Beutepanzers of World War II

I must admit to an interest in the way that the German Army adopted and adapted captured armoured fighting vehicles during the Second World War. As a result, it made lots of sense for me to buy a copy of Steven Zaloga's recent BEUTEPANZERS OF WORLD WAR II: CAPTURED TANKS AND AFVS IN GERMAN SERVICE when I saw it on sale ... so I did!

The book is divided into eleven sections:

• Introduction
• Polish tanks and AFVs
• Dutch and Belgian tanks and AFVs
• French tanks
• Tank turrets for the AtlantikWall
• French Beutepanzer units
• Becker self-propelled gun conversions on French AFVs
• Other self-propelled gun conversions on French AFVs
• The Beutepanzer division
• British tanks and AFVs
• Soviet tanks and AFVs
• Italian tanks and AFVs
• American tanks and AFVs
• German identification numbers for Beutepanzers
• Further reading
• Index

I particularly enjoyed the section that dealt with the conversions undertaken by Hauptmann Alfred Becker's Baukommando, which included conversions of both French and British tanks and AFVs. (His first conversions were based on the chassis of British Mark VI light tanks. He removed the existing turrets and read bodywork which he replaced with an open-topped casemate in which a 105mm leFH 16 howitzer was mounted. He also modified the same chassis as a command/reconnaissance vehicle and ammunition carrier as well as creating ammunition carriers based on the chassis of captured Bren carriers.)

The 10.5cm leFH 16 auf Geschutzwagen auf Fahrgestell Mk VI 736 (e) self-propelled gun.

The Mk VI Beobachtungspanzer command/reconnaissance vehicle.

The Mk VI Munitionspanzer ammunition carrier. The trailer it is towing appears to be a Renault UK tracked trailer that has had its original wheels and tracks replaced by a simple two-wheeled axle.

The Munitionspanzer auf Fahrgestell Bren-Carrier (e) ammunition carrier. The trailer it is towing appears to be similar to that towed by the French Renault UE 2 Chenillette and was known as the Renault UK tracked trailer.

It is interesting to note that although the Germans captured large numbers of Russian tanks and AFVs, they did not use them as much as one might have expected, mainly because they did not have access to supplies of spare parts etc. This was not the case with the French and Italian tanks and AFVs they captured and reused, and in the latter case, they actually continued to produce vehicles in the occupied northern part of Italy after the Italian king deposed Mussolini and the country changed sides and joined the Allies as a co-belligerent.

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BEUTEPANZERS OF WORLD WAR II: CAPTURED TANKS AND AFVS IN GERMAN SERVICE was written by Steven J Zaloga and illustrated by Felipe Rodriguez and published by Osprey Publishing in 2024 (ISBN 978 1 4728 5938 9).