Fun fact: In 1991 when war broke out in Yugoslavia and my city called Dubrovnik got surrounded and went under siege local defending croatian forces remembered that in 1944 fleeing German army dropped hundreds of tons of explosives and mines into the sea so naturally divers went and out of neccesity and dispair small civilian factory used these explosives to somehow produce hand grenades and claymore style mines which were much needed for defence
You did much more than just that. Yugoslav partisans hid all their WW2 captured equipment in stashes in barns or pits. These men grew old till as you say in the early 90s the civil war started and people went looking for it all. I was part of a royal engineer EOD team that went around asking old widows if their husbands were partisans in the war and if we could look for weapons to stop either side getting it. We had mg 34s/ 42s, grenades, k98s, mp 40s and a few 38s. Mines and artillery shells as well as ammunition for all the guns. We shot as much ammo as we could till the guns broke then blew everything left up. It was shocking the amount of stuff we destroyed.
@@fishyc150 where were you stationed if I can ask? I have been reading a lot of books (both croatian and serbian) about attack on dubrovnik area and UNESCO protected Dubrovnik( attacking it was a war crime) and looking back its absolutely incredible that UN,UNESCO,EU or NATO did literally nothing to prevent siege and carnage that happened here, I mean 30 000 soliders and tanks + navy + airforce against 3-4 thousand milita with only light arms.Every single building was robbed and burned to the ground in the area thats 20x150 kilometres big, only Dubrovnik wasnt burned but was pretty damaged due to year long daily artillery and air strikes I cant even imagine what would happen to the very overcrowded 1000 year old walled city if it fell, probably genocide and burning to the ground (same thing happened to the city of Vukovar)
@@yesyesyesyes1600 when i was reading that i was surprised just as much as you hahaha its incredible how humans in such situations can be so innovative and clever
MP40s! And Enfields, hanging around Iraq, awesome, but WWII era weapons are collectibles so I'm not sure I'd want to use them to fight though, like driving your auto union or duesenberg to work
My next door neighbour of 40 years ago, had been a regular army SWO (senior warrant officer) in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. He spent most of the war recovering damaged allied and axis vehicles from battlefields. In the desert campaign of 1942, he managed to "acquire" an abandoned Italian SPA-Viberti AS-42 and got it allocated for his own personal use. He said it was an amazing vehicle for the desert with its huge tyres, 2 x 4 transmission and four wheel steering. He kept it right up until May 1945 in north Italy, when he was seconded to the Palestinian Protectorate Police to be their transport manager and with much regret had to leave his SPA behind.
That was one of the vehicles used by the Italian Auto-Saharan Companies which the Long Range Desert Group was modeled after and who fought the LRDG on more than one occasion.
I once stayed in a holiday cottage on a farm in Normandy and the owner showed us inside his barn he had several WW2 mobile field artillery and AA cannons, said they were all just left around during the war and collected up by his father and grandfather. Teenage me found it awesome because you could sit in the seats and still move the cannons around with the turning handles!
France is full of ww2 stuff hidden in barns it's amazing....who's I learnt french in school I love to travel round talking to good old boys about there war stashes
I once had a Hungarian neighbor that served on the Eastern Front until being captured in Poland in 1945. He spent the next seven years in a Siberian Gulag working as a machinist before being returned to Hungary in 1952. He walked back to the family farm and noticed that the countryside was still strewn with destroyed and abandoned equipment. Once home he found that the farmers were using salvaged equipment as tractors and truck transports that were fueled by wood gas generators retrieved from German vehicles. He knew how German units would hide equipment and supplies during retreats with intentions to use it during counter-offensives so located a few to plunder for batteries, oils, tires, tools and whatever else they could use. In one he found a heavy Zundapp motorcycle rig with a trailer so turned those into a tractor and cultivator. He got a job at a machine shop in a small city some distance away where he was allowed to modify parts for agricultural use to make some extra money. He took a train to that job so bought a ticket that took him to the end of the line after the Soviets moved in during the 1955 Uprising. From there he walked over the mountains into Austria to seek political asylum since the Soviets were rounding up former Hungarian soldiers at night and refused to tell their families where they were taken and what happened to them.
That's a convenient way to escape though. The soviets show up looking for him and his family can say "He disappeared, you tell us?" Which would then leave them in a Catch-22: The only way to capture him is to divulge information that they didnt take him, but if they divulge information about taking soldiers clandestinely, that would make the rest of them flee as well so that they couldnt capture more.
Biden left a legacy in Afghanistan that will come back to bites us in the not so distant future. Young American men & women will die because of his Treason.
When I was stationed on the island of Okinawa in the mid 80's, one day the topic how the battlefield - which was virtually the lower third of the island was cleaned up. This one civilian informed me that the U.S. Military Government - which ran the island after the conclusion of the battle - offered a monetary bounty on any weapon and/or munition item found. The local population, desperate for any type of resource after the devastation of their homeland, were very effective in cleaning the island. Of course, military explosive disposal units were heavily involved in the clean-up effort as well.
a good friend of mine was in the Austrian army in the late 1950's,(such as it was).he said they had a number of WW2 era refurbished Luger's,Steyr-Hahn's,k 98's,Erma and MP 40 submachineguns.His commander rode around in a Steyr field car.His aunt had a knocked out Soviet T 70 on the property.Being a frugal farm woman,she covered it in hay and brush,until it was safe to cut it up and sell for scrap
The early years of the austrian army, founded initially as an disguised police force, equipped with ex-german, american and russian weapons would be another fascinating story to cover.
A friend of mine was in a re-build shop in the UK during WWII. He said that they used to drag burned out Shermans over a pit and remove the floor hatch and then hose them out. Any human remains were then properly disposed of. Any penetrations were covered over with a one inch thick patch and the internals replaced. It was basically a brand new tank when they were finished with it.
I watched a documentary a number of years ago. A WW2 British Veteran who had served in Normandy with the Royal armoured, said his Sherman got knocked out, all crew survived and escaped. They waited at base for 3 days before being issued a new Sherman. The Sherman they got was a battle damaged and repaired. Such was the rush to get them fixed and back out on the front line the repair crew hadn’t cleaned out the Tank, they got their new tank splattered in blood with bits of flesh dotted around.
In postwar Germany 1953 my dad was station in Bitburg and near the military housing there was a military junkyard. I can remember as a 2nd grader wandering over there with friends and rooting around. Needless to say Mom wasn't thrilled to come into her kitchen to find Nazi helmets, broken guns and bayonets'. When Dad came home a long talk and restrictions on where we could forage. It was great.
