Fun fact, in the Eastern front German soldiers often used captured PPSH-41 sub machine guns as they had a higher rate of fire, a larger magazine and were told to be more reliable, whereas the Soviets liked to use the German MP40 because it was more handy and it was believed that it was of better quality
Many Germans were issued Ppsh also,and many brought them with them westwards. Some Norwegian SS troops were issued Suomi when they were on Eastern Front,but they used Russian smgs aswell.
i have several friends who deployed to iraq and afganistan. I asked them a few times about using captured weapons. several times i heard a story about using capturd pistols. Junior enlisted are usually not issued a pistol, so they used captured ones. since it was strickly forbidden to bring them home, they turned them over to whichever unit relieved them, and the new guys would carry them.
I picked up a Russian Tokarev made in 1938 on a raid in Afghanistan. I was an 0331 machine gunner. Although I was qualified with the M9 I was never issued one outside of range qualification only Docs, officers sometimes higher ranking SNCOs like E8s or E9 had pistols in an infantry battalion. Anyways, I ended up putting it in one of those yellow amnesty boxes they had on base. Glad I did because before we left they did a 100% shake down where they basically check everything you have to dump all your CIF out then pack everything back up.
In the U.K., only officers or supporting soldiers (like a sniper or something) are issued a pistol. However, quite a few people I’ve met said they requested one from their commanding officer and got given one even though they were just big standard infantry, and they were also allowed to keep machetes, knives and stuff with them that they found, although all guns have to stay locked in the armoury and technically you have to keep knives and machetes in your barracks as well because you’re legally not really supposed to have them because we’re really anti-knives here.
@@kgapaneseschoolgirlb This seems silly. So if your gun gets FUBAR you're just screwed? Seems like everyone should have an issued side arm just in case
@@somethingsomething8511 It really isn’t silly considered I’m pointing out how in the U.K. we get the option to request a sidearm if we so desire (it probably also depends on the commanding officer…Most things here do) whereas in America, you have to scavenge for one, and then not get caught with it. Which one seems more ridiculous? Also, it’s extremely unlikely that your gun gets FUBAR. If it does, you probably have more things to worry about. Like, you’re not gonna drop the thing, anyone who says “oh well it’s possible” hasn’t met a soldier, especially not a British one, British soldiers being infamously known for being some of the most drilled and disciplined soldiers because we have to be because we don’t have the quantity as a luxury on our side. So the only way your gun will break is if you’re attacked, and you’re more likely to break than your gun is in that situation. But like I said, you can request a sidearm, if you’re close to the enemy you’re fighting you can probably nick one of their guns off of their corpse, or if you’re heading back to base, there’s usually spares. Pistols really don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, it’s a waste of money, resources, and weight to make everyone carry one, that’s why it’s only officers who carry them because of, well tradition, and support roles who’s main weapon might not favour close quarters, like I said, snipers, who may just prefer a shotgun and some will just have an assaults rifle/DMR with them anyway.
in fact, when i was in the army, we had really strict rules on weapons on base. the gun has to be registered to the post MP station, couldnt be loaded on base, couldnt be carried on base, was absolutely NOT allowed in the barracks and if you were a barracks troop like i was it had to be stored either at a friends house on base or in the armory. and if the company armorer wasnt around, you arent getting your gun.
I had a captured MP5 broken down in my assault pack for months durning the invasion of Iraq until one of our guys shot his thumb off with a golden plated 1911(negligent discharge), we promptly ditched all our “trophies”. If I ever had the chance to go back I could find where I buried mine very easy.
@UCgmj93V_61ZW8Kl2M7BTfcQ it was basically contraband. I work for the Navy and as a maintainer the only thing I’m allowed to have on shore duty whilst on a base is a pocket knife no bigger than 5 inches or 12.7 centimeters.
As a Gulf War veteran, I might disagree a little. I was attached to a mechanized division and was issued an M9. This irritated my father, a Vietnam vet, who said it wasn’t big enough. 3 weeks after arriving in Saudi Arabia, I got a package, in it was the 1911 he carried for 2 tours and my grandfather also carried from 1942 through 1945. I made it fit in the M9 holster with a little cutting and no one ever paid enough attention to it to catch on I guess. Getting it back home was the hard part, but I still have it.
@@syrapianrule407 I was sent to Germany from Kuwait before coming back to the States. No shakedown before going to Germany, only had to ditch BDU’s. When I got there, we were allowed off base , so I FEDEXed it back home from a shop that I bought some souvenir crap in.
My grandfather served in a US ARMY Armored division during Vietnam to which he wrote a letter home asking his father to buy him a Colt Python and have it shipped over my great-grandfather searched every gun shop in Oklahoma for one but no dice. His squad mate then wrote his father about this situation bought one for my grandfather drove it over 3 states to hand delivery to my great grandfather on his farm in Oklahoma to then have it shipped to Vietnam where he carried it for the remainder of his tour. Then when he was being shipped home got sick and left his bag and gun in the airport to go to the hospital came back some months later and the security guard at the airport had locked the bag up and happily handed it over to my grandfather. To this day it remains one of the most priceless objects in his position in his own words.
Its crazy how simple things sound in older stories. A gun in a bag at an airport today would definitely be turned in, or stolen, maybe even charges pressed on someone. Sad times.
2:13 represents Joe Mazzello as Eugene Sledge in episode 9 of The Pacific, where he fires his sidearm at a wounded Japanese soldier after a suicidal Banzai charge on Okinawa. Sledge actually carried a 1911 sent by his father before he landed at Peleliu and this actually happened at a place called Half Moon Hill. Both instances are noted in Eugene's book With The Old Breed. And Patton also carried a Colt 1903 pistol as well and used his Magnum revolver to shoot to donkeys during the Sicily campaign because the animals blocked one of his columns and got his soldiers killed by enemy planes.
My grandpa brought heaps of weapons back from Germany in 1945 - he’d accepted the surrender of 8 German Army officers, and so he packed up a crate full of Lugers and a couple Kar98s and sent them home. Idk how he did it, but knowing him I assume he wasn’t expressly given permission to do so lol
Before I deployed to Afghanistan in 2008, there was talk of guys being allowed to bring over our personal handguns for our tour. This was considered due to fact that there were very few pistols available to the entire Canadian battle group at that time. Most of the issued pistols were the aging Browning 9mm High Power built in the 1950s, and most of those were snatched up by the support troops who never left Kandahar Airfield. In the end, the higher-ups killed the plan for us to bring over our own guns and we went in with only two handguns for a platoon of 40 guys.
Imaging calling the RCMP for ATT: You: Hi, I am requesting a long-term ATT to transport my Sig Sauer to a different country. RCMP: Ok, you are going to the United States? You: Well, actually that will be the first stop, and then we fly to Afghan ... RCMP: ... A firearms inspector will visit you shortly. Have a nice day!
A friend of mine who was in the US Army Engineers, who was deployed in Iraq during the second invasion, man, they looted and kept all kinds of stuff, mainly for ease of use, They found a sawn off stock12 gauge pump shotgun, which they kept and used in leu of a master key as their battalion wasn't issued shotguns, and even found a old soviet twin barreled AA gun, that they salvaged with ammo out of a school that was being used as an ammo depot by the Iraq military, and then the Taliban, the AA gun was taken back to the post they were stationed at, restored, and they mounted it above the installations main gate, apparently they shredded a few VBIED's before the Taliban figured they couldn't get a car-bomb close enough to the base to do any damage. While its usually frowned upon to use captured equipment, it really depends on the unit and the situation, and if its case of "We don't have any of this type of weapon, it has ammo, is in good condition, and we could use one for specific situations" its easy enough to hide in a truck or Humvee, or to just convince whoever's running the armory to hold onto them for when they are needed.
So this is gonna sound odd but I have a buddy who tells the exact same story, he was part of the combat engineer division that restored the ackack…. Did you buddy happen to know a batch of engineers with a hummve that was “hillbilly armored” and said armor was applied by the use of “explosive welding”? Aka C4 welding
My buddy in the army told me about his grandpa in Vietnam. Apparently he had his wife mail his lever action rifle to him, piece by piece. Not sure how true this is but it's cool to think about.
Psst, they made the Colt Double Action, which is a Single Action Army but double action... Not super popular but pretty sure it exists... Though to be fair, Patton's was an SAA... so...
A friend of mine, his grandfather was in WWII and "liberated" a Vis 35 Radom pistol from a dead German. He used it as his side arm throughout the war and brought it back home with him after the war was over. My friend received the pistol after his grandfather died and he will pass it on to his son one of these days.
Interesting… I looked up the pistol.. and it’s POLISH! I’m guessing the officer must’ve taken it off of a polish officer in 1939 Had it until he died and your friends grand father must’ve been like: this isn’t a Luger! And then realized it isn’t a 1911
Funny, imagine you're making a pistol in Polish factory and it ends up used by a german oficer, next it ends up on another continent as family memorabilia.. the questions is - did you shoot it? :P
In the Civil War, privately purchased or captured guns were frequently superior to the government-issued ones. The prime example is the Henry rifle, "that was loaded on Sunday and fired all week". It was a repeating rifle with a 16-shot magazine, capable of immensely greater rates of fire than muzzle-loading weapons. (And the metal cartridges were highly resistant to rain.) The U.S. issued very few of them, because the supply officers feared they would not be able to provide enough cartridges.
In napoleonic Europe, certain units would get specialist weapons. Either because they were expensive, well-suited for a specialist role or required more of the soldier.
@@kyletroknya2419 That's a big subject. The usual infantry weapon on both sides was the .58 caliber rifled musket. The South captured the rifle works at Harpers Ferry at the outset of the war, but still found it difficult to produce enough of these weapons. Happily for them , Enfield in England also made a .58 caliber musket, and a number of them were carried in by blockade runners. Still, in the early battles flintlock smoothbores were fairly common, especially in the South. There were also more specialized weapons, such as the Whitworth rifle, quite possibly the most accurate firearm in the world at that time, capable of killing at 1,000 yards range. The North developed breech-loading weapons such as the Henry rifle I mentioned and the Sharps carbine. In the late war, the Sharps became a common weapon for Northern cavalry, who would ride to an advantageous position, and then dismount and fight as infantry. the Confederacy could not match the repeating rifles in quantity, for they needed copper for the brass cartridges, which the South was badly short of. Speaking of cavalry weapons, both sides soon adopted revolvers instead of sabers. Most of the revolvers were cap-and-ball types: Smith and Wesson controlled a key patent for metal-cartridge revolvers, and unaccountable only produced .22 caliber models during the Civil War. This was not a useful size for the battlefield, especially as no propellant more advanced than classic black powder was available at the time.
i personally know a Vietnam Vet who smuggled a .264 magnum hunting rifle into Vietnam, he was a Jet mechanic so he never saw much in the way of direct combat, but occasionally when his airbase would receive harassing fire he'd fire back with it. in his own words the .264 was a heavy enough bullet that it didn't matter if there were some leaves in the way, and the high velocity made up for his lack of marksmanship skills.
Not a captured weapon but my father has a home made club my great uncle used at Gallipoli and in the trenches on the Western Front when he was in the AIF during WWI. Hand to hand combat was quite common in the confined spaces of a trench and the SMLE .303 were quite cumbersome in such tight confines so they would resort to using knives, bayonets, entrenching tools and home made weapons. It’s quite an interesting artefact made from hardwood and has a leather grip with a wrist strap as well as hobnails dotted around the business end, perfect for bashing the brains out of Jerry and Johnny Turk alike. War movies seem to gloss over the brutal nature of hand to hand combat.
