Using Captured Vehicles

[Marc]

Our first gloriuos action as survivors of the 5th ID, in the first roleplaying sessions after purchasing the game, was the capture of a polish pack mule. The mule was named Yirinovski, like the ultra nationalist russian leader. Yirinoski, though exploited without mercy, served us with loyalty and devotion.

[Matt Wiser]

The 2nd SS "Das Reich" Panzer Division at Kursk had a battalion of captured T-34s, and used them against their former owners. They once ambushed a battalion of Soviet T-34s, and the Russians were wiped out before they had a chance to realize that they were being engaged by German-crewed T-34s.

[Legbreaker]

I'm thinking of the 1st edition timeline in which East German forces entered combat against former allies before they could be re-equiped with West German gear, and the Nato forces trained to fight alongside former enemy (and recognise them as allies).

I can imagine those units equipped with "enemy" gear would attract a lot of unwanted attention from both sides (even those aware of friendly Pact equipment in the area). Airstrikes, helicopter gunships, artillery, etc would be a constant hazard, even if markings were painted on the tanks, etc. A T-72 still looks like a T-72 in the dark regardless whats been scribbled on it.

I would imagine that most of the Pact support vehicles not absolutely required in the front areas would be very quickly withdraw to rear area security, reserved for raids, and the like and as Rainbow Six mentioned, withdrawn out of the theatre completely.

The danger of firendly fire would be a constant problem. It only takes one man armed with a rocket launcher and itchy trigger on a dark night and....

[Matt Wiser]

The East Germans never did get rid of their WarPac gear, especially the heavy stuff like tanks, IFVs/APCs, SP Arty, etc. I'm sure that extensive measures were taken to prevent or minimize such friendly-fire incidents.

[Targan]

In my campaign the PCs captured a Shershen-class torpedo boat near Warsaw and cruised down the Vistula for a while in that.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

The East Germans never did get rid of their WarPac gear, especially the heavy stuff like tanks, IFVs/APCs, SP Arty, etc. I'm sure that extensive measures were taken to prevent or minimize such friendly-fire incidents.

Yes. I bet that the Reunified German Army would be a de-facto clearing house for captured, big-ticket Soviet-Bloc items. East German maintainance units would have experience in their repair and upkeep, and East German-trained tank crews would have no problem hopping into a former Soviet T-72 or BMP-1 and getting on with it. I imagine that ammo manufacture for captured weapons could also be taken care of fairly easily in the former DDR.

Friendly fire incidents would be a concern when employing captured vehicles but, as has been noted, it's been done before (Israel since '48, Germany in WWII) and necessity would certainly lead to the widespread use of captured enemy material, especially after '97. Beggars can't be choosers, after all.

[Matt Wiser]

Especially after '97. You can bet that standing orders were issued on both sides to make use of captured or abandoned enemy equipment, stores, etc. And no doubt there was a lot of cannibalization of wrecks to get parts so that, for example, in 3rd Armored, the company's worth of T-80s you've got running stays running. The same for the BMP-2s 5th ID has, or the platoon's worth of BRDMs that 11th ACR has "acquired".

[chico20854]

During the pre-tactical nuclear phase of the war I would imagine battlefield recovery teams would follow advancing NATO troops to scavenge useable parts, vehicles, weapons, equipment and ammo left by retreating Pact forces to keep the NVA (former East german Army) going. Given the situation, a large-scale reequipment of the NVA would be impossible for a number of reasons - there wasn't enough spare equipment to do so (and all industrial capacity was devoted to replacing combat losses) and the troops couldn't be spared from the front for re-equipment and retraining (which would have been an extensive process, trying to rebuild "muscle memory", and in the case of T-72s, adding new members to an existing organization).

Also keep in mind that NATO countries and their allies had some Pact-standard manufacturing ability. Israel used captured Pact geat for years and must have had some way of obtaining or manufacturing spares and ammunition for the systems that they didn't replace/upgrade, and Egypt had a quite active defense industry that turned out D-30s and ZU-23-2s and a wide variety of Pact-caliber ammo. I'd imagine that this production went into high gear in 1996 in an attempt to resupply the Chinese Army.

Post-nuclear exchange things change a bit. Coordination between NATO units, such as the coordinated battlefield salvage efforts, would break down (possibly only to a level of barter, possibly entirely), as units hoarded whatever useable weapons and vehicles they could get. Until that time, I wouldn't imagine much Pact equipment and gear possessed by NATO forces due to the need to keep the NVA in the field - only small quantities of captured gear for technical evaluation purposes. Small lots of foreign equipment deep in the NATO rear (in the UK or USA, for example) I would imagine would quickly be abandoned due to lack of spares and ammo, especially for the more exotic items.