On a field exercise north of Kaiserslautern in 1989 I spotted a farmers milk cart with SdKfz 251 roadwheels. No one else in my platoon even noticed the historical relevance, I stood along the cattle fence close enough to read the words Continental printed on the wheel rubber.
@@andrewchesler2029 Very good but very expensive tires. I don't put enough miles a year on to make their kind of top shelf tire economically viable as the tires will be weather checked long before I wear them out.
@@Baseballnfj Inferior but if you will never press the tires to the edge and if you will never put enough miles on to come close to the service life the cheap tires could be what you want to go with.
I was born in the fifties in Lae, New Guinea, just down the road from Nadzab in the Markam river valley. The valley, a hundred miles long and mostly ten miles wide. When my pop arrived as a missionary in '46, he later told me there were 10,000 (? he may have used a larger figure) planes at Nadzab. If they could manage one last flight armed forces got em to that staging area. According to my father a couple chaps acquired the rights, melted them all down and shipped them out. Interesting aside; one of my favorite "six degrees" facts is, my mom knew a fellow who watched Amelia Earhart get airborne from her last takeoff point, my home town.
I use to live next to ww2 vet that worked in the salvage area in Europe after he was wounded on the front lines and refused to be sent home. Apparently he dealt with a lot of the German captured equipment was able to grab a few souvenirs like a k98 with pouches and bayonet and even had a MP40 from his time in the front lines.
My mom was born in Nuremberg in 1933. She had a lot of anecdotes of her childhood. Some regarded the fields on the sides of local roads after the war ended. She saw neatly laid out row upon row of rifles, canons, mortars, shells, etc… As a kid I used to ask her why she didn’t grab some. I would have loved to have them to play with. I did say I was a kid. Hell, as an adult I still would want to “play” with some of them.
If I learned something with reading Heinz G. Konsalik's books is that... People took them home They just follow the fist rule of finding a gun: you haven't found a gun
When I joined the US Army in the early ‘70s, a lot of our field gear had WWII date stamps on them. Canteens, helmets and individual field gear mostly. Turn in requirements by the individual soldier were so stringent as far as their cleanliness and maintenance and the quality of initial manufacture made them practical for re issue to replacements after a tour of duty. The old ‘steel pot’ helmet was used by G.I.s to hammer tent pegs, wash in, sit on, and even cook in. Can’t do that with today’s kevlar. Those metal mess trays were used in our mess halls as well as the field. In the field, the cooks would have to set up metal trash cans with heater stacks in them to wash and rinse them though, as a dirty mess tray would give you a case of the runs. But all that equipment properly maintained lasted for generations of soldiers. Today though, field meals are served with everything disposable.
Thanks for sharing Joe. I had the pleasure of getting the exact same equipment a decade later. Vietnam Era Equipment used by me in the US Army of 1983: Jungle uniform (with slanted pockets), jungle boots, M-16A1 Rifle, M-1 steel pot, Alice pack, etc. The only modern thing was one set of woodland BDUs. I think the army used the F out of their stuff even in the 60's 70's and into the eighties. Our C-rations were all from VN era. Gross.
War time production was ramped up enormously and when the war ended, there would’ve been massive stockpiles of stuff that was suddenly not needed by a much smaller military who were now in bases rather than the field. It would take decades to run down some of the stuff even with Korea and Vietnam happening. Similarly, there would’ve been stockpiles of Korea and Vietnam era stuff when those wars ended as well.
When i toured Normandy on the 70th anniversary of the landings, a museum had the last (or second to last) FAMO German heavy halftrack, fully restored. Turns out the locals had been using it as a road grading machine. The museum acquired it and restored it. Our B and B host told us everyone he knew growing up used Jeeps as farm tractors, and everyone who had a motorcycle drove a 1940s Harley Davidson.
So glad this topic was covered, WWII weapons were used in combat in service in the US all the way through the Vietnam War, such a fascinating topic, thank you Mark. Incidentally, when stationed in Germany, my late uncle was a part of the metal reuse for downed planes, in addition to cleaning out the planes of the dead, his job was to salvage any material of the planes, deemed worthy of being reused.
I remember a movie about life in the UK during the war.....when a bomber crew bailed out and parachuted down, the military would take them away and the women would scramble for the parachute silk to make undies etc out of lol....
@@lastswordfighter Love the Grease Gun. They were so perfect for the tank crew role that, intelligently, no one tried to design a replacement. Afaik they were replaced only when their ammo was no longer in the logistic pipeline once the 1911A was replaced.
@@johnburns4017 I'm sure that happened all over.....brutal but war is brutal all around. I read about civil war and prior battlefields, citizens would raid the battlefield and strip the wounded and dead of all valuables.
After WW2, my great grandfather and grandfather...'procured' an 8 ton truck. It was stripped and served for many, mány years on the farm as a tracktor, and really helped them get back in buisness. My uncle still has a few of the wheels lying around. Thanks from the Netherlands for that gift.
Not everything was reclaimed by the army... In my barn I have found tools, weapons and various items from WW2. The locals were also very efficient at cleaning up too! I know that up in Normandy France, there are private collections which would amaze museums.
3 things. I have a trench coat that I bought a few years ago, which I still wear from time to time. It has the original tagged in it showing that it was made in 1940 by a military contractor. There's a second tag from a repair Depot in New Jersey, which shows that it was sent back to the states to be repaired. There's also a section on the back of it where it was ripped upward from the tail but then very carefully darned and rewoven and ReSewn. I used to know a man who had served with a US Armored Division in a salvage Depot. Part of his job was to go into a tank and remove bodies when they were there. He told me about more than one occasion when a large piece of the tank was actually blown away, how he would have to go into the tank with a hose and watch the blood and body parts out. Not only not glamorous, but also something that would induce horrifically nightmarish mental problems for decades. Also, I have a Filipino balisong which had accidentally wound up in some burner Barrel decades ago, and a smaller one, keychain size. Both were made from salvaged steel, aircraft aluminum, cartridge brass, and plexiglass. Having once owned the full-sized one in undamaged condition myself, I know exactly how it was made. I mean, it is the quintessential salvaged material object, much like trench art from World War One. Except, much more involved.