@@thekraken1173 civilian weapons arent designed to do the same things we demand from military equipment ..... its why the Ross rifle failed it was literally a civilian weapon by design and failed
Based on all other simple history videos I was expecting something more like this. “ ….guns at home , stayed at home….except for Johnny “Homegun” Smith who in the 2004 battle of Faluja used is own .410 shotgun, acquired from home, piece by piece, smuggled in through cans wintergreen grizzly chewing tobacco. Johnny was a thrice divorced, crusty marine Lcpl with 4 kids at home. At just the age of 20, Johnny went on the kill 45 insurgents using homemade birdshot made from saddams teeth and used toilet paper. Johnny wouldn’t be recognized for his valor until many years later, when he was awarded to Medal of Honor”
God bless johnny homegun, he's gonna need it in his next battle against aliens in the 2243 battle of the colonies, where the prophets predicted that he will use his grandfather's M1911A1 he smuggled out of vietnam to singlehandedly destroy a battle cruiser.
My son served as a combat MP In Iraq. He originally carried a government issued Mossberg Model 500 12 Guage shotgun and a Beretta 9 mm pistol. Early in his deployment, he obtained a modified Mossberg 500 with a shortened IC barrel, extended magazine tube, but pad and saddle ammo carrier. Strangely, he was also able to get his hands on a stainless steel Colt Model 1911A1 .45 caliber pistol with several magazines. Subsequently, his "care packages" began to include a box or two of pistol (SJHP) or shotgun (#2 buckshot or slugs) ammo. When he returned home, the weapons were left with civilian contractors who shipped them to him. He still has them, twenty years later.
It's kind of a shame trophy weapon recovery isn't a thing anymore. IIRC in WW2, soldiers could actually fill out a form to have a captured weapon shipped home, but by the time of the Korean war, US firearms restrictions against foreign import and automatic weapons were starting to fall into place in a big way, so it was mostly thrown out. An AK might not seem like as much of a valuable relic as a German K98k today, but give it 80 years.
@@atlanticsquib7232 what type are we talkin about like right off the production line 47 or probably one of the reproduction ones from the 50s like the akm
@@giovannicervantes2053 And the ones that do still exist also still fire like they're brand new. Kalashnikov was a damn genius I'll give him that. (Helps that the M1 GARAND was the primary inspiration. Both the AK and M1 use nearly identical rotating bolts, right down to the locking lug being exactly the same shape, among other similarities. Like being a long stroke gas system)
My old wood shop teacher kept his M72 launcher tube from his time in NAM displayed in his office by the window for all to see, you can imagine how much that freaked out the freshmen.
Short of the long, you have more ammo of enemies' guns while in their territory. For the gifts tho, it is like wearing a birthday gift hat at an extremely sunny day.
Imperial Japan tried to make that official doctrine. Units would be undersupplied with the expectation to scavenge british or US depots as they defeated them. That didn't work when imperial units failed to take a supply dump and their own stocks ran out.
@@SusCalvin kind of like how supposedly (I have no sources to confirm this) Russians sent in a group of armed soldiers followed by unarmed soldiers to pick up and use the weapons of the fallen then a group of armed soldiers behind them to shoot at any unarmed deserters
@@atlanticsquib7232 We think that's a myth about small arms. They produce tons of nagants through the war, there's a reason it's so easy to get a nagant. They get a bunch of lend-lease trucks and jeeps. Something they do is form penal units of sorts. People trying to desert can be just sent back instead. The purges before the war mostly affected the officer corps and the party hierarchy itself.
My family actually still has a properly acquired trophy weapon. My great grandfather snagged an German P38 and brought it back with all the required paperwork and everything.
3:53 it became impossible for US personnel to carry privately purchased guns. But many still carried Eastern Bloc weapons captured from insurgents in combat. They were used as "beater" or "throwaway" guns in combat. When the beater broke down or ran out of ammo, they'd switch back to their primary weapon.
@@XFizzlepop-Berrytwist It was Sun Tsu that said "A cart of the enemies supplies is worth 3 of your own, for you do not have to worry about movement to and from the area of delivery" to paraphrase.
Simo Hayha owned his service weapon because he purchased it from the military... This was common practice in Finland. And based on his kill count Id say it worked very well lol.
@@Sure_You_Betcha Very true. And I've also learned that a decent amount of his kills came from the Finnish submachine gun. Which is kinda crazy considering I had always pictured him as a "deep cover" sniper, ya know, with the stories of holding snow in his mouth so his breath wouldn't show. I guess some ambushes were close enough to use the subgun and you could probably get single shots with a bit of practice.
My dad carried a .44 revolver in Vietnam. Said he was an incredible shot with that gun so he carried it. He has a purple heart. He doesn't talk a lot about it, once in a while I'll get a story out of him. Terrific father, I'm a very lucky man to have him as an example. Hope desperately that my boys feel even half as proud of their father as I do of mine. Y'all, do good in this world.
This was common practice in Vietnam. My great uncle (grandpa's brother) took a stolen ithaca shotgun to Vietnam and came back with a Hi Power pistol that he traded for. I believe he still has it loaded with the same 13 rounds he brought back with it.
My grandpa was a tank mechanic in Vietnam. He made it to lance corporal, but somehow got demoted to PFC before he came home. He was issued a standard M16 along with an M1911A1 because he’d be working in the confined space under a tank. That 1911 saved his life many a time, and when he sent his sea bag home, he wrapped the 1911 in tin foil and stuck it in there. It made it home, along with him two weeks after the bag got home. Now the 1911 is slotted to go to me when he passes.
My Dad had fought in Patton's Third Army, Fourth Armored Division and his MOS was a Scout. He had told me that early in the fall of 1944, they had captured a German supply dump. Not only did they capture plenty of booze but he also came across crates of MP40's and pre-filled magazines. He said that he grabbed one of these and a bunch of filled magazines and carried that weapon for several months. He said that it was lighter than the Thompson submachine gun, carried more rounds the the M1 Carbine and was just as reliable as both of them. I think he ditched that by the time of the Ardennes offensive when the magazines ran out and went back to the Thompson and the M1 Garand. He didn't like the M1 Carbine during the winter because he had seen first hand that the M1 round sometimes would not penetrate the frozen clothes of the Germans.
@@chrisidoo well, aschtually, the fact that heavy clothing can stop a .30 carbine round has been debunked several times. Main causes that made soldiers believe it: they missed their shots or the enemy was high on drug
My buddy scored a pair of gold Makarovs while stationed in Iraq from one of saddams palaces. He got popped trying to bring them back, he offered to let the inspector keep one but got both taken. Inspector probably brought both back. Soldiers should definitely be able to bring back a weapon that was used against them, it's not like one more gun in America is going to make us look gun crazy🤣
It's tales like this that makes IS blokes posing with US stuff feel reasonable. There is always a bunch of leftover stuff after a conflict, things that the actors didn't have time to remove or destroy. And stuff that is just a little busted, that can be made to working order with a bit of work.
Since my Grandfather fought a war where there was no standard issue weapons, he used a captured British Sub Machine Gun, the Sten MK2. Military took it though after the Indonesian War of Independence when Suharto took power over the government. Guess a dictator didn't like the idea of having a populace that included armed war veterans. Though I'm pretty sure we may have some of the melee weapons still. Soldiers of the Indonesian army from 1945-1949 still used spears and swords if they couldn't get a gun or ran out of ammo. A lot of battles ended up with thousands of revolutionaries getting mowed down by Dutch or British machine gun fire, but on a few occasions they'd actually win, albiet with like 10 times as many losses, but a win is a win.
3:53 "What do you think you're doing using the Golden Pistol, son?!" "I...I just..." "Don't you know it's unfair to use the Golden Gun? It's too OP!" "What if the enemy is all Oddjob?"
I don’t know about now, but during Desert Storm, and combat deployments up to the late 90’s, we could fill out the appropriate paperwork and carry POW’s (personally owned weapons) provided they didn’t violate the Geneva Convention, we supplied our own ammo (if it wasn’t chambered in a common NATO caliber, and FMJ, no hollow points), and at our own risk because Uncle Sam wouldn’t reimburse you if it got damaged, lost or destroyed. I know of quite a few guys that were packing their own personal .357/.44 Mags, as well as some of us (me included) 1911 style .45 ACP’s. The .45 was ideal because we still had plenty of ammo for it and in theater, due to the fact that they broke out a lot of M-3 grease guns for tank crews and others, which were chambered in God’s caliber. 😁
@@aj3751 Grease Guns had still been in the Army inventory during the 90s and then removed at the end of the 90s. At the end the only soldiers issued Grease Guns was usually Mechanics operating recovery vehicles. I know because my section had 2 of them assigned to the tracked recovery vehicle crew because of the very cramped space. Reason the Great Gun was discontinued was because the 1911 was also discontinued for the M9 and the military had no plans to keep .45 in inventory only for one specific firearm.
Fun fact. The first snipers they outfitted in Vietnam were hastily put together and equipped by the military with different hunting rifles from Japanese sporting goods stores and pretty much whatever scope they could find. Hence who I believe it was the white feather who carried a Winchester model 70.
The Military used to allow legally bringing home war trophies of knives,handguns, bolt action and some semi automatic rifles. You just had to fill out the forms. I'm pretty sure that practice stopped after Vietnam.
My Dad used a smuggled Winchester M-1897 pump shotgun to good effect in WWII in the Pacific. It was a standard bird shooter sawed off even with the end of the magazine tube. I have his foot locker, and there are still some galvanized steel-hulled buckshot shells in there.
Until now. Since the Army discontinued standard issue side arms a provision was put into place that if a soldier felt like carrying a sidearm he has to provide his own. Including ammunition.
@@zulubob5824 indeed. But the Army's logic is pretty sound. If you are in combat at ranges to make effective use of a sidearm you are already fucked. So it's not really worth carrying an extra pound or two on top of between 75-100 pounds of gear.
I know a lot of polish families who still have Ww2 firearms such as mp-40s, ppshs hidden away away in cellars and attics for decades. When Germany withdrew, civilians/partisan were ordered by the communist regime to surrender our weapons. Alot of people didn't either because of disagreement or out of fear from previous lessons learned. Either way I remember when I was younger my grandfather was showing off an old rifle which was from what he said German. As far as my memory goes it must've been a Mauser 98-k. I've also heard a story from my father that some time in the 80' they were clearing the attic to make more room and they found 2 German grenades which my grandfather later dumped into a lake out of fear that the kids will get to them.
could also be a Gewehr 33/40 or Gewehr 98, both were in heavy use by the german army before 1941 and remained in use for reserve and occupation units through the war when there werent enough Karabiners to go around
I don't think I could have pulled the caps, but I would have sent the grenades off in all their explosive glory. Wish I had grenades for a rainy day invasion...
@@LoneWolf-kw3ol sorry I'm not well informed with the Mauser rifles. It must've been something standard issue anyway. I just called it 98k from gaming reference. It must've been a mouser metal button on the stock, thank blocky safety switch by the receiver and that slick looking muzzle. Definitely not a Mosin. I've held a Mosin and it was much longer and had that ball like bolt catch.
@@PeacefulPeteable man I would've loved to see them go boom. Shame they were dumped into the lake but I would've felt quite uneasy knowing that I have grenades in the household xD
@@LoneWolf-kw3ol That's the usual role where wonky old weapons excel. You have a bunch of security units, because you want someone to sit and garrison a port or make sure the railroad isn't blown up or keep the spetsnaz or the partisans from just walking into town. All the new stuff is going to the frontline units, but you still need to arm these guys with something.
To this day, I still have my Great Grandpas Type 99 Arisaka and it's Type 30 Bayonet and Scabbard he took from the Phillipines. I also still have his Service Shotgun, his M10 Remington and it's cleaning kit.
