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What happened to all the Allied equipment the Germans captured after the Battle of France?


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I believe that some of the damage to Normandy fortifications occurred later as some were used to assess the effectiveness of demolition methods, so the effectiveness of shore bombardment might appear to be overstated when visiting.

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Two Somua S-35 tanks from Panzer Abteilung 211, knocked out at road to Tornio, October 1944:

pwPx42U.jpeg

RO2ZXQh.jpeg

 

Bet those who built the tank did not foresee it would be used in Lapland by Germans to fight Finns.

 

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16 hours ago, DB said:

I believe that some of the damage to Normandy fortifications occurred later as some were used to assess the effectiveness of demolition methods, so the effectiveness of shore bombardment might appear to be overstated when visiting.

Makes sense. The Allies knew they'd encounter bunkers like these again on the Westwall.

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Memorable book, as I first read it shortly after it was published

Deadly Business: Sam Cummings, Interarms, and the Arms Trade: Brogan, Patrick, Zarca, Albert: 9780393017663: Amazon.com: Books

 

TL:DR?   Cummings the rich white boy toured around Europe in 1947 (?) and noted the small arms stacked like cordwood still along French roads. He started a commercial enterprise collecting them (possibly at the behest of the CIA) until he had a warehouse in Birmingham filled with enough ordnance to outfit a full sized Division.  INTERARMS peddled these weapons for decades afterwards to anyone with the cash.

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We used to go to the INTERARMCO surplus store by his warehouses in Alexandria to look for coll World War II stuff. Around 1973 to 1978 IIRC. They had a Nebelwerfer sitting out front and some other intersting odds and ends.

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3 hours ago, RichTO90 said:

We used to go to the INTERARMCO surplus store by his warehouses in Alexandria to look for coll World War II stuff. Around 1973 to 1978 IIRC. They had a Nebelwerfer sitting out front and some other intersting odds and ends.

Mid 1990s, that front yard full of 47mm Bofors and 25mm Hotchkiss AT guns.

 

Tangential JEOPARDY answers.

Samuel Cummings - Wikipedia

Cummings was born in Philadelphia[3] and became interested in weapons after acquiring a Maxim gun from a disused American Legion hall at the age of five

 

 

His daughter Susan Cummings was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1998, after shooting her boyfriend Roberto Villegas.[10]

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On 9/10/2024 at 4:25 AM, Stuart Galbraith said:

Just popped up on my feed...

Oh, and the reverse of the original question.

 

Wow, that's enough to equip post war Norwegian army.

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