Not quite a jeep or aircraft, but when my Grandfather was dismantling a USMC camp in New Zealand after the war he found a US machete in its leather sheath under a hut. He kept it and used it for farm and garden work for decades. I have it now and still get use out of it. It has the initials 'JB' carved into the handle. Always wondered who 'JB' was??
Its a shame we've apparently forgotten these lessons. I used to work in what's now known as the Circular Economy and I often cited wartime examples of "make do and mend" as what we should be doing now, and of course the way they used food and prevented food waste was incredibly innovative.
the more digital control systems are integrated into products (that used to were designed with no digital control at all), the more difficult it becomes to do self-repair and keep that gear operational. Then think how there used to be lots of TV and electronics repair shops but now rather few. One reason is transistors are much superior to vacuum tubes (valve replacement the main driver for TV shops), but a more general reason is that the labor cost of repair make it difficult to compete against brand new manufactured replacement. In most cases the economic formula favors replacing vs repairing. The best that can be hoped for now is to improve the ability to recycle discarded products.
My Grandfather upgraded his earthmoving business with a surplus International TD 40 bulldozer. The TD 40 was recovered from Truk island and shipped to Sydney, Australia. He was allowed onto the ship to select the one he wanted. He was advised to strip and rebuild the machine because it had been sitting in the jungle for two years, he was able to purchase surplus replacement bearings and seal kits for the rebuild.
My grandad and his brother started a building company on their return to London after WW2 and bought an army surplus lorry and surplus tools. They started off clearing bomb sites and salvaging materials and built up the business which still exists today being run by my uncles.
A play ground near my home where we grew up had an old WW2 tank that had the turret removed and was repurposed as a jungle gym. Us kids would climb all over it and use our imagination of driving into battle. Can you imagine an old tank being part of a playground today? Sad how times have changed.
I live in NZ and I work with a bloke who is from Tarawa. He recalls playing as a kid on the abandoned Sherman that is still in the lagoon at Betio. I was amazed when he told me about it. He was amazed that I knew about the battle of Tarawa
@@peasant1381 I mean, once you scrape out the dead bodies and live ammo, clean out toxic hydraulic fluids, gasoline and brain spatter, you got yourself a neat children's toy!
The various governments especially Russian and America still have tons of weapons (more so for Russia) from WW2 all coated in a very thick layer of cosmoline.
B B beware ! almost all of the "new " are items that have non original parts and sold as new. Lugers have numbered parts even the inside of rhe grips are numbered! i knew a guy that did part time gun smith work on M 1 garands they had to replace worn parts . but who knows?
@@raymondtonns2521 that’s true for lugers and most German made weapons but not so for American guns especially the M1 garand not everything has a marking on it and it could and did leave the factory with different serialized parts so an all matching M1 garand would be really rare or a fake.
Happy Thanksgiving from you're brothers across the pond Dr. Felton! You never fail to impress. Thanks for all the wonderful content. It's the best on youtube.
I once had the pleasure of knowing a man who had started work as a young deck hand during the war, he was shot by an ME109 on his first day, but that's another story. During the late 40s and early 50s he had worked up to ships master and found himself working for a rather dubious northern scrap dealer. This dealer had bought a war surplus freighter and employed my friend as master. His main route for a number of years was to take the ship down to north Africa and load up with scrap before heading back to the UK. He would tell me heavy tanks and guns were loaded into the lower hull first following by trucks jeeps etc. Aircraft were placed on top followed by another few tanks to "keep it down" before closing the hatches. I asked him if he'd ever thought about keeping the odd Spitfire or Panza tank, he just smiled and reminded me they were ten a penny and no body cared, they were after the scrap value, he also reminded me that a Hurricane is no longer air worthy one it's been placed under a burned out Sherman. RIP Al.
After the Japanese surrender, my father and a few other sailors were sent over to the RN main naval yard at Trincomalee from Katukurunda. They boarded a fleet carrier, he didn't remember which one, and they sailed out to sea for about 4 hours. Anything American went over the side. Guns, ammunition, parts, stripped air frames, engines, complete aircraft of all types, Corsairs, Hellcats, Wildcats, Avengers and even aircraft in crates right from the factory. Apparently if it wasn't on charge, Britain didn't have to pay for it. He got a day's pay and an extra tot of rum for that. I called it a waste but he said all the aircraft at that time were everywhere, a dime a dozen. A Corsair or whatever flew over and you never even looked up from what you were doing to look. Many years later he watched a Corsair in flight with me at an air show and he couldn't take his eyes off of it. In the hangar, along with the pilot, he looked the aircraft over from propeller hub to tail and for that time, he was back in his early 20's again.
Very interesting. I recall my dad was a fan of visiting "war surplus" stores in the mid-1950's. I still have my steel Civil Defense helmet and gas mask. We even had a field phone to connect my grandmother's house next door.
A couple of years ago I was in the Oakland, CA police department property vault. They had more German, Italian and Japanese rifles, pistols, SMG's than you could shake a stick at. All in remarkable condition all, all turn-ins from spouses and family members of WWII veterans who passed away.
@@johnnypopper-pc3ss, yes, incredibly sad. All the classic firearms that weren't NFA items (like submachineguns) could have fetched decent prices in the surplus collecting market. Lots of historical firearms probably destroyed for no good reason.
A day without a Mark Felton video is....... not as good as a day with one! Thank you sir, for what you do and even though it's not one of your holidays, happy Thanksgiving anyway!
I absolutely agree. Thank you Mr. Felton for the amazing videos. When I watch your videos I always feel immense gratitude to all who served during WW2. Without those that scarified sometimes everything we may be living a very different life. God bless & Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Ironically...that was the first thing that came to my mind. How our current employees, politicians, waste our hard earned money and make our existence more dangerous.
I bought an M-1 Garand. Looked up the serial number, manufactured September 1939. It's got some Italian parts on it, including a Beretta bolt. It also got a new barrel in 1951 at Frankfort Arsenal in Philadelphia. Thing was lousy with cosmoline. Got a steel pipe, capped the end, pulled the wood off, and soaked the rest in gasoline for 3 days. Took care of most of the cosmoline. 👍
I was just telling my daughter that when I was a kid (1960s) my dad would take me to an army surplus store that was still full of WWII equipment and that there is always distinct smell to those places. Canvas and cosmoline. I rebuilt a 1943 halftrack and all the surplus parts had that wonderful smell.
The civilian marksmen program here in the U.S does a fantastic job restoring and refurbishing M1 Garands that come back many years later from other countries that the U.S has loaned them to and return them into shootable pieces of history.
