During World War II, Allied forces did more than just pick up enemy weapons as souvenirs. While many soldiers took captured guns as personal trophies or battlefield replacements, there were also organized efforts to press Axis weapons, vehicles, and even aircraft into official Allied service. Among small arms, the German MP 40 submachine gun was a favorite. British special forces, including the SAS, were issued captured MP 40s for operations behind enemy lines.
The weapon’s folding stock and lighter weight made it more practical for parachute drops than the Thompson submachine gun. Using German weapons also meant ammunition could be obtained from resistance networks. British and American intelligence organizations also adapted German pistols for covert work. Both the Special Operations Executive and the Office of Strategic Services issued Walther PP and PPK pistols to agents operating undercover in occupied Europe.
Their compact size made them easy to conceal, and ammunition could be readily sourced locally. SOE armorers even modified a batch of Luger pistols for use in a planned assassination attempt on Hitler, and the famous Welrod assassination pistol was deliberately chambered for 9mm Parabellum so agents could use captured German ammunition. In the Pacific, US scouts and snipers sometimes used captured Japanese Type 97 and Type 99 sniper rifles. These were considered decent weapons with very low muzzle flash, making them harder for the enemy to spot.
However, Japanese weapons were generally seen as greatly inferior to American and British equipment, and there was no widespread official issue of captured Japanese arms. A more significant example came during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. The US 82nd Airborne Division faced a severe shortage of heavy anti-tank weapons during the fighting in the Netherlands. Planners had not expected the paratroopers to face much German armor, so priority in supply drops went to small arms ammunition, food, and medical supplies.
The ground relief force, British 30 Corps, was expected to arrive quickly with its own tanks and anti-tank guns. The situation changed when the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment overran a German supply depot near Nijmegen that was full of panzerfausts. These single-shot shaped-charge weapons packed a much harder punch than the American bazooka, and many of the paratroopers were already familiar with them from earlier service in Sicily and Normandy. Major General James Gavin, commanding the 82nd Airborne, later wrote that the panzerfaust was “the best anti-tank weapon we had for the remainder of the war.
” Crates of the weapons remained in divisional stores for later combat operations. In late 1944 and early 1945, the Allied armies in Western Europe outran their supply lines. Most supplies still came over the Normandy beaches and had to be trucked forward, while captured ports were either badly damaged or, in the case of Antwerp, still blocked by German control of the Scheldt estuary. Fuel and ammunition shortages forced the Allies to halt on the German frontier, giving the Germans time to reorganize and launch the Ardennes counteroffensive in mid-December 1944.
Because of the shell shortages, some Allied artillery units were re-equipped with captured German guns that had plentiful ammunition. The US Army re-equipped two field artillery battalions with German 10. 5 cm leFH 18 howitzers. The 244th Field Artillery Battalion received the feared German 88mm anti-tank gun for use in an indirect fire role, and the 733rd Field Artillery Battalion also used captured 88s.
The most extensive reuse of captured German vehicles came from the US 83rd Infantry Division, nicknamed both the Ragtag Circus and the 83rd Panzer Division. The division used German vehicles en masse, building a large stockpile of spare parts to keep them running. This included StuG III assault guns repainted olive drab with Allied white stars, SdKfz 251 armored half-tracks, German trucks, Kubelwagen field cars, and BMW and Zündapp motorcycles. They even repainted commandeered civilian buses.
Impressively, the division also acquired a captured German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, repainted with Allied markings and the division’s name painted under the wings. The British also used captured armor. The Fourth Coldstream Guards captured and used a German Panther tank in the Netherlands in late 1944, naming it “Cuckoo,” though it was later abandoned due to a lack of spare parts. Earlier in the war, during the North African campaign, captured Italian tanks were pressed into service.
After inflicting heavy defeats on the Italians in Egypt, the British captured 365 Italian tanks, 60 of which were medium types. These were overhauled, fitted with British radios, and used to equip the 6th Royal Tank Regiment. The tanks were unpopular due to poor mechanical reliability and thin armor. The cavalry unit of the 6th Australian Infantry Division also pressed captured Italian M11/39 and M13/40 tanks into service, painting white kangaroos on the hulls and turrets for identification.
These were used effectively for reconnaissance and direct fire support until replaced by Allied types. Later, a French Army unit was fully equipped with abandoned German tanks, including a Tiger I, a Panther, 11 Panzer IVs, and two StuG III assault guns, and used them to support the siege of the German-held port of Saint-Nazaire. After the war, the French Army continued to use 49 Panther tanks until a new French design entered service in the 1950s. Captured aircraft also saw organized Allied service.
The Royal Australian Air Force captured an intact Junkers Ju 52 transport at El Gazala in Libya. Adopted by No. 450 Squadron and renamed “Libyan Clipper,” it made two to three round trips per week between Cairo and the front line, carrying supplies, ferrying pilots on leave, and bringing food. Among its most appreciated cargo was beer, making it a tremendous morale booster.
The Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, a short takeoff and landing communication aircraft, was also widely used. The British captured up to 145 of them. Sixty-four were handed to the French as war reparations, while the rest in RAF service became personal planes for Allied leaders. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery had his own Storch in North Africa and Northwest Europe.
Air Vice-Marshal Sir Harry Broadhurst flew Rommel’s personal Storch, which had been captured in North Africa, and used it to take Prime Minister Winston Churchill on a flight over Allied lines in Normandy in 1944. The South African Air Force also operated captured Ju 52s, and several SAAF fighter squadrons adopted captured Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters as squadron hacks for utility and liaison duties. These examples show that while capturing enemy weapons was common, the organized reuse of Axis equipment by Western Allied forces was more widespread than often recognized, extending from pistols and submachine guns to artillery, tanks, and even fighter aircraft.