Re: Captured Weapons/Resistance Groups
I'm not an expert on partisan or guerrilla warfare, but it seems to me that one of their "bread and butter" abilities was being able to disappear into the hills, forests, mountains, etc. Seems to me it would be hard to disappear with a tank. While I could be wrong, wouldn't they be more likely to strip it of anything useful and leave the empty hulk behind?
There is a lot that can be stripped off of a tank. The first thing would obviously be the machine guns and ammo for them. Main gun ammo would be a good source of explosives for mines and such. Radios might come in useful as well. And there is fuel that could be used for other vehicles, oil, wire, batteries, etc. A tank could be a resistance fighter's convenient store of supplies. All that stuff keeps them more in line with what they are comfortable with, hit and run tactics.
I wouldn't be as concerned with them using captured small arms. Even if it's something they haven't seen before, someone would figure out how works and be able to maintain it. The main criteria for the partisan is basically, is that weapon better than what the already have. Battle winners have been picking up dropped weapons for centuries if it is better than what they currently have and they have the ability to use it. Should they run out of ammo, they will just pick up something else if it's available. I sure they wouldn't discard there "old" weapon anyhow. It would just be given to someone who doesn't have one at all.
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