8th Army headquarters in Seoul S. Korea had a full rebuild shop for all vehicles in country. It burned down shortly after Dad got there in 1957. Dad was the NCO in charge of rebuilding the facility. He setup assembly lines to rebuild major components once they were stripped, cleaned and inspected. Utilizing serial numbers he tracked performance of rebuilds to make sure his guys were doing good work. He could also determine which units were abusing their equipment. He got a Commendation Medal for cutting waste, improving efficiency and saving the Army a bundle of money each tear!
Dr. Felton, before I even begin to watch your videos I hit the “like” button. I know your videos are informative and historically correct. Happy Thanksgiving my good man.
@@miked1765 No hard feelings, but thanks for the out loud laugh. And next July you can wish Mark a Happy 4th. I'll try and remember next Nov 5th to wish you a happy Guy Fawkes.
Mark, as a amateur military historian, I appreciate and look forward to all of these new productions. I finally broke down and contributed something I'm going to do it again it's totally worth it keep them coming it's wonderful
I had an older co worker who was in Patton's army. He said Lugers were a top prize to find and he found one but didn't take it. I asked him why not and he said the pistol had someone's brains on it. True story.
I work in aircraft reclamation in Arizona, working on aircraft from the A318 all the way up to 747s. This video was so neat to see as its almost the history of my industry. Thanks Mr Mark!
Bill Mauldin in his book "Up Front" relates a story about one of his cartoons. As an American cartoonist he drew a Tommy looking over an American battlefield who says to the GI - "You blokes leave an awfully messy battlefield". The observation being that the British were more prolific at reclaiming damaged gear.
I was going to bring that cartoon up. Actually it had more to do with the excess of equipment and ordinance that the Americans had. If a G.I. lost his M1, he just got another. If a Tommy lost his Enfield, it was a huge deal.
@@HemlockRidge - Well said, I could have said more lol, but it's 3am here. Do you remember if Mauldin managed to upset both the British and US commands with that cartoon? It's been a while since I read it.
@@HemlockRidge My dad said exactly that. If a British soldier crashed his jeep he had to fill out reams of paperwork etc. American G.I.s just got another jeep. Also, I read about a British officer who lost a piece of equipment and went to the stores for a replacement. When he returned home after the war the MoD sent him a bill for the missing piece??
@@MotionMcAnixx Bill Mauldin pissed off all the Brass. Do you remember how he was commissioned to do a Willie and Joe cartoon for an Officers Club. He had them looking like they were right out of combat, looking wistfully in the window of the O-Club. I would imagine that put a damper on many evenings.
@@HemlockRidge Bill also built up a Jeep for himself out of wrecks, he bought the parts out of his own pocket. He had Joe and Willie painted on the sides.
My First Sergeant in the US 17th Cavalry grew up on the outskirts of Munich. He was 12 years old in 1945. He remembered waking up one day near the end of the war and his back garden was occupied by a Hungarian cavalry unit. Anyway, after the war ended his mom found him a job working with a salvage guy and he told me they used a lot of cannon barrels to repair broken residential water lines. I wonder if any of those 88mm water pipes still exist. His Dad was captured on the Eastern Front but starved to death in a Soviet work camp in the late 40's. The family was unaware until a returning POW delivered the news in 1954.
He was lucky. I read a testimony from a.. 14yo.. German 'soldier' who was captured at the end and barely survived imprisonment in Siberia. He mentioned that the older men were more likely to succumb to starvation rations situation.. 💀
In Vietnam, we had a similar situation. After the Vietnam war, a lot of US equipments were left behind in the battlefield. It was a mess. So this is what we did: - Lightly damaged or intact vehicles/weapons (M16, Huey helicopters, M101 howitzer, trucks, PT boat,...) were collected, repaired and put into service with the Vietnamese army. - Heavily damaged or destroyed vehicles (notably F-4, A-6 and B-52 aircrafts, shot down over North Vietnam) were stripped to collect precious metal. We used that huge amount of metal to create domestic products, like trays, buckets, bowls,... Actually I have a pot made of metal coming from a B-52. Thanks the US air force for their generous metal donation, especially when we needed them the most.
For aluminum the acid only needs to be about as strong as the acid in coca cola. Coca cola is commonly used to clean the decks of aluminum fishing boats in lieu of other cleaners. I worked in a bicycle factory that mostly made aluminum frames, we used an acid bath to clean the frames prior to shipping. Sometimes a frame was forgotten over night in the acid bath and was unable to be shipped but still quite solid, and probably quite light too!
I actually use surplus WWII vacuum tubes to this day. My hobby is restoring antique radios, and these are useful for this. They are fairly common, even now.
@@raymondtonns2521 or a rotary phone, cassette tape, 8 track tape, B&W TV, etc. I would in include records, but they are making a comeback, being sold at Walmart along with turntables.
@@randlemcmurphy2672 Yes, the ones audiophiles use. Tubes are still made in Russia and used in Fender amps and such. Tubes usually used in antique radios are usually not to expensive. There are a few exceptions, such as the tuning eye tube. Tubes used in 1950s/1960s TVs are almost worthless.
My dad, when coming home from Europe after the war, acquired a German Schmeisser Pistol and was going to pack it away in his duffle bag for the trip home when he'd heard that Army officials were searching bags for weapons and other items and penalties or more were possible if caught. He decided to sell it to another soldier for what I recall was around $12. What a HUGE mistake! No searching of bags ever happened and he regretted it. Many stories of great 'finds' were made. Mark, always great detail on your work and absolutely rare found videos to share. THANKS!
Ha ha, sounds like my deceased father-in-law. He had a P-38 with the holster and belt/buckle and a couple of daggers stashed in his kit bag. Word went around that Customs and military police were waiting on the pier and anyone with firearms or weapons would be charged accordingly. He said that around the ship in harbour, it looked like it was raining as all manner of things went over the side or out port holes. Got off the ship, nothing, not one Customs or military police officer. On the train, guys were selling pistols helmets and daggers for far more than what they were worth in Europe. He figures these guys with a ton of these things started the rumour to jack up the prices on their loot.
Happy Thanksgiving Mark! Thank you for your dedication to bringing real history to us year round, it’s awesome to be able to learn about interesting topics from your research! Many blessing to you & yours!
You come up with such great topics, I thought to myself many times what had happened to all those vehicles and equipment. Once again you prove yourself to be the creator of a best history channel on YT.
