Stolen German stuff used by Soviets

[Riggsman]

You mean the tracks right? Yeah it gives that "Monster Truck" feeling.

[Sommarkatze]

I think its rather unneccesary to make a entire new thread about it. So I change the subject a bit, instead of German stuff used by the soviets I would like to ask about the Finnish
Soumi M31 smgs that were in use of the germans. Did any of these end up on the western front or were they eastern front entirely?

THANKS <3

[neosdark]

Fairly sure that the Germans never got their hands on a large enough number of Suomi M31s to standardize them in any way. They never fought each other on the Eastern Front and any hostile action they had was too late in the war to allow any (if any were captured) weapons to be moved to the Western Front. The few weapons they got due to finds on mutual battlefields were probably kept exclusively on the Eastern Front.

[Sommarkatze]

According to wiki over 3000 were bought.

 3,042 were ordered by Germany from Finland during The Second World War and likely issued to the Wehrmacht and SS. Also 120 Suomi KP's were presented to the German troops of AOK Norwegen in 1942 for use on the Finnish Front. Most of these weapons left Finland with German troops in 1944 and were subsequently used in other theaters of the war.

Iam mostly woundering if it would be completely crazy to like.. encounter a german soldier with a M31 during the battle of the bulge for example?

[neosdark]

Interesting.... Wasn't aware of this purchase . Well in this case its quite possible that they did use them all over. I'd like to get my hands on a German Purchase KP-31 now

[Sommarkatze]

Myes. Its a nice piece of weaponry. Thanks for your help!

[Otto Halfhand]

Ah Sommarkatze you are an mg nut and always come up with interesting questions. The little info I have gleaned indicates use of Finnish equipment by Waffen SS troops so the Battle of the Bulge is a possibilty. I suspect that much of the "imported equipment was issued to "foreign" troops in the Heer or SS. A starting place to look would then be the Coastal defence Division pictures in Normandy and Pictures of the 6 SS division. Good luck.

[Sommarkatze]

Thanks Otto!
Yes. Many of the captured smallarms if I understood it right however did end up with like support units or units that didnt see quite much of smallarms combat compared to front units like you you said, coast defenses, luftwaffe, guard units, navy and training programs ( see picture below!)

 However towards the end of the war many of these support units went to the front because in lack of units ;>
Iam pretty sure front unit got a great quantity of captured smallarms as well and as we all know these are the guys who captured them in the first place so they sure had their share

Here is a great picture of a Navy man with a thompson m1a1 smg that I got from axishistory forum!

[Otto Halfhand]

try looking for the pictures available for the Normandy Invasion. Many of the troops faced were foreigners and there is a large number of pictures available for these troops. Sorry I'd suggest the divisional numbers but my head is ferhuddled for numbers right now. The Tommy gun picture has an interesting tie-in to the Sk31. Both weapons had the same high manufacturing costs associated with their production that was the cause of their removal from service, not obsolesence.

[Sommarkatze]

Hehe yes. That new movie my way shows it if I remember correctly. Speaking of which, I read about small italian units that happend to be in Normandy during the landing and fight along the german ones.
Where there any other ones from germanys allies/ former allies? Not volunteers or forcibly recruited men from other countries but offical army troops. Italy I know of but that makes sense if you think about that little part of French that Italy occupied. But the others? Not Normandy in particulary but the whole western front.

I read some guy comments on a site that nobody ansvered on , but it seemed to him that there were romanians fighting on the western front? :S

Pretty OT.

[Otto Halfhand]

IIRC there were a good number of Balkan States nationals, "Free Ukranians" and Russian Ex-POWs in the Heer Divisions in Normandy. I do not believe they were non-Heer units involved though. None I've ever heard about at least.