The Japanese rifle is getting harder to find as true with all unmolested well cared for old battle rifles. Any idea how many Remingtons of that model u.s. property marked were manufactured? I only ask because ive seen and heard more stories of thompsons coming back and being passed down. I'd say the Remington is just as valuable and more scarce than any carbine, garand, 1911, 1903 Springfield just because shotguns though desirable then and now probably weren't hauled home with as much enthusiasm as other weapon types. Original "trench guns" hard to find. Thanks y'all
@@cameronbooker445 My great-grandpa never did anything to the rifle to alter it and/or sporterize it. It's completely original, but it was partially damaged in his care, just a small piece of the stock damaged. The only damage that was intentional was that it's blossom was scratched by the previous owner. It's production number is 4219. As far as I can tell, it's an early war rifle, but my Great-Grandpa never brought back the dust cover. (I will also say that the Leather Scabbard is too late to repair, but the bayonet is almost perfect) The Shotgun is fine as well, but has small patches of rust. I've never looked into how many were properly marked. It's production number is 239345.
When I was in a street gang, I was issued a Hi-Point 40 and a Century Arms AK with the serial number scratched off. I carried both through some epic battles such as the Battle of Kroger in Memphis and the 7-11 Insurection. The AK was taken as evidence but I still have the ahi Point. I wanted to have something that wouldn’t jam when held sideways out of a window of a Chevy Caprice.
Having served in the military and being a civilian gunsmith/collector, I can tell you i would much prefer and trust my personal weapons. My Glock 17 blows the M9 Berreta out of the water , my personal AR15 has three times the quality of the M4 .
Best story of Patton. His men were pinned on a beachhead in North Africa. So he marched up, started barking orders and fought alongside his men using his ivory pistols. The man was the ultimate mad lad
One of my greatuncles was a merchant marine and one time while he was on leave in France he found a dead German soldier while walking along a beach. That soldier had a machine gun (I don't know what model) that he broke down and sent home piece by piece. After the war he returned home and he and my grandfather reassembled it, then took it to a quarry where they fired an entire belt of ammunition from it. Whatever model it was fired so fast that it scred them and they reconfigured the weapon so that it could only ever fire one shot at a time after that. I wish I knew more about it, but after his death his wife went a bit insane and took it out on the front lawn to take potshots at people with it.
@@analizin I don't know. He died before I was born and after his wife fire on people it was confiscated by the police. Since no one in my family have the proper licenses to legally own the weapon I believe it was either put on auction or destroyed.
In my unit, everyone had a personal weapon (usually handgun). As for AK's, some guys liked them because when shooting at night, the enemy couldn't tell who was shooting.
Part of this is do to, contrary to popular myth, front line soldiers were rarely issued handguns. Handguns were intended for officers, MPs, special forces, and auxiliary support troops. However, regular soldiers obviously still liked having them for protection, especially in the bolt action era.
The only people who use them regularly around here are drivers/tankers/pilots. Anyone who sits in a confined space where they can't haul up an automatic carbine easily. MPs use exactly the same stuff as infantry/light infantry. They walk around with carbines. Same with artillerists, base security, motor pool dudes, they rely on their carbines if their base is assaulted or infiltrated. Officers in the field carry carbines. Auxiliary security troops and police used automatic carbines or SMGs as well. They just had an older generation, like last year's model. There was no reason to give them useless pistols instead of making more modern carbines.
I know a fair number of veterans who used M1911 pistols long after the Army adopted the M9 Beretta as the standard side arm. It is true however that AK-47s and other non-US weapons were cheerfully policed up with no apologies before soldiers returned home from the Gulf War. That did not prevent one however from using them on the battlefield so long as the ammo held up. Really, though it's a logistics issue. Asking the military to keep your dad's custom .50 Desert Eagle pistol provisioned with parts and ammunition is not going to happen, and having loved ones ship it to you given current government and postal regulations isn't going to work. So what you've got is a hunk of metal of extreme sentimental value that can't be used that you're going to have to haul around with you everywhere you go. Not optimal.
Guess that's what some guys in the comments meant about a personal arm having to meet certain standards. I can see something like a personal Beretta 92 or P226 being allowed since they already use standard ammo and the former wouldn't need special parts to be ordered but yeah, a deagle in .50AE would be a hard no go.
@@gravygraves5112 How about going full James Bond and using a Walther P99 as a personal sidearm? Don't know about parts but at least it accepts the same ammo as a 9mm Beretta.
Part of the process of NATO in Europe was to keep a few standards in armaments. You could be commanded by a different NATO nation or have your logistics run from a different NATO base than your own country.
When my buddies dad was in Iraq, he said he liked using an AK from the Iraqi forces over the M16 he was issued for the reason that the 7.62 round was better at punching through the cinder block walls that were a common occurrence in all the urban fighting he did. Ironically my roommate carried a gold plated Desert Eagle during his tour that he bought while he was in Afghanistan
Just as enjoyable as the video from a great channel are the stories posted in the comments from soldiers and their family. Thanks everyone, keeping history alive 😊
The problem with using enemy weapons is that it confuses your fellow allies in a firefight. If they hear AK-47s off in the distance, they are going to shoot in that direction or call in fire on that location. They aren't going to wait for verification if a freidnly unit is using enemy weapons.
ever heard about uniforms and coordination?, there's a difference between confusion and just being straight up dumb.(Also, IIRC most modern armies have rules of engagement, a.k.a don't fire unless directly in danger, or in case a friendly is directly in danger.)
@@somefurryguy1811 You must be a textbook nerd who can't seperate between what happens in the field vs what the manual says. You shouldn't be using enemy weapons according to doctine and imagine a 18yo in a trench whose scarred out of his mind? He's going to shoot at what doesn't sound like enemy guns. Accidents happen and using enemy weapons only increases it.
Tbh it's more complicated than that, it's true that intel on the battlefield can be limited and having as much as possible standardisation among your brother in arm can, especially their weapon, can help you better understand the battlefield, despite that, let's be honest, if you open fire on your buddies because of the sound of their weapon, then your squad lead or you fucked up since you are supposed to know at any time where is the rest of your unit
My late father was in Pacific theater, occupation of Japan. Brought home Nambu,2 7.7 Arisaka. One of which is custom from 50's. Williams peep,gold dot, custom stock,shortened, recrowned barrel. RIP DAD. 😢🙏
I believe I've heard of a procedure in the US Army that allows for a soldier to carry a handgun that they themselves purchased under select circumstances that vaguely coresposnds to a similar one used by law enforcement. But it must be from an approved list of weapons and if it's anywhere near the fighting in basically needs to be near an exact duplicate of the standard issue service pistol so that it can draw on ammo and magazine stockpiles if needed. However the paperwork and approval process is arduous and armorers may be reluctant to work on damaged guns that don't belong to the military.
Sounds right. If deployed and operate in combat zone a rock or captured weapon or bought in country weapon or bare hands all covered in military DOJ or jag or whatever. Police the globe torch the village. Long member of the law!
@@cameronbooker445 I'd hate it if some grunt in Vietnam wanted me to work logistics for his favourite german machine pistols, but it's the bulgarian variant which uses a different screw. Only for them to use an automatic carbine anyways.
Guns from home were also carried because sometimes they were superior to the ones issued, service weapons are not chosen because they are the absolute best, they are chosen because they balance good quality with an affordable price or ease of manufacture
You use captured weapons in situations where you're cut off from resupply and run out of ammo for your issued weapons. Paratroopers often had to use captured German weapons during WWII.
There are archives interviews i watched where a man talked about raiding a castle in Belgium to find a room full of rockets so the fired them all at the next thing that presented its self. One of his buddies got crushed under the doorway of a castle hit by fire as they came out. I wish they would upload them all to youtube but they wont.
Yea the german didn’t need the gun or ammo anymore if they killed them. Thats my End of world plan. No need to stockpile supplies. The people without weapons (the ones we told to buy a gun) will have all the supplies you’ll need.
My Uncle was a Force Recon Marine in Vietnam. He told me once that whenever they killed or captured VC they would take their AKs and whatever ammo they could find and use those instead of the M-16. Because it sucked
A1 models? Certainly. If you use the proper ammunition for it and clean it regularly, it's reliable, as the Brownell's reproduction proves. Later models are more reliable that the AKM's of the time
@@fallout0624 well I made it through one war with dirty weapon, when there is no provision by the US Army, the only way to clean your weapon is rotor wash and dirt. Truly speaking you don’t oil on your weapon, it will pick up more dirt in ten seconds than you can believe.
My great grandad served in the navy in the Pacific during WW2. He didn't drink or smoke but he knew the value of alcohol & cigarettes so he saved his rations of it. Later in occupied Japan he traded two bottles of whiskey to a Marine for a Japanese type 38 araisaka with the bayonet. Inherited it from him after he passed away. Several years ago. Even though I had a gunsmith inspect it and he cleared it I'm weary of shooting it as it hasn't been fired in decades. Still looks great though.
I can understand the rule as it pertains to standard issue rifles due to logistics and what not. But non-issued sidearms (pistols/revolvers) should be allowed, however the military should not be expected to send ammo for that sidearm.
@@Sure_You_Betcha exactly. If personnel aren’t being issued items, they should be allowed to bring or use things from home as long as the item doesn’t compromise the effectiveness of standard issue.
@@Sure_You_Betcha I think he means that if your rifle takes the same cartridges as can be found in normal supply lines, it should be allowed. Could have saved lives if soldiers were allowed to use AR-10’s and PTR-91’s in Afghanistan where they needed the heavier 7.62x51 cartridges in their personal weapons for the longer ranges. They could have stripped rounds from MG belts.
SOCOM guys use their own uppers on M4s since they have the freedom. But they also have unit armorers which can custom build rifles for different applications. Since they have more money than standard infantry.
I know two police officers who were activated during Desert Storm. They packed their personal sidearms and took them with them. It made them feel a little better.
If a revolver is single action you have to pull back the hammer for every shot as opposed to double action which alows you to just pull the trigger and pull back the hammer in one motion
When there inevitably occurs a war with moon or martian colonies, I wonder how many captured guns are going to end on both sides, planets aways from where they were made. I always liked the idea of captured weapons. In it's home army, a rifle is but one of many, but once captured and repurposed, it becomes unique.
I like using the Covenant's own weapons against them in Halo. Pop an elite's shields with a Plasma Pistol and then finishing them off with a 50cal round from the Magnum. Or maybe blowing up a Wraith with a Fuel Rod Cannon. Or sticking a grunt with a Plasma 'nade.
@@kikkerslikker4533 I mean, war is human nature, resources would be planet-specific(like certain planets would have more copper or iron, you get the point.), it would be a shitshow thankfully i won't be alive to see it.
There was a show on Sci Fi called Defiance, which took place decades after a war where alien refugees had tried to invade Earth and the survivors on both sides live among the ruins trying to coexist, and because the world is pretty run down from the war, aliens will carry AKs and other old human weapons and have no problem using them, because a gun is a gun whether its human or alien. I thought it was pretty cool for worldbuilding in that show.
My pops served in the army and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. They were told specifically not to take “trophies” due to the fact those guns a lot of the time were older and had more of a tendency to jam and misfire. He said if you are going to war for souvenirs, then you didn’t need to be there.
In 2003 many of us had personal sidearms. We brought them on ship with our commands knowledge but once we were in country we were denied access. I'm sure there was a real reason but our command stated ammo availability. Once we return to Pendleton we got our sidearms back. So although I didn't get to carry my personal beretta brigadier I still know that it was in country and is what I will give my son when he gets his commission.
