I find it interesting that soldiers, regardless of their nationality, are always fascinated by the small arms carried by their adversaries…
From Murphy’s Laws of Armed Combat:
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The enemy’s rifle is always better than yours.
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I’m sure the guy on the right is saying "holy shit, look at the size of the hole on the end of that thing! :eek: "
Great post!
The Germans used whatever they could get their hands on, particuarly on the Ost Front.
The Waffen SS, in particular, used a lot of captured small arms, since the Wehrmacht cut them out of the supply line early in the war.
Waffen SS with a Czech ZB-26 or ZB 30, the predecessor of the BREN.
German trooper with a Soviet SVT-40:
Grass is always greener
Perhaps some of the fascination is rooted in the maxim “know thy enemy”.
Or: “Would you please stop pointing that damn machine-cannon at me!!”
I don’t think it is totally “fascination” with enemy weapons, more so with practicality. During the initial seizure in Baghdad, there were a lot of “professional” trigger pullers humping Kalashnikovs since ammo was everywhere. We found one building which had literally tons of ammo and much of the AK ammo was loaded in magazines. I was a gunner so I humped a Polish underfolder for a backup.
1968 USMC Bootcamp.
The biggest BS rumor going around at that time was that the NVA with their AK 47’s could shoot our ammo, but we couldn’t shoot theirs. At age 18 I knew nothing about guns or shooting, let alone interior ballistics.
Now that was ridiculous, as everyone knows if anything it’s the other way around, no way could one get a 762X51 round to chamber in an AK47. Rumors are just that rumors, and one of the biggest problems in wartime is the BS rumors that are hard to get strait. A 762X39 round will fit in a 762x51 chamber, but its BS, no one would ever want to do that even in an ammo shortage, it would do more damage than what it’s worth to even consider.
We also heard that the enemy 82mm mortars could shoot our mortar ammo, but we could not shoot theirs. Now that rumor has never been corrected for me, but I know that I would not want to be the loader on trying to shoot 81mm in an 82mm.
Now essentially your question does not matter. Never in the last 40 years did I have opportunity to put this rumor to practical purpose.
This kind of BS happens, it’s our duty to respond and answer these questions and put a stop to dangerous rumors. Nothing personal.
At some point it has to stop when the question is answered because this kind of crap tends to run away like a rocket.
The United States military has the best quality ammo in the world. It works.
Read Herbert Mcbrides book “A Rifleman Went to War”. He discusses the problems they had with their belted MG ammo in WW I. They would constantly checks the belts and attempt to find the best Lot Numbers of production ammo and attempt to hoard that ammo. We don’t have to worry about our quality anymore, it’s taken for granted.
No soldier or Marine should ever shoot inappropriate ammo in his weapon. The chance of that happening is zero.
If it gets that bad you can grab another man’s weapon and ammo and shoot that. Believe me there will be plenty of casulties and lots of “our” weapons laying around the battlefield, if it ever gets that bad.
Again 1968.
We had strict orders that were constantly enforced to not pick up or use enemy weapons.
We were lowly Marines, we didn’t question, but we were curious.
Several years ago I read Maj. John Plasters book on SOG.
The United States Special Ops had a program in Vietnam where we loaded enemy ammo with C4 explosive, and packaged it exactly like enemy ammo. To the extent that the wooden crates had stencils with them so that SOG could match the stencil of the enemy Lot numbers in the enemy ammo dump, and insert that case of ammo into that supply dump.
Creates lots of doubts when your equipment blows up on you. Makes it hard not to jerk, or flinch the trigger when you are an 18 year old NVA in the final assault onto Fire Support Base Ripcord in 1969.
DON’T SCREW WITH ENEMY WEAPONS UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!! Our weapons are better and our weapons work very well.
S/F
Tipy
At a minimum every joe should be able to safely lock and clear any threat weapon they might encounter in their AO without having to call EOD. I think this should be an Army skill level 1 task, but outside of SOF the only place I know of that teaches this is some of the Anti terrorism classes for folks going overseas to medium to high threat assignments.
Even for some red headed step child type SOF units you can do the coordiation to get the weapons, but despite having 8 million rounds of 762X39 in the ASP years prior to 9/11 they wont let you draw the ammo since its not in the Standards in Weapons training manual for your unit:rolleyes:
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I think you oughta get yourself an M-16.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Sir, if the time comes I need one, there’ll be plenty lying on the ground.