Captured Weapons/Resistance Groups

[Imp]

There were tankers (and other drivers) of all abilities during the war

Agree entirely, the likes of the tank workers in Stallingrad jumping straight into them & driving straght to battle, did they fair well I think probably not & it was the disparity in training that made a big diffrence in the early years.
The game represents this with exp ratings & throws in enough variables that even the likes of the Germans at there height can get a duff crew.

Rays point is a very good one the weapons are probably more useful though it might be handy to use 1 for something specific if you had it.

Nothing to stop you setting up a captured tank formation with the tanks you might use. Give it a negative exp mod but possibly plus morale because they have got a tank. You could do the same for troops & make some with enemy weapons. No need to give a formation just upgrade to in a campaign. This would mean they could take a slight exp hit & so represent getting the hang of the new weapons, though in most cases will make no diffrence.

Really vague on but there was a SS unit that near enough ceased to exist who ended up fighting virtually exclusivly with Russian weapons.
They went forward to capture a rail station for the supply line. Took it easy enough as lightly guarded but if remember correctly there were Russians on the way already by rail, a near by military school & something else. Luckily for them the Russians attacked in 3 seperate waves I think once with a cease fire to clear the dead.
They repulsed the first attack easy enough but what armour they had was then stripped of weapons as out of HE (think 1 had rounds left) They needed to do this because MG ammo was low. They collected enemy weapons in the gaps between waves to as all ammo was running low.
The 3rd human wave very nearly wiped them out as think they only had ammo for one MG when it started. This was a very bloody battle thousands of Russians were killed & if I remember the only functioning German weapons at the end with rounds left were a couple of Lugers & possibly one rifle.

[pjbandit2003]

Now if I remember correctly (and I probably dont) I remember reading years ago about a British unit in North Africa that set up a squadron of Italian tanks that were abandoned by the retreating Italians and putting crews in them that had had their Crusaders shot out from under them. I can remember where it was but I think it was outside of El Aleimain and they used them for the duration of the NA campaign. I know this is not the same as partisans as these were trained tank crews but with unfamiliar vehicles.

[redcoat2]

Resistance groups could use captured tanks on occasion. I think it usually happened when they switched over to conventional operations from guerrilla warfare.

Here are three examples I can think of:

1) The Warsaw Uprising. The Polish Home Army (PHA) used several captured tanks and half tracks. Zoshka’s Storm Battalion used a tank to break into the Gesiowka concentration camp to liberate 400 Jewish prisoners.

A PHA Panther



2) The Battle for Paris. The ‘French Forces of the Interior’ used captured tanks against German strongpoints. These tanks were originally French tanks from 1940 and so some members of the resistance may have been familiar with them.

A photo of one of these tanks in use

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...fare_scene.png

3) Yugoslavia. Tito’s Partisans were able to capture and use tanks on occasion. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that some of the captured Italian vehicles were driven by Italian defectors. Later in the war the Partisans also received allied tanks from the British and the Soviets.

A captured Italian tank in Partisan service, 1944

[Lt. Ketch]

Originally Posted by redcoat2

Resistance groups could use captured tanks on occasion.

Thanks, Redcoat! You do raise a good observation that most of the, shall we say, "heavier" equipment available to resistance groups, tended to come out when they brought the conflict into the open. I'll have to keep that in mind. I'll also have to look at the Italian OOB when I build my partisan force. It only makes sense as the Italians were in the Balkans before the Germans, for the most part.