In the early years of Afghanistan troops would ask their family to send them rifle scopes because technically it was not a weapon. After a while they banned that too because troops were getting way more headshots than usual and leadership told them they needed to stop because it was some Geneva convention violation.
The same thing happened when the US started issuing the ACOG. They thought that soldiers were executing enemy combatants because so many were being shot in the head, but it was just because the soldiers could actually hit what they were aiming at
A few observations: You have to be careful when disposing of personal weapons when leaving theater--don't even think about trying to smuggle them back. Often, TCNs (Third Country Nationals) are responsible for trash, and weapons and ordnance disposed of in the trash can wind up among the TCNs. If memory serves, a search found an AK47 and smoke grenades among a TCN in Iraq on a secured base; odds are favorable that it was recovered from trash. If in theater and desirous of extra munitions (such as grenades!), check amnesty boxes (if not secured), PMO (who tends to service the amnesty boxes), Special Forces (a kind word goes a long way), outgoing units, and customs (primarily for medical goods, not munitions). I imagine that it would be easier to smuggle a weapon sear back from a combat zone than a whole weapon or receiver...but subject to UCMJ and federal penalties. You'd be better off buying a binary trigger lawfully. It is far easier to (unlawfully) bring a weapon to a combat zone than to bring one back. For myself, I'm not interested in personal firearms in combat zone--but seeing as I'm issued a rifle and pistol anyway, I don't really need them. Weapons are meant to be felt, not seen; don't carry blades openly on your gear and use retention type holsters for pistols. Truth is, when it comes to blades, you are unlikely to use them as weapons--they fall below long arm, pistol, and muzzle strikes as weapons. Medical shears are generally more useful, tucked behind other gear. YMMV.
Most veterans I've heard describe knives as tools first. You can open MRE bags with them, cut lines of cord, make a hole in tarp etc. They're tremendously useful for lots of things other than knifing a guy.
They should ease these rules up. Soldiers who can capture weapons should to some degree be able to keep said weapons. Soldiers who wish to bring a weapon to the field, provided it meets a service standard should be able to be brought.
The standard issue weapon is the standard issue for a reason. As soon as you have something new, unpredictable, perhaps worse, you not only risk your own life but you also compromise your ability to back up your unit.
The problem is if you have an m4 and grab an AK with enough ammo and mags at some point they will be empty or you will have to go into battle with 60 bullets because you don't have any spare and no one can give you ammo in the thick of a battle because you have different caliber and magazines.
@@wolfgang_h3t That or any other kind of maintenance. Just keeping all the variants of NATO firearms maintained was a hassle, without tossing in Pact weapons as well. Veterans talking about these weapons describe them as throwaway. Once your stolen bulgarian SMG breaks it's easier to toss it and use your standard firearm.
Prior to WW1 officers were REQUIRED to supply their own weapons (and uniforms too). That broke down in WW1 because of promotions from the ranks of non-commissioned officers who didn’t have the financial resources to buy the required equipment at short notice. This was a problem for every army involved.
Officers at that time are walking around with their equivalent of a personal defence weapon, a revolver. They spend more time directing a platoon of guys than taking potshots themselves, but they had to be armed with something and an SMG wasn't an option yet.
@@allangibson2408 Swords are weighty to drag around. Great War officers might carry their version of a self defence weapon, a revolver. The early SMGs were not available yet, much less so the compact PDWs of today.
@@SusCalvin British officers had to be SPECIFICALLY ordered NOT to carry swords on the front lines, first in the Boer War and then in the First World War because it marked them as officers leading to them being the first shot. Later in the First World War a significant number of British officers started to carry rifles as standard for the same reasons but their was also happening in the Boer War with a number purchasing Lee-Speed rifles for the same reasons.
@@AragamiR327 For the record, I know that Desert Eagle with 0.5 cal Action Express round is occasionally used by Special Forces. But not for killing people - for immobilizing vehicles. Makes sense - one shot and the engine is gone.
Fun fact, in the Eastern front German soldiers often used captured PPSH-41 sub machine guns as they had a higher rate of fire, a larger magazine and were told to be more reliable, whereas the Soviets liked to use the German MP40 because it was more handy and it was believed that it was of better quality
i mean id rather have a ppsh that doesnt freeze and spits out lead then a kar 98 which´s bolt freezes
Both of these statements are correct
the grass is always greener on the otherside right?
@@legoeasycompany i mean sometimes they had more captured ammo then their own so they would use captured guns as well
Many Germans were issued Ppsh also,and many brought them with them westwards. Some Norwegian SS troops were issued Suomi when they were on Eastern Front,but they used Russian smgs aswell.
i have several friends who deployed to iraq and afganistan. I asked them a few times about using captured weapons. several times i heard a story about using capturd pistols. Junior enlisted are usually not issued a pistol, so they used captured ones. since it was strickly forbidden to bring them home, they turned them over to whichever unit relieved them, and the new guys would carry them.
I picked up a Russian Tokarev made in 1938 on a raid in Afghanistan. I was an 0331 machine gunner. Although I was qualified with the M9 I was never issued one outside of range qualification only Docs, officers sometimes higher ranking SNCOs like E8s or E9 had pistols in an infantry battalion. Anyways, I ended up putting it in one of those yellow amnesty boxes they had on base. Glad I did because before we left they did a 100% shake down where they basically check everything you have to dump all your CIF out then pack everything back up.
In the U.K., only officers or supporting soldiers (like a sniper or something) are issued a pistol. However, quite a few people I’ve met said they requested one from their commanding officer and got given one even though they were just big standard infantry, and they were also allowed to keep machetes, knives and stuff with them that they found, although all guns have to stay locked in the armoury and technically you have to keep knives and machetes in your barracks as well because you’re legally not really supposed to have them because we’re really anti-knives here.
@@kgapaneseschoolgirlb This seems silly. So if your gun gets FUBAR you're just screwed? Seems like everyone should have an issued side arm just in case
@@somethingsomething8511 It really isn’t silly considered I’m pointing out how in the U.K. we get the option to request a sidearm if we so desire (it probably also depends on the commanding officer…Most things here do) whereas in America, you have to scavenge for one, and then not get caught with it. Which one seems more ridiculous?
Also, it’s extremely unlikely that your gun gets FUBAR. If it does, you probably have more things to worry about. Like, you’re not gonna drop the thing, anyone who says “oh well it’s possible” hasn’t met a soldier, especially not a British one, British soldiers being infamously known for being some of the most drilled and disciplined soldiers because we have to be because we don’t have the quantity as a luxury on our side. So the only way your gun will break is if you’re attacked, and you’re more likely to break than your gun is in that situation.
But like I said, you can request a sidearm, if you’re close to the enemy you’re fighting you can probably nick one of their guns off of their corpse, or if you’re heading back to base, there’s usually spares. Pistols really don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, it’s a waste of money, resources, and weight to make everyone carry one, that’s why it’s only officers who carry them because of, well tradition, and support roles who’s main weapon might not favour close quarters, like I said, snipers, who may just prefer a shotgun and some will just have an assaults rifle/DMR with them anyway.
in fact, when i was in the army, we had really strict rules on weapons on base.
the gun has to be registered to the post MP station, couldnt be loaded on base, couldnt be carried on base, was absolutely NOT allowed in the barracks and if you were a barracks troop like i was it had to be stored either at a friends house on base or in the armory. and if the company armorer wasnt around, you arent getting your gun.
I had a captured MP5 broken down in my assault pack for months durning the invasion of Iraq until one of our guys shot his thumb off with a golden plated 1911(negligent discharge), we promptly ditched all our “trophies”. If I ever had the chance to go back I could find where I buried mine very easy.
@KELL II im no expert on this topic, but my guess is that it would be hella hard to regulate something like that
@UCgmj93V_61ZW8Kl2M7BTfcQ basically customs, and it would be an nfa item=serviceman’s dog gets shot by the atf
That all sounds like a load of bs to me
@UCgmj93V_61ZW8Kl2M7BTfcQ it was basically contraband. I work for the Navy and as a maintainer the only thing I’m allowed to have on shore duty whilst on a base is a pocket knife no bigger than 5 inches or 12.7 centimeters.
@@robertg.durant8489 it would to somebody that was never there
As a Gulf War veteran, I might disagree a little. I was attached to a mechanized division and was issued an M9. This irritated my father, a Vietnam vet, who said it wasn’t big enough. 3 weeks after arriving in Saudi Arabia, I got a package, in it was the 1911 he carried for 2 tours and my grandfather also carried from 1942 through 1945. I made it fit in the M9 holster with a little cutting and no one ever paid enough attention to it to catch on I guess. Getting it back home was the hard part, but I still have it.
How’d you get it back?
im also interested in this tale
Same here.
Oh, NO! Not in your flesh holster!?
@@jacobmccandles1767 no part of the object in question was hidden in my prison wallet :)
@@syrapianrule407 I was sent to Germany from Kuwait before coming back to the States. No shakedown before going to Germany, only had to ditch BDU’s. When I got there, we were allowed off base , so I FEDEXed it back home from a shop that I bought some souvenir crap in.
My grandfather served in a US ARMY Armored division during Vietnam to which he wrote a letter home asking his father to buy him a Colt Python and have it shipped over my great-grandfather searched every gun shop in Oklahoma for one but no dice. His squad mate then wrote his father about this situation bought one for my grandfather drove it over 3 states to hand delivery to my great grandfather on his farm in Oklahoma to then have it shipped to Vietnam where he carried it for the remainder of his tour. Then when he was being shipped home got sick and left his bag and gun in the airport to go to the hospital came back some months later and the security guard at the airport had locked the bag up and happily handed it over to my grandfather. To this day it remains one of the most priceless objects in his position in his own words.
Its crazy how simple things sound in older stories.
A gun in a bag at an airport today would definitely be turned in, or stolen, maybe even charges pressed on someone.
Sad times.
@Kay 9/11/2001 knocked us into an alternate, albeit worse reality.
Back when airport security wasn't so fascistic and didnt make a huge fuss about firearms.
Fellow okie ay?
2:13 represents Joe Mazzello as Eugene Sledge in episode 9 of The Pacific, where he fires his sidearm at a wounded Japanese soldier after a suicidal Banzai charge on Okinawa. Sledge actually carried a 1911 sent by his father before he landed at Peleliu and this actually happened at a place called Half Moon Hill. Both instances are noted in Eugene's book With The Old Breed.
And Patton also carried a Colt 1903 pistol as well and used his Magnum revolver to shoot to donkeys during the Sicily campaign because the animals blocked one of his columns and got his soldiers killed by enemy planes.
slayer of soldiers and farm animals alike.
@@thepoglin8479 I'm telling you, that donkey had a gun.
@@wubnub That donkey had weapons of mass destruction
I remember that scene it’s one of my favorite Episodes of the show
Are you sure about Sledge and the 1911?? In the TV show is a 45 Long Colt revolver. I dont have the book!!!
My grandpa brought heaps of weapons back from Germany in 1945 - he’d accepted the surrender of 8 German Army officers, and so he packed up a crate full of Lugers and a couple Kar98s and sent them home. Idk how he did it, but knowing him I assume he wasn’t expressly given permission to do so lol
If he was friends with a creative Quartermaster they would have found a way easily enough.
That’s a war crime. Geneva convention says no spoils of war
@@jollygreenjeff2640 who tf cares
8 Germans? That's really impressive, I'd love to hear that story
@@jollygreenjeff2640 Geneva convention was created in 1949, so it wasn't a crime back then.