Mark, I was in the US Navy from 1972 to 1975. While stationed aboard a DE, during small arms practice, we use ammunition with manufacture dates of 1944 and 1945 on the cases brought out by the gunners mates.
@@Otokichi786 at the time of pearl harbor ww1 equipment was only 20-25 years old. It’s equivalent to the us military in the 2010’s using equipment from the 90’s.
I have been to the Ardennes area a number of times. There were reenactments and vehicle shows. The 75th anniversary had so many different types of US vehicles and even Piper Cub air shows. The finale was a mock battle between German and US reenactors. And the museums have tons of displays. I stayed in Bastogne. So that was very memorable.
My great cousin Robert Richardson during WWII in North Africa then Italy; as an engineer used to salvage planes. He said, his colleagues nicknamed one type “Wimpeys” He said, whilst in Italy, you had to be quick to beat the Italians getting to the planes as they would quickly strip the wheels off the planes. He passed away in 2016 aged 101. Such a gentleman.
@@TallboyDave David, just to get back to you. I would have to dig out my notes/videos from when I spoke to my great cousin “Bert” on this. I’ll try to keep it in mind your question to get you the answer at some time in the future.
I’m not sure whether you’re aware, but there’s a story that barrels from German 88mm flak guns were repurposed and bought by the Irish state to use as lighting and electrical poles. Some can still be found in certain areas of Dublin city (examples in Ringsend and Sandymount in particular).
I guess also they thought they would possibly have to fight the red army so salvaging and repairing as much equipment and weapons as possible would have been an important job. Amazing what that generation accomplished.
Great video. This piece reminds me of how many military equipment after WW2 was recommissioned as for farming and civilian work in Australia. I have family photos showing bomber tyres being used as rear tyres for tractors. Old tanks were modified for tree clearing and used as bulldozers. Blitz trucks were used everywhere from tow trucks, forestry, cranes, farm trucks, etc. a lot of old military equipment found a long life working in outback mining and you’ll still found a lot of this old equipment sitting around in yards and paddocks today gathering rust.
Alot of ww2 armor vehicles were also still being used in the 80s as targets. I was a gunner on an M1 and we shot up alot of them. Also we watched the A10 Thunderbolts use them for targets too. Also the army would stack them up and cover them with gravel for defalades during gunnery. I also seen a few more modern vehicles like the M114.
In the early mid '90's, I rented a Kia Sportage and accidently drove along side a targeting range that the Air Force A-10's used. As I thought about where I was at having gone cross country just looking around, two A-10's, flew by and banked hard to come around and fly right over me. Now, my vehicle was 'white' and brand new, but I had a tight butt hole there for a few seconds.
@@johnshields9110 LOL A10s are flying destruction. As we watched in the far distance, there were chunks of steel flying all over the place as their guns fired. I bet the targets didn' t last but a day or 2. We were at law rocket class shooting at the same targets.
Excellent, Mark. A trip down memory lane. I was assigned to the Quarter Master ordnance depot when I was in the Army. While I was in the Airmobil platoon, which flew soldiers,supplies and munitions to forward bases, we had QM Group that was dedicated to recycle and repair of everything - from rucksacks to guns and vehicles. A huge job. That was 1972. I realized why we still had equipment that was of U.N. 69 Pattern. Reading all the comments here is quite fun.
My father was in the 107th Ordnance Company in WW2. One of their main jobs was refurbishing weapons. He had a very nice collection of German and American small arms. 😉
Those Garand Rifles are still be purchased, although through civilian market by the American public, as are many other items used during WWII. The Garand is a prized and glorius piece not only for the history it represents, but hunting, shooting, competition sport to this day.
@@raymondtonns2521 living near the Anniston Depot where the CMP was out of a decade ago, you could go stand in line when the M1Ds were in stock and it was like a black Friday feeding frenzy. The have since moved to a beautiful facility in Anniston Alabama that I have not been to. I think I have 12 CMP Garand cases kicking around from my ex. lol
Happy Thanksgiving to you Mark and all your family and friends. Thank you for another wonderful year of learning and great entertainment. Thank you as well for this excellent group of followers who share incredible stories and anecdotes of their own.
My father was a technical sergeant in WW2 and worked on mostly knocked out Sherman’s getting them back in working order. Unfortunately I didn’t get to hear his stories as he died in semi truck wreck when I was young. There is a great book about this written by the late Belton Cooper, it’s a fantastic read!
The amount of knowledge I’ve accumulated from your videos has been substantial Mr. Felton! Thank you for the high quality accurate content you continue to churn out sir we your fans appreciate them!
Excellent glimpse of what is NEVER addressed in any documentary, which is the monumental amount of materiel left behind after every battle. Thank you for this.
I remember watching a documentary about one of the Pacific island battles. It included a clip where an assembly line was set up in front of some tents and -M1 Garands, minus their furniture, were being dipped in barrels (probably gas or kerosene, by soldiers, 4-5 at a time. Picked up from the field, they were being inspected, cleaned and prepped for reissue.
My Dad as a young teen remembers getting German guns out of the ditch after the Canadians chased them out of town (Netherlands) and blasting cans off fence posts...
This is really interesting Dr Felton, thank you. Have you seen the reporting about WW2 shiprecks in Asia that have been recycled, even though they are registered war graves? If you have the scope, that would be a good investigate story for another time.
This brought me back to John Stewart's new show and learning that US troops in Iraq were burning their trash and damaged equipment, so backwards compared to what we used to do.
These practices have a lot to do with the "under the table" payment influence that military equipment and supplies manufacturers have to do with our bought and paid for legislators and their demands on DoD to buy new equipment rather than reclaiming used equipment. It's all part of the corruption filled military industrial complex.
My father was in Burma from 1943, before being sent home in 1946 there were many thousands of tons of trucks and equipment (some of it unused) that were sailed a few miles out to sea and tipped overboard.
My cousin was in charge of the motor pool for the Alabama National Guard for decades. He used to tell me stories of a construction project at an Alabama base where they found several jeeps buried in crates, packed in cosmoline. They were straight from the factory, and well preserved. They assembled 3, sent 2 to museums, and kept one on the base as a toy.
My father's cousin served in Europe in WWII. He was a very quiet man. After his death, I learned that he had recovered and repaired tanks immediately behind the front line. Having to clean out what was left of the previous crew might have contributed to his reluctance to talk about the war.
