---|
| M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle | 7.62 mm SlGew 251 (a) |
| Submachine gun PPSch-41 | 7.62mm MP 716 (r) |
| 2 cm anti-tank rifle Solothurn S18 / 1100 | 2 cm PzB 785 (s), (i) or (h) |
| 76mm division cannon M1942 (SiS-3) | 7.62 cm FK 288 (r) |
| Matilda II infantry tank | Inf.Pz.Kpfw. Mk. II - 748 (e) |
Identical weapons that were captured in different countries were given the same number, but different letters for the country of origin. In some cases, however, weapons of different types were assigned the same number; for example, the Soviet T-34 tank became the Pz.Kpfw. 747 (r) , the American M3 Lee / Grant on the other hand for the Pz.Kpfwg. M 3-747 (a) .
Weapons, of which different versions existed, were sometimes distinguished by a slash and a number afterwards. The Soviet 82 mm grenade launcher BM-37 was designated as 8.2 cm GrW 274/2 (r) , while the similar models from 1936 and 1941 were designated 8.2 cm GrW 274/1 (r) and 8, respectively . 2 cm size 274/3 (r) . In some cases, on the other hand, they were given different numbers - for example, the heavy Soviet KW-1 battle tanks were originally designed as Pz.Kpfw. KW Ia - 753 (r) , the later versions with additional armor as Pz.Kpfw. KW Ib - 755 (r) .
Exceptions to this three-digit numbering were mainly for the numerous weapons and equipment that had come into German possession before the system was introduced. This happened on a large scale when Austria was annexed in March 1938 and when the rest of the Czech Republic was broken up in March 1939. Examples are the Panzerkampfwagen 38 (t) or the submachine gun 34 (ö) , which are named after their year of manufacture were.
Some looted weapons were also passed on to other Axis powers, e.g. B. Dewoitine D.520 to Bulgaria.
Use of captured weapons by the Allies
Although considerable amounts of German equipment fell into Allied hands, especially in the second half of the war, the logistical problems in the supply of spare parts and ammunition usually outweighed the resource savings in production. The German submarine U 570, captured by the Royal Navy in 1941, was put into service as HMS Graph , but was retired during the war due to a lack of spare parts. Further use was therefore mostly limited to a few excellent weapons such as the German 8.8 cm FlaK (for which the US Army even printed an English-language manual in June 1943) or to use in tests.
Loot weapons were often the only weapons that partisans or resistance fighters could get at. The Allies therefore delivered the United Defense M42 submachine gun to resistance groups, as it was designed for the use of German Parabellum ammunition. During the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto (April 19 - May 16, 1943), Jewish resistance fighters captured some weapons from the Wehrmacht ; some of their actions were primarily aimed at obtaining such weapons.
Czechoslovakia, whose modern armaments industry not only had to produce its own products such as the ČKD-Praga TNH for the armed forces during the war , but also a. the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the armored personnel carrier Sd.Kfz. 251 , continued to manufacture these in a modified form as Avia S-199 and OT-810 . In France, too, where Morane-Saulnier had to manufacture the Fieseler Storch for the German occupiers, the tried and tested reconnaissance aircraft was produced for many years as a “Criquet” with a radial engine instead of the original in-line engine. The remaining spare parts from the BMW R 75 and 71 were used to make the CMR 73, which was used in particular as a representative escort motorcycle for state guests.
Although larger quantities of German weapons came into Allied possession as a result of the unconditional surrender, they were only used to a small extent, since most of the victorious states reduced their own weapons stocks anyway and many German equipment was now out of date due to the peace. Modern aircraft technology such as jet machines and radar, on the other hand, were brought to the USA for testing purposes, for example in Operation Seahorse . France, on the other hand, continued to use German captured weapons to a greater extent in its army because, unlike the USA and Great Britain, it had no problems with the metric system and first had to rebuild its own armed forces and armaments industry. Two tank regiments (the 503rd and 6th cuirassiers) were equipped with panthers . Some of it later ended up in the armed forces of former colonies such as Syria.
Due to the long service life, warships were used by the victors to a greater extent than the large-scale equipment of the land and air forces. All of the Gorch Fock class sailing training ships manufactured for Germany by the end of the war were taken over by the Allied navies. However, the US Navy did not put the majority of its loot ships into service, but used them as target ships for nuclear weapon tests .
Switzerland
Although Switzerland was neutral and was therefore unable to steal equipment from the warring parties in the actual sense, it nevertheless came into possession of some emergency-landed aircraft that were still airworthy during the war. Machines and crews were interned. At least one aircraft, a Mustang P-51 of the USAF , was temporarily given the Swiss national badge and assigned to the surveillance squadron until the end of the war .
Example from the present
Germany and Israel have long been cooperating in the field of weapons technology. In the wars with Egypt , Jordan , Syria and Lebanon , Israel captured large quantities of weapons, mainly of Soviet design. Some of these prey weapons were brought to Germany for detailed analysis . During the Cold War , the knowledge gained from this was very helpful and was used in the construction of new weapons. They were also very important for the tactical alignment of the armed forces.
The cooperation also became public when the BND tried in autumn 1991 to smuggle tanks of the former NVA into Israel via the port of Hamburg . Israel's interest consisted in analyzing the weapons more closely, since identical equipment was or is being used by the troops of some states bordering Israel.
Israel also uses prey weapons itself. So, from a conversion of captured T-54 - / T-55 -Panzern of heavy armored personnel carriers Achzarit . The Hunt-class destroyer Ibrahim el Awal , captured from Egypt in 1956 , was put into service as INS Haifa.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Fleischer: Armored Firepower. Podzun-Pallas Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-7909-0779-0 .
- ↑ Fred Koch: Captive tanks in the First World War. Podzun-Pallas Verlag, 1994, ISBN 3-7909-0520-8 .
- ↑ Terry Gander, Peter Chamberlain: Encyclopedia of German Weapons 1939-1945. 2nd edition, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-613-02481-6 .
- ↑ Terry Gander, Peter Chamberlain: Encyclopedia of German Weapons 1939-1945. 2nd edition, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-613-02481-6 .
- ↑ Fred Koch: Tank against tank. Podzun-Pallas Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-7909-0760-X .
- ↑ Terry Gander, Peter Chamberlain: Encyclopedia of German Weapons 1939-1945. 2nd edition, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-613-02481-6 .
- ↑ Janusz Piekałkiewicz : The 8.8 FlaK in ground combat. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-87943-423-9
- ↑ spiegel.de November 11, 1991: Clueless and forgetful. - Defense Minister Stoltenberg moves more and more into the center of the tank affair The then Federal Defense Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg stated that officials in the Defense Ministry had disregarded clear decisions of the Federal Security Council as well as instructions from the responsible State Secretary Ludwig-Holger Pfahls (CSU).