Before I deployed to Afghanistan in 2008, there was talk of guys being allowed to bring over our personal handguns for our tour. This was considered due to fact that there were very few pistols available to the entire Canadian battle group at that time. Most of the issued pistols were the aging Browning 9mm High Power built in the 1950s, and most of those were snatched up by the support troops who never left Kandahar Airfield. In the end, the higher-ups killed the plan for us to bring over our own guns and we went in with only two handguns for a platoon of 40 guys.
That sucks. It doesn’t even sound like it would cost extra for Canadian military to implement the policy.
Mom said it's my turn on the only two government issued handguns.
I would see that the higher ups wanted to get their soldiers killed. If that was really important.
Imaging calling the RCMP for ATT:
You: Hi, I am requesting a long-term ATT to transport my Sig Sauer to a different country.
RCMP: Ok, you are going to the United States?
You: Well, actually that will be the first stop, and then we fly to Afghan ...
RCMP: ... A firearms inspector will visit you shortly. Have a nice day!
at least you were better off then sargent johnson...his platoon had 2 sticks...and a rock...they had to share the rock.
A friend of mine who was in the US Army Engineers, who was deployed in Iraq during the second invasion, man, they looted and kept all kinds of stuff, mainly for ease of use, They found a sawn off stock12 gauge pump shotgun, which they kept and used in leu of a master key as their battalion wasn't issued shotguns, and even found a old soviet twin barreled AA gun, that they salvaged with ammo out of a school that was being used as an ammo depot by the Iraq military, and then the Taliban, the AA gun was taken back to the post they were stationed at, restored, and they mounted it above the installations main gate, apparently they shredded a few VBIED's before the Taliban figured they couldn't get a car-bomb close enough to the base to do any damage.
While its usually frowned upon to use captured equipment, it really depends on the unit and the situation, and if its case of "We don't have any of this type of weapon, it has ammo, is in good condition, and we could use one for specific situations" its easy enough to hide in a truck or Humvee, or to just convince whoever's running the armory to hold onto them for when they are needed.
probably the ZPU-2 , dual barrel 14.5mm heavy machine gun, with a bullet almost twice as powerfull as 50 bmg
So this is gonna sound odd but I have a buddy who tells the exact same story, he was part of the combat engineer division that restored the ackack…. Did you buddy happen to know a batch of engineers with a hummve that was “hillbilly armored” and said armor was applied by the use of “explosive welding”? Aka C4 welding
I will be reporting these crimes
Jk
@@vixnix2812 small world
Yugoslav wars:everyone uses the same weapons cuz UN didn't deliver anything in 5.56
My buddy in the army told me about his grandpa in Vietnam. Apparently he had his wife mail his lever action rifle to him, piece by piece. Not sure how true this is but it's cool to think about.
Damn bro thats foking awesome
I love how they depicted a single action revolver as a double action revolver
I just wanted to comment about it, it is quite a major mistake. always check the comment section to see if someone has already commented about it.
Psst, they made the Colt Double Action, which is a Single Action Army but double action... Not super popular but pretty sure it exists...
Though to be fair, Patton's was an SAA... so...
Beat me to it. Oh well, I’m leaving my comment explaining that.
@@JohnSmith-xv2ob What's an SAA?
@@dravenocklost4253 Single Action Army
The government: “you’re not supposed to carry your own guns”
Soldiers: *”im gonna pretend i didnt see that”*
@Gепshiп lмрасt 🅥 bro wtf are you doing here this isn't even a Genshin related video
What’s that? “Carry your own guns?” Ok 👍🏻
@@t-posetimmy6834 it's a bot so it automatically spams comments everywhere
@@jorgenflorgen8676 yeah I've never seen it outside of a Genshin video
"That sounds like a suggestion"
A friend of mine, his grandfather was in WWII and "liberated" a Vis 35 Radom pistol from a dead German. He used it as his side arm throughout the war and brought it back home with him after the war was over. My friend received the pistol after his grandfather died and he will pass it on to his son one of these days.
My dad his friend bought a luger from a vet that was in the resistance in Belgium . He got (stoled) the luger from a german officer.
Interesting… I looked up the pistol.. and it’s POLISH! I’m guessing the officer must’ve taken it off of a polish officer in 1939
Had it until he died and your friends grand father must’ve been like: this isn’t a Luger!
And then realized it isn’t a 1911
@@Commrade-DOGE the Germans captured the Radom factory and kept it running so they could issue them to their own troops.
Funny, imagine you're making a pistol in Polish factory and it ends up used by a german oficer, next it ends up on another continent as family memorabilia.. the questions is - did you shoot it? :P
My grandpa also captured a Vis 35, along with a P38. Have both of them today.
In the Civil War, privately purchased or captured guns were frequently superior to the government-issued ones. The prime example is the Henry rifle, "that was loaded on Sunday and fired all week". It was a repeating rifle with a 16-shot magazine, capable of immensely greater rates of fire than muzzle-loading weapons. (And the metal cartridges were highly resistant to rain.) The U.S. issued very few of them, because the supply officers feared they would not be able to provide enough cartridges.
In napoleonic Europe, certain units would get specialist weapons. Either because they were expensive, well-suited for a specialist role or required more of the soldier.
Can't trust anything mass produced at a government spec.
What kind of guns did the soldiers use?
@@kyletroknya2419 That's a big subject. The usual infantry weapon on both sides was the .58 caliber rifled musket. The South captured the rifle works at Harpers Ferry at the outset of the war, but still found it difficult to produce enough of these weapons. Happily for them , Enfield in England also made a .58 caliber musket, and a number of them were carried in by blockade runners. Still, in the early battles flintlock smoothbores were fairly common, especially in the South. There were also more specialized weapons, such as the Whitworth rifle, quite possibly the most accurate firearm in the world at that time, capable of killing at 1,000 yards range. The North developed breech-loading weapons such as the Henry rifle I mentioned and the Sharps carbine. In the late war, the Sharps became a common weapon for Northern cavalry, who would ride to an advantageous position, and then dismount and fight as infantry. the Confederacy could not match the repeating rifles in quantity, for they needed copper for the brass cartridges, which the South was badly short of. Speaking of cavalry weapons, both sides soon adopted revolvers instead of sabers. Most of the revolvers were cap-and-ball types: Smith and Wesson controlled a key patent for metal-cartridge revolvers, and unaccountable only produced .22 caliber models during the Civil War. This was not a useful size for the battlefield, especially as no propellant more advanced than classic black powder was available at the time.
i personally know a Vietnam Vet who smuggled a .264 magnum hunting rifle into Vietnam, he was a Jet mechanic so he never saw much in the way of direct combat, but occasionally when his airbase would receive harassing fire he'd fire back with it. in his own words the .264 was a heavy enough bullet that it didn't matter if there were some leaves in the way, and the high velocity made up for his lack of marksmanship skills.
Not a captured weapon but my father has a home made club my great uncle used at Gallipoli and in the trenches on the Western Front when he was in the AIF during WWI. Hand to hand combat was quite common in the confined spaces of a trench and the SMLE .303 were quite cumbersome in such tight confines so they would resort to using knives, bayonets, entrenching tools and home made weapons. It’s quite an interesting artefact made from hardwood and has a leather grip with a wrist strap as well as hobnails dotted around the business end, perfect for bashing the brains out of Jerry and Johnny Turk alike. War movies seem to gloss over the brutal nature of hand to hand combat.
What a relic, some of my favourite stories from the great war are the shenanigans the Anzac Diggers got up to.
Ive got a captured katana brought home by my grandfathers father as well as a few german pieces of equipment
Except for Inglorious Bastards. The Bear Jew scene came to mind when I started reading your comment.
watch the tv show 'Gallipoli' and the film 'The Water Diviner', best scenes that cover what you mention.
@@dubfez_9256 Yes to both
me personally i actually like the idea of using guns from home as it can boost morale by bringing soldiers closer to home while on duty
until it jams cause civilian weapons dont have the same standards and gets the guy killed .... of course morale is a secondary concern at that point
@@reform-revolution Bruh military standards means the standards of the cheapest bidder
@@reform-revolution you've obviously never seen how shot out some military weapons get.
@@thekraken1173 civilian weapons arent designed to do the same things we demand from military equipment ..... its why the Ross rifle failed it was literally a civilian weapon by design and failed
@@kt00628 compare them to civilian weapons with the same wear and tear and you see a massive difference kid
Based on all other simple history videos I was expecting something more like this. “ ….guns at home , stayed at home….except for Johnny “Homegun” Smith who in the 2004 battle of Faluja used is own .410 shotgun, acquired from home, piece by piece, smuggled in through cans wintergreen grizzly chewing tobacco. Johnny was a thrice divorced, crusty marine Lcpl with 4 kids at home. At just the age of 20, Johnny went on the kill 45 insurgents using homemade birdshot made from saddams teeth and used toilet paper. Johnny wouldn’t be recognized for his valor until many years later, when he was awarded to Medal of Honor”
Thats excellent!! Hahaha better than any .25 zip gun story I could ever make up
God bless johnny homegun, he's gonna need it in his next battle against aliens in the 2243 battle of the colonies, where the prophets predicted that he will use his grandfather's M1911A1 he smuggled out of vietnam to singlehandedly destroy a battle cruiser.
That was so good I actually read it in the simple history narrator's voice.
@@jacobmccandles1767 Thats the only way to do it, because I wrote it in his voice.
This comment, and all the replies just made my day. This is too funny.
My son served as a combat MP In Iraq. He originally carried a government issued Mossberg Model 500 12 Guage shotgun and a Beretta 9 mm pistol. Early in his deployment, he obtained a modified Mossberg 500 with a shortened IC barrel, extended magazine tube, but pad and saddle ammo carrier. Strangely, he was also able to get his hands on a stainless steel Colt Model 1911A1 .45 caliber pistol with several magazines. Subsequently, his "care packages" began to include a box or two of pistol (SJHP) or shotgun (#2 buckshot or slugs) ammo. When he returned home, the weapons were left with civilian contractors who shipped them to him. He still has them, twenty years later.
It's kind of a shame trophy weapon recovery isn't a thing anymore. IIRC in WW2, soldiers could actually fill out a form to have a captured weapon shipped home, but by the time of the Korean war, US firearms restrictions against foreign import and automatic weapons were starting to fall into place in a big way, so it was mostly thrown out. An AK might not seem like as much of a valuable relic as a German K98k today, but give it 80 years.
A true Russian made AK47 with all original parts is pretty damn rare
@@atlanticsquib7232 what type are we talkin about like right off the production line 47 or probably one of the reproduction ones from the 50s like the akm
@@giovannicervantes2053 yes the AK47 Type 1’s. They are incredibly rare to find especially with all original parts
@@atlanticsquib7232 Jesus
@@giovannicervantes2053 And the ones that do still exist also still fire like they're brand new. Kalashnikov was a damn genius I'll give him that.
(Helps that the M1 GARAND was the primary inspiration. Both the AK and M1 use nearly identical rotating bolts, right down to the locking lug being exactly the same shape, among other similarities. Like being a long stroke gas system)
My old wood shop teacher kept his M72 launcher tube from his time in NAM displayed in his office by the window for all to see, you can imagine how much that freaked out the freshmen.
Thats the American experience I know, teacher is a war veteran with his war trophiea in the classroom
Could you imagine how people would lose their mind if that was to happen now
@@pepelepew8147 that is IF wood shop/carpentry is part of 2020's curriculum.
@@johnrandolph1989 it’s not, photoshop is though! -.-
@@johnrandolph1989 It is in schools lucky enough to have one. My old middleschool had one.
Short of the long, you have more ammo of enemies' guns while in their territory. For the gifts tho, it is like wearing a birthday gift hat at an extremely sunny day.
