Captured vehicles and lorries

[J Melvin]

What was the common practice of the Wehrmacht with regard to captured vehicles. I am assuming that the Germans walked away with a rather sizable quantity of British vehicles after Dunkirk. Were they left in their original base color or repainted to "Germanize" them. If in the original base color, when camo'd, was a yellow base then applied or just paint over the British brown?

[atcase]

Hi Jack,
i not sure of the vehicles left at Dunkirk, but the germans used several types of captured allied vehicles in the desert, to include Matilda tanls AEC trucks, jeeps, halftracks 25 pdr quads and limbers.
In this theater the vehicles were left in thier basic allied colours with the addition of some swastica identification (especially for aircraft !!)

Ashley

[Brian C.]

Here's a Stuart in use (or was in use before being KO'ed) by Germans in North Africa.

[Brian C.]

And a French Char B-1 Bis.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Jack, with regards to the vehicles captured at Dunkirk, these were all rebuilt and repainted. The BEF tried their best to destroy the vehicles left behind by draining oil and running engines until they siezed up etc. But given time and effort these vehicles could be rebuilt and used again, which is what the Germans did. Several units were equipped with British trucks, Bedfords, for the invasion of Russia.

As Ashley pointed out, vehicles captured in the field in North Africa, Italy, North West Europe just got a quick fix and then usually painted with oversized German markings of the Balkan Cross. Complete repaints would be much rarer to find but might have happened if time and materials allowed.

In the Willys MB / Ford GPW Jeep manual there is a small chapter on how to destroy the vehicle in the event of imminant capture. It recommends setting on fire, placing a grenade in the body or destruction by mechanical means of smashing the engine block, gearbox, transfer case, axels, with the axe carried on the vehicle. Tyres were also to be slashed.

Cheers, Ade.

[J Melvin]

Thanks, guys!