German captured Berthier period pictures

[Muncher 1953]

Those guys look like a rag-tag bunch of potential AWOLs!

if one looks closely at their faces, they appear to alternate older younger older younger……& 3rd man from left wears a smirk on his face. A ‘motley crew’ for sure. None of their tunic belts are standard Wehrmacht issue.

 

[bonemorrow98]

Found this great photo of a VP patrol boat. Looks like 2 Berthier, hard to tell if its been upgraded to the 5rd capacity. Borrowed from the Internet.

https://imgur.com/a/ktXxoy2

 

[bonemorrow98]

Same source, this one from "Fall Gelb" - The German invasion of France and the Lowlands

Looks almost staged

https://imgur.com/a/LCfpxPN

 

[DaveDavis]

Possibly but it makes prefect sense to arm occupation troops with left over weapons from the enemy. Having thousands of carbines or rifles and millions of rounds of ammo readily available is a prefect choice. Plus that allows the best newly made weapons to go straight to the front lines instead of troops in the rear or guarding less valuable sections away from the front lines. Being stationed in France in 1941 was alot safer then being sent to the Russian front in the early days of WWII.

But I have found alot of German Navy personal armed with French weapons though.

Yes, why waste resources when there are perfectly good guard duty weapons available.

 

[792nut]

Possibly Volks grenadier unit ..Odd they have officer belts and do look Rag-Tag overall..possible volunteers..

 

[Pat]

Found this great photo of a VP patrol boat. Looks like 2 Berthier, hard to tell if its been upgraded to the 5rd capacity. Borrowed from the Internet.

https://imgur.com/a/ktXxoy2

Looks like there might be a Belgian Mauser in there, too.