Imperial Japan tried to make that official doctrine. Units would be undersupplied with the expectation to scavenge british or US depots as they defeated them. That didn't work when imperial units failed to take a supply dump and their own stocks ran out.
@@SusCalvin kind of like how supposedly (I have no sources to confirm this) Russians sent in a group of armed soldiers followed by unarmed soldiers to pick up and use the weapons of the fallen then a group of armed soldiers behind them to shoot at any unarmed deserters
@@atlanticsquib7232 We think that's a myth about small arms. They produce tons of nagants through the war, there's a reason it's so easy to get a nagant. They get a bunch of lend-lease trucks and jeeps.
Something they do is form penal units of sorts. People trying to desert can be just sent back instead. The purges before the war mostly affected the officer corps and the party hierarchy itself.
@@SusCalvin ahh okay, good to know!
My guy can’t take his golden deagle with him. 😥
Dude only wanted to experience COD MW golden deagle in real life smh.
@@weplo1597 what a shame 😩
Literally 1984 😭
Dude grinded
Excuse me, I thought this was America!
My family actually still has a properly acquired trophy weapon. My great grandfather snagged an German P38 and brought it back with all the required paperwork and everything.
3:53 it became impossible for US personnel to carry privately purchased guns. But many still carried Eastern Bloc weapons captured from insurgents in combat. They were used as "beater" or "throwaway" guns in combat. When the beater broke down or ran out of ammo, they'd switch back to their primary weapon.
I mean sounds smart if you ask me? Save your own ammo/resources, whilst draining the enemies.
@@XFizzlepop-Berrytwist It was Sun Tsu that said "A cart of the enemies supplies is worth 3 of your own, for you do not have to worry about movement to and from the area of delivery" to paraphrase.
Simo Häyhä famously used his own personal rifle he had for years before the war.
Seemed to work well.
Simo Hayha owned his service weapon because he purchased it from the military... This was common practice in Finland. And based on his kill count Id say it worked very well lol.
A rifle is a tool, so it's only as good as what you make of it :) Simo made good with it, as he would have with any working rifle!
@@Sure_You_Betcha Very true. And I've also learned that a decent amount of his kills came from the Finnish submachine gun. Which is kinda crazy considering I had always pictured him as a "deep cover" sniper, ya know, with the stories of holding snow in his mouth so his breath wouldn't show. I guess some ambushes were close enough to use the subgun and you could probably get single shots with a bit of practice.
I mean it was his issued rifle, but yeah, it was his throughout his training right till the end of the war
He fought inside Finland. Pretty easy to get parts of it.
0:29
Random drill sergeant: God dammit Forrest! That's a new company record! Why did you do it this fast?!
You told me to, drill sergeant?
disassemblethatweaponandcontinue!
@@a.h.s.3006 You are going to be a 20-star general Private Gump!
Guummmmmpppp!!!
Run Forrest run!
It's always nice to learn news things from this channel
@Gепshiп lмрасt 🅥 😂😂 I thought it was a rick roll
Toffe comment
@@Musicandstuffff thx
My dad carried a .44 revolver in Vietnam. Said he was an incredible shot with that gun so he carried it. He has a purple heart. He doesn't talk a lot about it, once in a while I'll get a story out of him. Terrific father, I'm a very lucky man to have him as an example. Hope desperately that my boys feel even half as proud of their father as I do of mine. Y'all, do good in this world.
This was common practice in Vietnam. My great uncle (grandpa's brother) took a stolen ithaca shotgun to Vietnam and came back with a Hi Power pistol that he traded for. I believe he still has it loaded with the same 13 rounds he brought back with it.
My grandpa was a tank mechanic in Vietnam. He made it to lance corporal, but somehow got demoted to PFC before he came home. He was issued a standard M16 along with an M1911A1 because he’d be working in the confined space under a tank. That 1911 saved his life many a time, and when he sent his sea bag home, he wrapped the 1911 in tin foil and stuck it in there. It made it home, along with him two weeks after the bag got home. Now the 1911 is slotted to go to me when he passes.
isnt that still US property ?
@@tavish4699 Not anymore.
That is awesome both your grandpa, being a tank mechanic, and the gun as well. Respect for your grandpa’s service
@@kachel313 lol
@@tavish4699 that's our property. We paid for it with our taxes
My Dad had fought in Patton's Third Army, Fourth Armored Division and his MOS was a Scout. He had told me that early in the fall of 1944, they had captured a German supply dump. Not only did they capture plenty of booze but he also came across crates of MP40's and pre-filled magazines. He said that he grabbed one of these and a bunch of filled magazines and carried that weapon for several months. He said that it was lighter than the Thompson submachine gun, carried more rounds the the M1 Carbine and was just as reliable as both of them. I think he ditched that by the time of the Ardennes offensive when the magazines ran out and went back to the Thompson and the M1 Garand. He didn't like the M1 Carbine during the winter because he had seen first hand that the M1 round sometimes would not penetrate the frozen clothes of the Germans.
They mighty M1 didn't have enough penetration? Shocker
@@neft5449 I’m assuming he’s referring to the carbine round not a full power .30-06
this sounds like fabricated BS
@@hoppinggnomethe4154 And you're free to believe so, buddy.
@@chrisidoo well, aschtually, the fact that heavy clothing can stop a .30 carbine round has been debunked several times.
Main causes that made soldiers believe it: they missed their shots or the enemy was high on drug
I have a mauser model 98 rifle that was captured during ww2. A good friend of my dad gave it to me because he knew that I like history.
Kar98k? That's a reliable bolt action rifle, ever thought of going hunting with it?
@@Slenderslayer351 There's some rust on it, I was just going to clean it and put it on display.
Wait is it a K98K or a G98? Because I know that last ditch weapons issued out in WW2 including WW1 era G98s
@@Wolf-wc1js wasnt last ditch, the g98 was in common service with rear line troops
@@qui-gonjinn5014 You should show it off on your channel
My buddy scored a pair of gold Makarovs while stationed in Iraq from one of saddams palaces. He got popped trying to bring them back, he offered to let the inspector keep one but got both taken. Inspector probably brought both back. Soldiers should definitely be able to bring back a weapon that was used against them, it's not like one more gun in America is going to make us look gun crazy🤣
It's tales like this that makes IS blokes posing with US stuff feel reasonable. There is always a bunch of leftover stuff after a conflict, things that the actors didn't have time to remove or destroy. And stuff that is just a little busted, that can be made to working order with a bit of work.
Since my Grandfather fought a war where there was no standard issue weapons, he used a captured British Sub Machine Gun, the Sten MK2. Military took it though after the Indonesian War of Independence when Suharto took power over the government. Guess a dictator didn't like the idea of having a populace that included armed war veterans. Though I'm pretty sure we may have some of the melee weapons still. Soldiers of the Indonesian army from 1945-1949 still used spears and swords if they couldn't get a gun or ran out of ammo. A lot of battles ended up with thousands of revolutionaries getting mowed down by Dutch or British machine gun fire, but on a few occasions they'd actually win, albiet with like 10 times as many losses, but a win is a win.
3:53 "What do you think you're doing using the Golden Pistol, son?!"
"I...I just..."
"Don't you know it's unfair to use the Golden Gun? It's too OP!"
"What if the enemy is all Oddjob?"
@Jayden Dicritan sussy baka
Thats not just ANY golden pistol, but one of the rare five golden Pistols awarded by Willy Wonka himself!
Love simple history been watching for years
I don’t know about now, but during Desert Storm, and combat deployments up to the late 90’s, we could fill out the appropriate paperwork and carry POW’s (personally owned weapons) provided they didn’t violate the Geneva Convention, we supplied our own ammo (if it wasn’t chambered in a common NATO caliber, and FMJ, no hollow points), and at our own risk because Uncle Sam wouldn’t reimburse you if it got damaged, lost or destroyed. I know of quite a few guys that were packing their own personal .357/.44 Mags, as well as some of us (me included) 1911 style .45 ACP’s. The .45 was ideal because we still had plenty of ammo for it and in theater, due to the fact that they broke out a lot of M-3 grease guns for tank crews and others, which were chambered in God’s caliber. 😁
Grease Guns in Desert Storm? Really?
@@aj3751 I think that was the last time they saw action but still crazy that they were used so extensively
@@aj3751 a lot of tankers were still issued M-3’s as short barrel m-4s weren’t super common yet.
I carried my POW .45
@@aj3751 Grease Guns had still been in the Army inventory during the 90s and then removed at the end of the 90s. At the end the only soldiers issued Grease Guns was usually Mechanics operating recovery vehicles. I know because my section had 2 of them assigned to the tracked recovery vehicle crew because of the very cramped space. Reason the Great Gun was discontinued was because the 1911 was also discontinued for the M9 and the military had no plans to keep .45 in inventory only for one specific firearm.
“Single action revolver” shows Patton firing multiple rounds without pulling back the hammer
as annoying to see as that is, I'm sure the person animating this knows little to nothing about how guns actually work.
It's heartwarming whenever you see someone open a present and it's his special revolver from home. Very wholesome :)
In 'The Pacific' Sledgehammer killed an enemy soldier with his dad's WW1 M1917 revolver
Patton: This here’s my killing gun. I also got a cooking gun, cleaning gun, gun for sleeping and of course my Sunday school gun.
@Mika used for . . . "making" more guns
Was there a pizza making gun by any chance?
Army- You cant use weapons that we didnt make
(Vietnam war exists)
soldiers- Rules shmooles, take no hostages!
Fun fact. The first snipers they outfitted in Vietnam were hastily put together and equipped by the military with different hunting rifles from Japanese sporting goods stores and pretty much whatever scope they could find. Hence who I believe it was the white feather who carried a Winchester model 70.
*grabs modified shotgun, flachette shells and bayonet*
The Military used to allow legally bringing home war trophies of knives,handguns, bolt action and some semi automatic rifles. You just had to fill out the forms. I'm pretty sure that practice stopped after Vietnam.
My Dad used a smuggled Winchester M-1897 pump shotgun to good effect in WWII in the Pacific. It was a standard bird shooter sawed off even with the end of the magazine tube. I have his foot locker, and there are still some galvanized steel-hulled buckshot shells in there.
Until now. Since the Army discontinued standard issue side arms a provision was put into place that if a soldier felt like carrying a sidearm he has to provide his own. Including ammunition.
WTH???
@@zulubob5824 indeed. But the Army's logic is pretty sound. If you are in combat at ranges to make effective use of a sidearm you are already fucked. So it's not really worth carrying an extra pound or two on top of between 75-100 pounds of gear.
Can you also imagine getting .45 ACP across seas into a combat zone on your own dime?
@@landenherteux2350 "Hi, this is FedEx... How may I help you?"
@@Trek001 I see you have my rocket sheep.
I know a lot of polish families who still have Ww2 firearms such as mp-40s, ppshs hidden away away in cellars and attics for decades. When Germany withdrew, civilians/partisan were ordered by the communist regime to surrender our weapons. Alot of people didn't either because of disagreement or out of fear from previous lessons learned. Either way I remember when I was younger my grandfather was showing off an old rifle which was from what he said German. As far as my memory goes it must've been a Mauser 98-k. I've also heard a story from my father that some time in the 80' they were clearing the attic to make more room and they found 2 German grenades which my grandfather later dumped into a lake out of fear that the kids will get to them.
could also be a Gewehr 33/40 or Gewehr 98, both were in heavy use by the german army before 1941 and remained in use for reserve and occupation units through the war when there werent enough Karabiners to go around
I don't think I could have pulled the caps, but I would have sent the grenades off in all their explosive glory.
