What happened to German armaments captured after World War II?

Question

I just need to know about ordinary guns, tanks etc. not rockets etc.

Answer 1

"Swords to plowshares"

After the war Germany was under US-martial law. The Allies dissolved the German Army on August 20, 1946.
All military were disbanded an (almost) all equipment was molten and made into materials to rebuild Germany and surrounding countries.

Railroads and bridges needed to be rebuilt. Then there was the Marshal-plan.

Also many tanks were used by their captors. France used some German Panther tanks as late as the late 50's.

Answer 2

The vast majority of german armaments that survived where melted down and the materials used again to make ordinary houehold items. The allies conducted a strategic bombing campaign which along with the fighting virtually wiped out all of german industry there was also the campaign ( many veiws here) which virtually reduced to rubble the major cities. The allies helped to rebuild this shattered infrastructure and the supply of raw materials in germany was low (dont forget germany used to seize the materals it needed from countries it had invaded). Some adavanced weapons where taken by the allies for study and development in france, england, russia and america as the technology was very advanced, but the average soldiers equipment was recycled

Answer 3

As people have said a lot of stuff was re-cycled and a lot was used to re-equip some of the liberated countries.

A lot of aircraft parts were sold to Spain as they still had ME109's and Focke Wulf 190's into the 1960's

The allies took the best of what the Germans had produced to look at and copy, including the missiles and aero engines.

My father worked at the British ministry of supply after the war on a project which modified the famous Rolls Royce Merlin (Spitfire, P51, Lancaster) aero engine for use in a heavy tank. They had a captured Tiger tank with the Maybach engine for comparison and he always said what a contrast it was to the Rolls Royce. The Rolls was perfection in engineering with everything machined to perfect tolerances, whereas the Maybach was rough cast, ugly and rudimentary but....in his words you just couldnt break it!!

There was one small story which was of a little car company of which the roof was blown off through bombing which was producing the famous Kublewagen staff car and a little domestic car.

A British Army Major was put in charge of re-building the factory and starting production going of the little car to see if it was any good.

50 years later and 2 million cars, Beetles are still coming off the production lines in VW's Brazil factory.

Answer 4

German had many advanced technologies and designs which the allies didn't have. Many of the weapons were reverse engineered so that the Allies could steal the ideas. We also captured most of the weapons designers so we could uses them to develop new weapons.

The most famous captured scientist is Ebbe von Braun, who designed Saturn 5, the rocket which went to the moon.

Some of the German equipment was destroyed by the Germans as they retreated, and the rest sent for scrap and recycling by the allies.

Answer 5

Most were shared between the Allied winners of the war, some passed on (or sold) to other nations, and a small amount remained in Germany, later to be used to equip the new German (paramilitary) Border Police [Bundesgrenzschutz] in West Germany and the People's Police [Volkspolizei] and Border Guards [Grenztruppen] in East Germany.

Answer 6

German jet fighters some intact some partially gutted ones were taken to US and Russia for further study on them as they were higly advanced for the time.

The US came out with Sabre and the Russians with Mig(Mig was superior)
US and Russians also took back the missiles of the germans for study and developing their own missiles.

The US also took the scientists behind the technology as they thought tat was easier than cracking their heads on such high end technology.

Answer 7

Ironically enough, some German rifles found their way to Israel. But most of the stuff ended up being scrapped.

Answer 8

Most of what was still usable was saved until the Germans had formed a new Gov.,then we rearmed them ,so they could protect themselves from Russian expansion.