I grew up with a back neighbor that was a mechanic with a 3rd Army armor recovery company. He was assigned to a forward repair station that was around 1/3 mile behind the front lines where tanks with problems could motor into during battles for quick repairs. He also went out to disabled tanks as the fighting progressed to either repair where sitting or tow back to the station for repairs or use as a parts donor. Said he never handled any bodies nor their parts and refused to work inside one until a crew washed out the interior and sprayed it with a disinfectant. He never talked about battle damage, other than some fared better than others. On the other hand, he would talk all day about the BMW R75 sidecar rigs, Kubelwagens and Kettenkrads they had captured in North Africa and used in Sicily then Western Europe since those were useful and seemed to run forever with only regular maintenance done to them.
I spent 2006-08 threading and flanging pipe on a giant lathe at a plant in Leeds, Al. The maintenance supervisor researched the history of every machine that came in. My machine once cut gun barrels for warships in the '40s.
My dad, his siblings and friends would find abandoned WW2 equipment in the woods of Eastern Lapland and play with them. One of my dad's friends found an old mortar grenade and tried to crack it open with a rock, but unfortunately the mortar grenade blew up on him, flinging him into the air. He was killed instantly.
Very interesting subject! I like hearing things that happened behind the scenes or behind the front that we would not know or think about. I'd love to see more videos like that, Mark
I remember the massive "bone yards" at Grafenwoehr, Vilseck and Hohenfels that contained all the WWII Kraut equipment. It was used for hard targets on the gunnery ranges.
As a lot younger Veteran, your content is priceless and very informative Mark, wish I had a history teacher like you back in the day, liked and definitely subscribed, respect from Edinburgh Scotland ( ex-3 scots, The Black Watch)
Not always. A former girlfriend's Dad was in US Army supply in the Philippines at the end of WWII. He was stationed at a huge base that was stockpiling equipment for the invasion of the Japanese mainland. Not long after Japan's surrender the order was given to dispose of everything, as it would be too expensive to bring it all the way back to the US. He witnessed Jeeps, trucks and all kinds of equipment just dumped into the sea. It affected him so much that when he came home he became a hoarder.
The marines and the army that faught in the Pacific got second had supplys. Also think of how much harder it was getting those supplys all over the Pacific ocean. Its truly amazing. The logistics to do all that was as hard as planing a battle.
The founder of Walmart was Sam Walton. He served in the Pacific with the Navy assisting the beach masters that controlled the unloading and placement of supplies and munitions. He used that experience to develop his own warehousing system to keep his growing number of discount department stores well stocked at a lower cost. The Navy was experiencing constant problems in the Pacific Theater having supplies and munitions unloaded onto the beaches then sent out to the troops so the USN sent in an efficiency expert to analyze their current system and find solutions. Commander Richard Milhous Nixon made the rounds then wrote up recommendations that eliminated the problems after being implemented. The base commanders were probably happy to see him leave since Nixon was a highly skilled card shark. After the war, Nixon decided to run as an unknown for a US Congressional seat and financed his campaign by gambling at cards at night. He won and eventually became elected twice to the White House.
@@gwenmckeithen614 You may remember the radio broadcaster named Paul Harvey and his radio spot called "The Rest of the Story". He'd talk about how people's past enabled them to become famous later in life so provided the obscure details that were left out of the history books.
Another least known but fantastic n interesting vid. Well researched with those awesome archival films n pictures. You've set a higher bar by producing this vid. Kudos. Anticipating ur next one.
![30 ชั่วโมงคนเดียว บนรถไฟชั้น 3 โซเวียต [Around The World Ep. 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MlE9boAVqDA/mqdefault.jpg)
NordVPN Black Friday deal! Go to nordvpn.com/markfelton to get a 2-year plan plus 1 additional month with a huge discount!
Please Mark, talk about Garbo (the double agent).
Mark can you also post on Rumble please?
Mark can you please post the link to the video you used for this? I’d love to watch more of this
Thanks my friend...!
When you realise the narratred segment is basically 'How Its Made' but in the 1940s
Fun fact:
In 1991 when war broke out in Yugoslavia and my city called Dubrovnik got surrounded and went under siege local defending croatian forces remembered that in 1944 fleeing German army dropped hundreds of tons of explosives and mines into the sea so naturally divers went and out of neccesity and dispair small civilian factory used these explosives to somehow produce hand grenades and claymore style mines which were much needed for defence
You did much more than just that.
Yugoslav partisans hid all their WW2 captured equipment in stashes in barns or pits. These men grew old till as you say in the early 90s the civil war started and people went looking for it all.
I was part of a royal engineer EOD team that went around asking old widows if their husbands were partisans in the war and if we could look for weapons to stop either side getting it.
We had mg 34s/ 42s, grenades, k98s, mp 40s and a few 38s. Mines and artillery shells as well as ammunition for all the guns.
We shot as much ammo as we could till the guns broke then blew everything left up. It was shocking the amount of stuff we destroyed.
@@fishyc150 where were you stationed if I can ask?
I have been reading a lot of books (both croatian and serbian) about attack on dubrovnik area and UNESCO protected Dubrovnik( attacking it was a war crime) and looking back its absolutely incredible that UN,UNESCO,EU or NATO did literally nothing to prevent siege and carnage that happened here, I mean 30 000 soliders and tanks + navy + airforce against 3-4 thousand milita with only light arms.Every single building was robbed and burned to the ground in the area thats 20x150 kilometres big, only Dubrovnik wasnt burned but was pretty damaged due to year long daily artillery and air strikes
I cant even imagine what would happen to the very overcrowded 1000 year old walled city if it fell, probably genocide and burning to the ground (same thing happened to the city of Vukovar)
And this worked?! You Yugos are crazy but you got style :D Greetings from Austria.
@@yesyesyesyes1600 when i was reading that i was surprised just as much as you hahaha its incredible how humans in such situations can be so innovative and clever
@@fishyc150 Was there any time in particular where you made MG42 go brrrrrr until it broke and if so what was the longest it went for?
I've seen firsthand leftover German and British WWII era weaponry in Iraq. MP40s, Enfields, etc. It was unbelievable.
It is amazing the journey that those weapons have been on 😮
There was a few ww2 armour vehicles in the basra area too
They are just as effective today as they were then.
Same! Absolutely amazing.
