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German captured Berthier period pictures

Warrior1354

Warrior1354

ax - hole
Been running across some more cool captured pictures lately thought I share a few.

1. German Luftwaffe soldier on guard with a Berthier carbine can't tell if it was updated to the M.16 variation.

2. This one is cool a squad of German Kriegsmarine personal all armed with Berthier carbines. What is neat is these are still the older three shot variations and were never updated to the M.16 in the Post war period. There is also info on the back of the picture as well.

Have a few more coming but what like to see if other members here have found other photos showing captured Berthier carbines.
 

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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.
 
BishopofBling said:
Interesting, you think there was a shortage of K98s so that's why they settled on giving them Berthiers?
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These are rear echelon troops, and they are very unlikely to see combat or even fire their weapons. They need something for self defense, but there was no need to waste K98k needed at the front on them. Beutewaffen were fine for these guys.
 
RyanE said:
These are rear echelon troops, and they are very unlikely to see combat or even fire their weapons. They need something for self defense, but there was no need to waste K98k needed at the front on them. Beutewaffen were fine for these guys.
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Exactly !!!!!!!
 
2. This one is cool a squad of German Kriegsmarine personal all armed with Berthier carbines. What is neat is these are still the older three shot variations and were never updated to the M.16 in the Post war period. There is also info on the back of the picture as well.

Hi
Fertig zur Wache - Ready for guard
Aurich Ostfriesland - Aurich East-Frisia
 
I can try and dig up some photos of German personnel using captured Berthier carbines, I'm pretty sure I have some tucked away in a file.

Interesting that with the frequency the French weapons were used, they still mostly ignored using the French ammo pouches, and remained with the K98k pouches.

Pat
 
Pat said:
I can try and dig up some photos of German personnel using captured Berthier carbines, I'm pretty sure I have some tucked away in a file.

Interesting that with the frequency the French weapons were used, they still mostly ignored using the French ammo pouches, and remained with the K98k pouches.

Pat
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Thank you Pat looking forward to what you have!
 
What is that on their collars? They have no collar tabs, and its not something I recognize.
 
RyanE said:
What is that on their collars? They have no collar tabs, and its not something I recognize.
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This.
To be blunt, they look like a$$. Their uniforms and even blousing of boots are mixed. Are there modified Czech or other tunics in there...?
 
Spielkind said:
Fertig zur Wache - Ready for guard
Aurich Ostfriesland - Aurich East-Frisia
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Thanks. I couldn't make out the town. Out of curiosity does anyone know if there was a significant 'something' in Aurich that needed guarding.
 
Looks like there K98's are Krieg's models . I wonder if this is a post war?. M42 helmets to. No german insignia.
 
Pat said:
I can try and dig up some photos of German personnel using captured Berthier carbines, I'm pretty sure I have some tucked away in a file.

Interesting that with the frequency the French weapons were used, they still mostly ignored using the French ammo pouches, and remained with the K98k pouches.

Pat
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Seems like I recall some photos of KM sailors armed with French weapons posted here a couple years ago. Some of them were aboard a naval vessel.
 
heavy_mech said:
Thanks. I couldn't make out the town. Out of curiosity does anyone know if there was a significant 'something' in Aurich that needed guarding.
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A bit of speculation - a little to the West of Aurich was Engerhafe, the only KZ of Ostfriesland. Late in 1944 the prisoners had to build tank trenches around Aurich. So either they acted as supervisors in the KZ, or as supervisors while they had to build the trench around Aurich.
 
In the book the Colditz story , the prisoners plan a daylight escape and part of their plan is to have the German guard shoot his three rounds at a distraction and they will vault the fence as he reloads . So the Guards at Colditz had Berthiers .
 
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