Non German weapons used by Germans in WWII

[joem]

I have a CZ 27 in .32ACP with nazi eagle on it.

[PhillipM]

Sgt. Schultz carried a Krag!

Someone here revealed it was because in real life he was Jewish and refused to carry a German weapon, even for TV.

[jon_norstog]

He wasn't the only one. The germans took over several thousand Norwegian Krags, had some of them barreled in 8x57, even. I understand most of those stayed in Norway, but some found their way to home front units as well.

I wouldn't mind finding a norwegian in 8x57, actually.

jn

[Sarge]

The Germans not only used what rifles they captured in Norway, but kept the factory working into 1944. They did the same thing with the Norwegian copy of the M1911 Colt.
I think that any stories of the Germans rebarreling the Krag to 7.92x57 are pure fantisy B.S.! No benifit as they had plenty of 6.5 Krag ammo.
Photos can be found of the Germans using just about every type of captured allied weapons from the M2 50 cal BMG down.
Sarge

[DaveHH]

Czech tanks, French tanks, Yugoslav machine guns, Russian anti-tank weapons, anything they could get. They were a horse drawn army and Germany had only a very few auto and truck companies. We had about 30 to choose from. Their problems were just as much economic as material based. Imagine how much money went out the door when several hundred MG34s were lost? That's why they went to stamped steel weapons like the MG42 and MP44; way cheaper to make. That was also the main reason that they saddled their soldiers with Mausers when everyone else had semi-autos. They had enormous stocks of 7.92X57mm (thousands of millions) and the cost of scrapping it would break the bank. It is a great argument to say that the German doctrine was built around the machine gun with bolt actions to protect the gun. A better way to say it is - they HAD to be built around the MG, they had no choice. We were done with the bolt action by the end of the Guadalcanal campaign.

[mike webb]

As far as I know the U.S. was the only nation in WW2 to use a semi-automatic as a main battle rifle. Germany, Great Britain, Japan, U.S.S.R. and
all the other combatants all used bolts.
The Garand was already well along in development by December/41.
The other nations were already at war and it's very difficult to change your
main armament while maintaining a flow of weapons into service.
The U.S. transition from Springfield to Garand was quite smooth but their
war production was just ramping up at that point.
By 1945 U.S. production had reached astounding levels.
It really was the " Arsenal of Democracy".

There was also a prevailing opinion in senior military ranks of all nations that an infantryman could not be trusted with an automatic rifle
as he would expend all of his allotted ammo in no time. Wasn't true but that was the opinion.

[DaveHH]

It had twice the magazine capacity of the 98K and in the right hands was a formidable weapon. The Japanese were in much the same predicament as the Germans and the culture of the common Japanese soldier being valued as a worthless pawn didn't help them either. The Russians realized the value of fire power and made the PPSH in quantity. Those and the Tokarev were used to great effect later in the war.

[JGaynor]

The germans also used some Italian Beretta submachine guns and were manufacturing their own copy of the Sten.

[DRB]

As far as I know the U.S. was the only nation in WW2 to use a semi-automatic as a main battle rifle. Germany, Great Britain, Japan, U.S.S.R. and
all the other combatants all used bolts.
The Garand was already well along in development by December/41.
The other nations were already at war and it's very difficult to change your
main armament while maintaining a flow of weapons into service.
The U.S. transition from Springfield to Garand was quite smooth but their
war production was just ramping up at that point.
By 1945 U.S. production had reached astounding levels.
It really was the " Arsenal of Democracy".

There was also a prevailing opinion in senior military ranks of all nations that an infantryman could not be trusted with an automatic rifle
as he would expend all of his allotted ammo in no time. Wasn't true but that was the opinion.

Actually the Soviets did use semi auto tokarev rifles and made a lot of them, I have seen numbers over a million. The Germans used G43s and made around 500,000 of them. The US just had a better rifle in production sooner. The Tokarev was prone to breaking and the G43 did not enter into much service before early 44. The Germans had the first true assault rifle the MP44. They made a fair number and most went to the Eastern front.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

I had a worn FN 1922 but don't know the story on the German markings.