Wish I had grenades for a rainy day invasion...
@@LoneWolf-kw3ol sorry I'm not well informed with the Mauser rifles. It must've been something standard issue anyway. I just called it 98k from gaming reference. It must've been a mouser metal button on the stock, thank blocky safety switch by the receiver and that slick looking muzzle. Definitely not a Mosin. I've held a Mosin and it was much longer and had that ball like bolt catch.
@@PeacefulPeteable man I would've loved to see them go boom. Shame they were dumped into the lake but I would've felt quite uneasy knowing that I have grenades in the household xD
@@LoneWolf-kw3ol That's the usual role where wonky old weapons excel. You have a bunch of security units, because you want someone to sit and garrison a port or make sure the railroad isn't blown up or keep the spetsnaz or the partisans from just walking into town. All the new stuff is going to the frontline units, but you still need to arm these guys with something.
To this day, I still have my Great Grandpas Type 99 Arisaka and it's Type 30 Bayonet and Scabbard he took from the Phillipines. I also still have his Service Shotgun, his M10 Remington and it's cleaning kit.
The Japanese rifle is getting harder to find as true with all unmolested well cared for old battle rifles. Any idea how many Remingtons of that model u.s. property marked were manufactured? I only ask because ive seen and heard more stories of thompsons coming back and being passed down. I'd say the Remington is just as valuable and more scarce than any carbine, garand, 1911, 1903 Springfield just because shotguns though desirable then and now probably weren't hauled home with as much enthusiasm as other weapon types. Original "trench guns" hard to find. Thanks y'all
@@cameronbooker445 My great-grandpa never did anything to the rifle to alter it and/or sporterize it. It's completely original, but it was partially damaged in his care, just a small piece of the stock damaged. The only damage that was intentional was that it's blossom was scratched by the previous owner. It's production number is 4219. As far as I can tell, it's an early war rifle, but my Great-Grandpa never brought back the dust cover. (I will also say that the Leather Scabbard is too late to repair, but the bayonet is almost perfect)
The Shotgun is fine as well, but has small patches of rust. I've never looked into how many were properly marked. It's production number is 239345.
When I was in a street gang, I was issued a Hi-Point 40 and a Century Arms AK with the serial number scratched off. I carried both through some epic battles such as the Battle of Kroger in Memphis and the 7-11 Insurection. The AK was taken as evidence but I still have the ahi Point. I wanted to have something that wouldn’t jam when held sideways out of a window of a Chevy Caprice.
Having served in the military and being a civilian gunsmith/collector, I can tell you i would much prefer and trust my personal weapons. My Glock 17 blows the M9 Berreta out of the water , my personal AR15 has three times the quality of the M4 .
Very interesting topic, I never really thought about this topic although it makes sense that some soldiers would use guns from home
simo Häyeyä the White Death used his own rifle turing the winter war
Also a soldier would be more comfortable with a gun from home because they have most likely spent more time with it.
@@Adam-oh3vu true
Best story of Patton. His men were pinned on a beachhead in North Africa. So he marched up, started barking orders and fought alongside his men using his ivory pistols. The man was the ultimate mad lad
One of my greatuncles was a merchant marine and one time while he was on leave in France he found a dead German soldier while walking along a beach. That soldier had a machine gun (I don't know what model) that he broke down and sent home piece by piece.
After the war he returned home and he and my grandfather reassembled it, then took it to a quarry where they fired an entire belt of ammunition from it. Whatever model it was fired so fast that it scred them and they reconfigured the weapon so that it could only ever fire one shot at a time after that.
I wish I knew more about it, but after his death his wife went a bit insane and took it out on the front lawn to take potshots at people with it.
No way
Was it a MG-42?
Or maybe a MG-34?
@@analizin
I don't know. He died before I was born and after his wife fire on people it was confiscated by the police. Since no one in my family have the proper licenses to legally own the weapon I believe it was either put on auction or destroyed.
@@kenyenjones Ngl, it's quite a shame.
If only things went another way...
Sounds like an MG-42, although an MG-15 would also fire quite fast. Very few MG-15s were used on the ground though.
could also be an FG42. if the soldier was a paratrooper. but that's unlikely, since there were only 7000~ made
In my unit, everyone had a personal weapon (usually handgun). As for AK's, some guys liked them because when shooting at night, the enemy couldn't tell who was shooting.
That sounds like a really great way to get shot by your friends on accident.
@@zigzaghyena it was easier for us to know who was who.
Part of this is do to, contrary to popular myth, front line soldiers were rarely issued handguns.
Handguns were intended for officers, MPs, special forces, and auxiliary support troops.
However, regular soldiers obviously still liked having them for protection, especially in the bolt action era.
It's mostly because using the enemy's weapons confuses both sides and it's not a good idea having to tell your friendlies that its you every time
The only people who use them regularly around here are drivers/tankers/pilots. Anyone who sits in a confined space where they can't haul up an automatic carbine easily.
MPs use exactly the same stuff as infantry/light infantry. They walk around with carbines. Same with artillerists, base security, motor pool dudes, they rely on their carbines if their base is assaulted or infiltrated. Officers in the field carry carbines.
Auxiliary security troops and police used automatic carbines or SMGs as well. They just had an older generation, like last year's model. There was no reason to give them useless pistols instead of making more modern carbines.
Switching to a side arm is often faster than reloading.
I know a fair number of veterans who used M1911 pistols long after the Army adopted the M9 Beretta as the standard side arm. It is true however that AK-47s and other non-US weapons were cheerfully policed up with no apologies before soldiers returned home from the Gulf War. That did not prevent one however from using them on the battlefield so long as the ammo held up.
Really, though it's a logistics issue. Asking the military to keep your dad's custom .50 Desert Eagle pistol provisioned with parts and ammunition is not going to happen, and having loved ones ship it to you given current government and postal regulations isn't going to work. So what you've got is a hunk of metal of extreme sentimental value that can't be used that you're going to have to haul around with you everywhere you go. Not optimal.
Guess that's what some guys in the comments meant about a personal arm having to meet certain standards. I can see something like a personal Beretta 92 or P226 being allowed since they already use standard ammo and the former wouldn't need special parts to be ordered but yeah, a deagle in .50AE would be a hard no go.
@@gravygraves5112 How about going full James Bond and using a Walther P99 as a personal sidearm? Don't know about parts but at least it accepts the same ammo as a 9mm Beretta.
@@DAN007thefoxx1 lol shares no parts with the Beretta, neither dies the 226 tbh, but yeah, it's a full size semi auto pistol in 9x19mm
I think that they are going to change that after the Taliban gotten hold of the US military weapons and equipment.
Part of the process of NATO in Europe was to keep a few standards in armaments. You could be commanded by a different NATO nation or have your logistics run from a different NATO base than your own country.
When I served I remember my gunny saying that personal weapons where allowed, however they had to meet certain criteria.
Do you recall the criteria?
@@robmurphy806 compatible with ammo and mags they were issuing for one I'd imagine
Why is the single action pistol firing in double action?
Was about to comment exactly the same.. It’s even called the Single Action Army like come on
Because it’s an animation? Duh
@@coolmanyea5030 They even have the animation of him shooting the revolver in single action during the next slide in Mexico…
George S. Patton is just built different
@@cleanixx5343 I'm guessing someone mucked up.
When my buddies dad was in Iraq, he said he liked using an AK from the Iraqi forces over the M16 he was issued for the reason that the 7.62 round was better at punching through the cinder block walls that were a common occurrence in all the urban fighting he did.
Ironically my roommate carried a gold plated Desert Eagle during his tour that he bought while he was in Afghanistan
I would love to hear that desert eagle story
@@kekula69 glownagger
@@EricToTheScionti nice try fbi
wheres the irony
Just as enjoyable as the video from a great channel are the stories posted in the comments from soldiers and their family. Thanks everyone, keeping history alive 😊
The problem with using enemy weapons is that it confuses your fellow allies in a firefight. If they hear AK-47s off in the distance, they are going to shoot in that direction or call in fire on that location. They aren't going to wait for verification if a freidnly unit is using enemy weapons.
ever heard about uniforms and coordination?, there's a difference between confusion and just being straight up dumb.(Also, IIRC most modern armies have rules of engagement, a.k.a don't fire unless directly in danger, or in case a friendly is directly in danger.)
@@somefurryguy1811 You must be a textbook nerd who can't seperate between what happens in the field vs what the manual says. You shouldn't be using enemy weapons according to doctine and imagine a 18yo in a trench whose scarred out of his mind? He's going to shoot at what doesn't sound like enemy guns. Accidents happen and using enemy weapons only increases it.
@@jamalwilburn228 you sound like one too. Doubt u served
Tbh it's more complicated than that, it's true that intel on the battlefield can be limited and having as much as possible standardisation among your brother in arm can, especially their weapon, can help you better understand the battlefield, despite that, let's be honest, if you open fire on your buddies because of the sound of their weapon, then your squad lead or you fucked up since you are supposed to know at any time where is the rest of your unit
not a problem for a small commando team behind enemy lines.
You know who is on your team, and that limits to everyone else being not on your team.
My great-grandfather brought back one of those old steamer trunk chest full of Japanese wallets, rifles, pistols and broken swords
I had a SGT in the early 90's who still used a Government Issued M3 (Grease Gun) I loved that weapon.
I knew a Vietnam vet who always talked about keeping a sawed off double barrel 12 Gauge for when, "The enemy was close enough to smell."
My late father was in Pacific theater, occupation of Japan. Brought home Nambu,2 7.7 Arisaka. One of which is custom from 50's. Williams peep,gold dot, custom stock,shortened, recrowned barrel. RIP DAD. 😢🙏
Love the Vietnam green smoke, gas mask, ‘cigarette’ scene. Very cool.
"This is the greatest handgun ever made: 1:13
"Six bullets, more than enough to kill anything that moves"
"Engravings...Give you no tactical advantage whatsoever."
I believe I've heard of a procedure in the US Army that allows for a soldier to carry a handgun that they themselves purchased under select circumstances that vaguely coresposnds to a similar one used by law enforcement. But it must be from an approved list of weapons and if it's anywhere near the fighting in basically needs to be near an exact duplicate of the standard issue service pistol so that it can draw on ammo and magazine stockpiles if needed. However the paperwork and approval process is arduous and armorers may be reluctant to work on damaged guns that don't belong to the military.
Sounds right. If deployed and operate in combat zone a rock or captured weapon or bought in country weapon or bare hands all covered in military DOJ or jag or whatever. Police the globe torch the village. Long member of the law!
@@cameronbooker445 I'd hate it if some grunt in Vietnam wanted me to work logistics for his favourite german machine pistols, but it's the bulgarian variant which uses a different screw. Only for them to use an automatic carbine anyways.
Guns from home were also carried because sometimes they were superior to the ones issued, service weapons are not chosen because they are the absolute best, they are chosen because they balance good quality with an affordable price or ease of manufacture
0:18 “WHY DID YOU PUT THAT WEAPON TOGETHER SO QUICKLY, GUMP?”
“You told me to, Drill Sergeant.”
You use captured weapons in situations where you're cut off from resupply and run out of ammo for your issued weapons. Paratroopers often had to use captured German weapons during WWII.
True, in fact some paratroopers probably lost their equipment during the jump so they would have to use captured weapons
There is an old ww2 training video on TH-cam that is about using German weapons so it true that US soldiers would use captured weapons.
There are archives interviews i watched where a man talked about raiding a castle in Belgium to find a room full of rockets so the fired them all at the next thing that presented its self. One of his buddies got crushed under the doorway of a castle hit by fire as they came out. I wish they would upload them all to youtube but they wont.