MP40s! And Enfields, hanging around Iraq, awesome, but WWII era weapons are collectibles so I'm not sure I'd want to use them to fight though, like driving your auto union or duesenberg to work
My next door neighbour of 40 years ago, had been a regular army SWO (senior warrant officer) in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. He spent most of the war recovering damaged allied and axis vehicles from battlefields. In the desert campaign of 1942, he managed to "acquire" an abandoned Italian SPA-Viberti AS-42 and got it allocated for his own personal use. He said it was an amazing vehicle for the desert with its huge tyres, 2 x 4 transmission and four wheel steering. He kept it right up until May 1945 in north Italy, when he was seconded to the Palestinian Protectorate Police to be their transport manager and with much regret had to leave his SPA behind.
That was one of the vehicles used by the Italian Auto-Saharan Companies which the Long Range Desert Group was modeled after and who fought the LRDG on more than one occasion.
*looks up SPA Viberti AS-42*
Pssssh- thats awesome
Yo that as42 is just cancer in war thunder
Great story thanks for sharing it 👍
Thanks for the amazing story. It made for fascinating reading. 😉👍
I once stayed in a holiday cottage on a farm in Normandy and the owner showed us inside his barn he had several WW2 mobile field artillery and AA cannons, said they were all just left around during the war and collected up by his father and grandfather. Teenage me found it awesome because you could sit in the seats and still move the cannons around with the turning handles!
How many imaginary bombers did you take down?
Man that must have been neat as hecl
France is full of ww2 stuff hidden in barns it's amazing....who's I learnt french in school I love to travel round talking to good old boys about there war stashes
Where you a , "boom boom boom" guy or maybe a , "ratta ratta ratta " type gunner , I alway like the , "daka daka daka ' but that's more machine gun.
@@kupus6622 😂😂😂
I once had a Hungarian neighbor that served on the Eastern Front until being captured in Poland in 1945. He spent the next seven years in a Siberian Gulag working as a machinist before being returned to Hungary in 1952. He walked back to the family farm and noticed that the countryside was still strewn with destroyed and abandoned equipment. Once home he found that the farmers were using salvaged equipment as tractors and truck transports that were fueled by wood gas generators retrieved from German vehicles. He knew how German units would hide equipment and supplies during retreats with intentions to use it during counter-offensives so located a few to plunder for batteries, oils, tires, tools and whatever else they could use. In one he found a heavy Zundapp motorcycle rig with a trailer so turned those into a tractor and cultivator. He got a job at a machine shop in a small city some distance away where he was allowed to modify parts for agricultural use to make some extra money. He took a train to that job so bought a ticket that took him to the end of the line after the Soviets moved in during the 1955 Uprising. From there he walked over the mountains into Austria to seek political asylum since the Soviets were rounding up former Hungarian soldiers at night and refused to tell their families where they were taken and what happened to them.
That's a convenient way to escape though. The soviets show up looking for him and his family can say "He disappeared, you tell us?" Which would then leave them in a Catch-22: The only way to capture him is to divulge information that they didnt take him, but if they divulge information about taking soldiers clandestinely, that would make the rest of them flee as well so that they couldnt capture more.
What a brilliant bit of history! Nice one for sharing it. Glad he made it out.
The Germans were proficient at this earlier in the war too.
Really hit home with the "the 40's culture is not a throwaway culture." So much military equipment wasted or thrown away in Afghanistan and Iraq
Biden left a legacy in Afghanistan that will come back to bites us in the not so distant future. Young American men & women will die because of his Treason.
I somehow felt it really is a criticism to us gen Xs, Millennials, and gen Zs
@@hermittao oh yeah like Trump wouldn’t of done the same thing if he was still president.
@@farisafif3305 boomers as well
@@kayzeaza I'm glade you agree.
When I was stationed on the island of Okinawa in the mid 80's, one day the topic how the battlefield - which was virtually the lower third of the island was cleaned up. This one civilian informed me that the U.S. Military Government - which ran the island after the conclusion of the battle - offered a monetary bounty on any weapon and/or munition item found. The local population, desperate for any type of resource after the devastation of their homeland, were very effective in cleaning the island. Of course, military explosive disposal units were heavily involved in the clean-up effort as well.
I'm told that the top soil is especially futile on the island 🏝
That was cool!
@@DaveSCameron Fertile?
@@DaveSCameron and moist by the tears of god.
Lots of his children Japanese and Alied died on that island.
Very interesting fact!
Did you go through the Jungle Warfare Training Center in the Northern Training Area in Okinawa while you were stationed there?
a good friend of mine was in the Austrian army in the late 1950's,(such as it was).he said they had a number of WW2 era refurbished Luger's,Steyr-Hahn's,k 98's,Erma and MP 40 submachineguns.His commander rode around in a Steyr field car.His aunt had a knocked out Soviet T 70 on the property.Being a frugal farm woman,she covered it in hay and brush,until it was safe to cut it up and sell for scrap
That tank was like a little inflation-proof savings account.
@@bb5242 yes indeed.that and the fact that she lived in a rural area and had a stocked root clellar kept her and her kids alive
The early years of the austrian army, founded initially as an disguised police force, equipped with ex-german, american and russian weapons would be another fascinating story to cover.
Sad thing is today the austrian army still has to get by with scraps but from the 60s, 70s
Haha, all those guns got scrapped for sure. Gun nuts will cry. The best sound for me.
A friend of mine was in a re-build shop in the UK during WWII. He said that they used to drag burned out Shermans over a pit and remove the floor hatch and then hose them out. Any human remains were then properly disposed of. Any penetrations were covered over with a one inch thick patch and the internals replaced. It was basically a brand new tank when they were finished with it.
Imagine seeing that patch in your Sherman played on your mind
I don't want to think about the PTSD resulting from hosing down half carbonised human remains stuck to their seats inside a Tank
I watched a documentary a number of years ago. A WW2 British Veteran who had served in Normandy with the Royal armoured, said his Sherman got knocked out, all crew survived and escaped. They waited at base for 3 days before being issued a new Sherman. The Sherman they got was a battle damaged and repaired.
Such was the rush to get them fixed and back out on the front line the repair crew hadn’t cleaned out the Tank, they got their new tank splattered in blood with bits of flesh dotted around.
@@riograndedosulball248 there was no PTSD then.....people got on with it
@@B2091 they got on with it regardless
In postwar Germany 1953 my dad was station in Bitburg and near the military housing there was a military junkyard. I can remember as a 2nd grader wandering over there with friends and rooting around. Needless to say Mom wasn't thrilled to come into her kitchen to find Nazi helmets, broken guns and bayonets'. When Dad came home a long talk and restrictions on where we could forage. It was great.