Yea the german didn’t need the gun or ammo anymore if they killed them. Thats my End of world plan. No need to stockpile supplies. The people without weapons (the ones we told to buy a gun) will have all the supplies you’ll need.
@@akreebs93 Link? I would love a link to that old training film
" The Colt Single Action Army The Greatest Handgun Ever Made " Revolver Ocelot
Six bullets... More than enough to kill anything that moves. Now I'll show you why they call me... 'Revolver'.
@@rickdiaz427 "Because you use revolvers?"
Liquidddddddddd!
Snake: "I see you got yourself a single action army."
Ocelot: "That's right. There will be no accidents this time."
My Uncle was a Force Recon Marine in Vietnam. He told me once that whenever they killed or captured VC they would take their AKs and whatever ammo they could find and use those instead of the M-16. Because it sucked
A1 models? Certainly. If you use the proper ammunition for it and clean it regularly, it's reliable, as the Brownell's reproduction proves. Later models are more reliable that the AKM's of the time
@@torg2126 I can see you’ve never seen combat…….the toys are never cleaned
@@gaylebordeaux7632 if you don't maintain your weapon it's your own damn fault when it fails.
@@fallout0624 lol. The A-1's didn't have lined barrels, they'd rust before a patrol was even over.
@@fallout0624 well I made it through one war with dirty weapon, when there is no provision by the US Army, the only way to clean your weapon is rotor wash and dirt. Truly speaking you don’t oil on your weapon, it will pick up more dirt in ten seconds than you can believe.
I have my grandfather's 357 that he had since Korea, he always said he preferred the revolver over the 1911 acp
My great grandad served in the navy in the Pacific during WW2. He didn't drink or smoke but he knew the value of alcohol & cigarettes so he saved his rations of it. Later in occupied Japan he traded two bottles of whiskey to a Marine for a Japanese type 38 araisaka with the bayonet. Inherited it from him after he passed away. Several years ago.
Even though I had a gunsmith inspect it and he cleared it I'm weary of shooting it as it hasn't been fired in decades. Still looks great though.
Guns can still be shot after even longer than that I’m sure you are good. Use a string for the first couple rounds
I wish the military let you use your own gun if it still is compatible with standardization
Call of Duty without respawn
I can understand the rule as it pertains to standard issue rifles due to logistics and what not. But non-issued sidearms (pistols/revolvers) should be allowed, however the military should not be expected to send ammo for that sidearm.
@@Sure_You_Betcha exactly. If personnel aren’t being issued items, they should be allowed to bring or use things from home as long as the item doesn’t compromise the effectiveness of standard issue.
@@Sure_You_Betcha I think he means that if your rifle takes the same cartridges as can be found in normal supply lines, it should be allowed. Could have saved lives if soldiers were allowed to use AR-10’s and PTR-91’s in Afghanistan where they needed the heavier 7.62x51 cartridges in their personal weapons for the longer ranges. They could have stripped rounds from MG belts.
SOCOM guys use their own uppers on M4s since they have the freedom. But they also have unit armorers which can custom build rifles for different applications. Since they have more money than standard infantry.
I love collecting guns that veterans brought back from wars.
Nice me too fam but sometimes their locks and security cameras are a pain in the back
@@cruzaider5339 hol up
@@cruzaider5339 yeah man that guy called “museum” has a lot of em
@@meloncollies it's too hard to get one's that shoot so I often find veterans that are labeled as 'war heroes' cus they have an entire armoury
Do you happen to have a katana taken from an Japanese officer?
Imagine bringing your hunting shotgun into the trenches, have that nice homely feeling.
Germans would like to have word with you
@@thekraken1173 hans will bring his flammenwerfer
Germans: "Hey! That's cheating!"
@@Ariana321 "I saw a Doughboy with a shotgun. It pissed me off, so I threw a canister of mustard gas at him."
Sawed off shotguns were very common in Vietnam. Great jungle weapon. And for tunnel clearing.
I know two police officers who were activated during Desert Storm. They packed their personal sidearms and took them with them. It made them feel a little better.
If a revolver is single action you have to pull back the hammer for every shot as opposed to double action which alows you to just pull the trigger and pull back the hammer in one motion
Luv your contents keep going lad
When there inevitably occurs a war with moon or martian colonies, I wonder how many captured guns are going to end on both sides, planets aways from where they were made.
I always liked the idea of captured weapons. In it's home army, a rifle is but one of many, but once captured and repurposed, it becomes unique.
I like using the Covenant's own weapons against them in Halo. Pop an elite's shields with a Plasma Pistol and then finishing them off with a 50cal round from the Magnum. Or maybe blowing up a Wraith with a Fuel Rod Cannon. Or sticking a grunt with a Plasma 'nade.
"inevitably" lmfao
What an intriguing thought
@@kikkerslikker4533 I mean, war is human nature, resources would be planet-specific(like certain planets would have more copper or iron, you get the point.), it would be a shitshow thankfully i won't be alive to see it.
There was a show on Sci Fi called Defiance, which took place decades after a war where alien refugees had tried to invade Earth and the survivors on both sides live among the ruins trying to coexist, and because the world is pretty run down from the war, aliens will carry AKs and other old human weapons and have no problem using them, because a gun is a gun whether its human or alien. I thought it was pretty cool for worldbuilding in that show.
Good video. Keep up the good work. 👍
My pops served in the army and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. They were told specifically not to take “trophies” due to the fact those guns a lot of the time were older and had more of a tendency to jam and misfire. He said if you are going to war for souvenirs, then you didn’t need to be there.
In 2003 many of us had personal sidearms. We brought them on ship with our commands knowledge but once we were in country we were denied access. I'm sure there was a real reason but our command stated ammo availability. Once we return to Pendleton we got our sidearms back. So although I didn't get to carry my personal beretta brigadier I still know that it was in country and is what I will give my son when he gets his commission.
In the early years of Afghanistan troops would ask their family to send them rifle scopes because technically it was not a weapon. After a while they banned that too because troops were getting way more headshots than usual and leadership told them they needed to stop because it was some Geneva convention violation.
Huh
Intresting to know
The same thing happened when the US started issuing the ACOG. They thought that soldiers were executing enemy combatants because so many were being shot in the head, but it was just because the soldiers could actually hit what they were aiming at
well that's just stupid. if they let them keep the scopes they could've won the war in Afghanistan.
But didn't they want to win the war?
@@seamusnolan905 that’s actually crazy lmao.
A few observations: You have to be careful when disposing of personal weapons when leaving theater--don't even think about trying to smuggle them back. Often, TCNs (Third Country Nationals) are responsible for trash, and weapons and ordnance disposed of in the trash can wind up among the TCNs. If memory serves, a search found an AK47 and smoke grenades among a TCN in Iraq on a secured base; odds are favorable that it was recovered from trash. If in theater and desirous of extra munitions (such as grenades!), check amnesty boxes (if not secured), PMO (who tends to service the amnesty boxes), Special Forces (a kind word goes a long way), outgoing units, and customs (primarily for medical goods, not munitions). I imagine that it would be easier to smuggle a weapon sear back from a combat zone than a whole weapon or receiver...but subject to UCMJ and federal penalties. You'd be better off buying a binary trigger lawfully. It is far easier to (unlawfully) bring a weapon to a combat zone than to bring one back. For myself, I'm not interested in personal firearms in combat zone--but seeing as I'm issued a rifle and pistol anyway, I don't really need them. Weapons are meant to be felt, not seen; don't carry blades openly on your gear and use retention type holsters for pistols. Truth is, when it comes to blades, you are unlikely to use them as weapons--they fall below long arm, pistol, and muzzle strikes as weapons. Medical shears are generally more useful, tucked behind other gear. YMMV.
Well the sears are typically not even a regulated part is the receiver so that would be stupid to try
Most veterans I've heard describe knives as tools first. You can open MRE bags with them, cut lines of cord, make a hole in tarp etc. They're tremendously useful for lots of things other than knifing a guy.
They should ease these rules up. Soldiers who can capture weapons should to some degree be able to keep said weapons. Soldiers who wish to bring a weapon to the field, provided it meets a service standard should be able to be brought.
The standard issue weapon is the standard issue for a reason. As soon as you have something new, unpredictable, perhaps worse, you not only risk your own life but you also compromise your ability to back up your unit.
The problem is if you have an m4 and grab an AK with enough ammo and mags at some point they will be empty or you will have to go into battle with 60 bullets because you don't have any spare and no one can give you ammo in the thick of a battle because you have different caliber and magazines.
@@DNS-Freakz You missed the 'providing it meets service standards' part, which more than likely requires a standardised cartridge
@@wolfgang_h3t That or any other kind of maintenance. Just keeping all the variants of NATO firearms maintained was a hassle, without tossing in Pact weapons as well.
Veterans talking about these weapons describe them as throwaway. Once your stolen bulgarian SMG breaks it's easier to toss it and use your standard firearm.
Eh, worst case demilitarize it and allow them to take it home. Allow trophies
my great-grandfather managed to bring home a Ghurka kukri knife from WW2. pretty unique weapon to bring home.
0:54 ah yes the single-double action revolver
Teacher no toys from home. Will be taken away if caught:
Boys:
Engravings. That gives you no tactical advantages whatsoever, that was some fancy shooting, u are pretty good.
@Megalodon With Internet Connection Yes. Indeed.
No disadvantage either tho
but it would probably suck because of distinction when that could be opposed against u
1:05 Shooting a Single action-only revolver in Double Action how badass
1:15 “single action revolver” it then shoots in double action
Prior to WW1 officers were REQUIRED to supply their own weapons (and uniforms too). That broke down in WW1 because of promotions from the ranks of non-commissioned officers who didn’t have the financial resources to buy the required equipment at short notice. This was a problem for every army involved.
Officers at that time are walking around with their equivalent of a personal defence weapon, a revolver. They spend more time directing a platoon of guys than taking potshots themselves, but they had to be armed with something and an SMG wasn't an option yet.
@@SusCalvin Ten years earlier and they would have been carrying a sword (again privately purchased).
@@allangibson2408 Swords are weighty to drag around. Great War officers might carry their version of a self defence weapon, a revolver. The early SMGs were not available yet, much less so the compact PDWs of today.
@@SusCalvin British officers had to be SPECIFICALLY ordered NOT to carry swords on the front lines, first in the Boer War and then in the First World War because it marked them as officers leading to them being the first shot.
Later in the First World War a significant number of British officers started to carry rifles as standard for the same reasons but their was also happening in the Boer War with a number purchasing Lee-Speed rifles for the same reasons.
This is a topic I've always thought about, but never invested into. Great video as always!
Cool profile picture what is that based off of
@@mikewade386 it’s Feed Me’s logo, an electronic music producer.
03:53 Did it really have to be a Golden Desert Eagle? I am pretty sure most soldiers would know how impractical such a gun is in battle.
@@AragamiR327 For the record, I know that Desert Eagle with 0.5 cal Action Express round is occasionally used by Special Forces. But not for killing people - for immobilizing vehicles. Makes sense - one shot and the engine is gone.
@@Wykletypl Wtf are you talking about? A Desert Eagle chambered in .50 AE will not take out an engine block in one shot
@@TheRealBDouble im pretty sure the Israelis made it specifically to take out vehicle engines
it does look cool in counter-strike. in counter-strike it does big damage but its inconsistent at range and spread.
@@rexandreas4152 it was to defeat body armor lmao
There are always “pay to win” weapons and skins
I love how they depicted the Vietnam era soldiers/marines. It was accurate to the time frame!
I have a Japanese Type 99 rifle; brought back to the states by my great uncle.