Probably wise because in the 50s some of the ordinance would still have been very dangerous.
Sounds like your childhood was pure bliss. I could've only dreamed to have that growing up
7 year old me after finding a Hugo boss uniform, mp40 with 6 sticks, and a bouncing Betty.
“Mom when I grow up I’m gonna be a nazi”
Yep. I grew up in West Berlin and you could dig almost anywhere and find stuff. Fantastic for a kid.
On a field exercise north of Kaiserslautern in 1989 I spotted a farmers milk cart with SdKfz 251 roadwheels.
No one else in my platoon even noticed the historical relevance, I stood along the cattle fence close enough to read the words Continental printed on the wheel rubber.
Conti is making tires till this day. Good ones !
@@andrewchesler2029 Very good but very expensive tires. I don't put enough miles a year on to make their kind of top shelf tire economically viable as the tires will be weather checked long before I wear them out.
@@thomasb1889 Thomas Bs are actually just inferior versions of Thomas R.
@@Baseballnfj Inferior but if you will never press the tires to the edge and if you will never put enough miles on to come close to the service life the cheap tires could be what you want to go with.
Don't ask a German company what they were doing during the early 40s...
Today we're thankful for Mark Felton!
I was born in the fifties in Lae, New Guinea, just down the road from Nadzab in the Markam river valley. The valley, a hundred miles long and mostly ten miles wide. When my pop arrived as a missionary in '46, he later told me there were 10,000 (? he may have used a larger figure) planes at Nadzab. If they could manage one last flight armed forces got em to that staging area. According to my father a couple chaps acquired the rights, melted them all down and shipped them out.
Interesting aside; one of my favorite "six degrees" facts is, my mom knew a fellow who watched Amelia Earhart get airborne from her last takeoff point, my home town.
Greetings from the US. I just returned from a month in Kokopo. PNG is a very beautiful country full of WWII history
I use to live next to ww2 vet that worked in the salvage area in Europe after he was wounded on the front lines and refused to be sent home. Apparently he dealt with a lot of the German captured equipment was able to grab a few souvenirs like a k98 with pouches and bayonet and even had a MP40 from his time in the front lines.
My mom was born in Nuremberg in 1933. She had a lot of anecdotes of her childhood. Some regarded the fields on the sides of local roads after the war ended. She saw neatly laid out row upon row of rifles, canons, mortars, shells, etc… As a kid I used to ask her why she didn’t grab some. I would have loved to have them to play with. I did say I was a kid. Hell, as an adult I still would want to “play” with some of them.
You would never want to see them again
Now I know! Thank you!
If I learned something with reading Heinz G. Konsalik's books is that... People took them home
They just follow the fist rule of finding a gun: you haven't found a gun
@@riograndedosulball248 Gun? What Gun? 🤷♂️ 😉
At this rate, one day we'll have exact information of every minute in the Second World War.
Thanks Dr. Felton, You are the greatest history TH-camr.
Being the owner of a small recycling biz in Florida, I found this a most interesting edition. Thank you
Mark Felton videos prove that you can never know enough about WW2. Thank you sir!
When I joined the US Army in the early ‘70s, a lot of our field gear had WWII date stamps on them. Canteens, helmets and individual field gear mostly. Turn in requirements by the individual soldier were so stringent as far as their cleanliness and maintenance and the quality of initial manufacture made them practical for re issue to replacements after a tour of duty. The old ‘steel pot’ helmet was used by G.I.s to hammer tent pegs, wash in, sit on, and even cook in. Can’t do that with today’s kevlar. Those metal mess trays were used in our mess halls as well as the field. In the field, the cooks would have to set up metal trash cans with heater stacks in them to wash and rinse them though, as a dirty mess tray would give you a case of the runs. But all that equipment properly maintained lasted for generations of soldiers. Today though, field meals are served with everything disposable.
Thanks for sharing Joe. I had the pleasure of getting the exact same equipment a decade later. Vietnam Era Equipment used by me in the US Army of 1983: Jungle uniform (with slanted pockets), jungle boots, M-16A1 Rifle, M-1 steel pot, Alice pack, etc. The only modern thing was one set of woodland BDUs. I think the army used the F out of their stuff even in the 60's 70's and into the eighties. Our C-rations were all from VN era. Gross.
Steel helmet may be good for banging tent pegs but it's not as good at stopping bullets.
If they were that great they would still be in use.
Good to hear stories from before our military went woke. No way I would serve them today.
War time production was ramped up enormously and when the war ended, there would’ve been massive stockpiles of stuff that was suddenly not needed by a much smaller military who were now in bases rather than the field. It would take decades to run down some of the stuff even with Korea and Vietnam happening. Similarly, there would’ve been stockpiles of Korea and Vietnam era stuff when those wars ended as well.
We used those old aluminum mess trays at Camp Bullis in the 70s. Bleeping indestructible.
When i toured Normandy on the 70th anniversary of the landings, a museum had the last (or second to last) FAMO German heavy halftrack, fully restored. Turns out the locals had been using it as a road grading machine. The museum acquired it and restored it. Our B and B host told us everyone he knew growing up used Jeeps as farm tractors, and everyone who had a motorcycle drove a 1940s Harley Davidson.
Mark, you help me get through the day, brother. Gods bless you.
So glad this topic was covered, WWII weapons were used in combat in service in the US all the way through the Vietnam War, such a fascinating topic, thank you Mark. Incidentally, when stationed in Germany, my late uncle was a part of the metal reuse for downed planes, in addition to cleaning out the planes of the dead, his job was to salvage any material of the planes, deemed worthy of being reused.
I remember a movie about life in the UK during the war.....when a bomber crew bailed out and parachuted down, the military would take them away and the women would scramble for the parachute silk to make undies etc out of lol....
@@muskokamike127 well the chutes were made out of really decent silk so waste not want not.
M3 Grease Guns were still part of the US military tank kits during the first Gulf War.
@@lastswordfighter Love the Grease Gun. They were so perfect for the tank crew role that, intelligently, no one tried to design a replacement. Afaik they were replaced only when their ammo was no longer in the logistic pipeline once the 1911A was replaced.
@@johnburns4017 I'm sure that happened all over.....brutal but war is brutal all around.
I read about civil war and prior battlefields, citizens would raid the battlefield and strip the wounded and dead of all valuables.
After WW2, my great grandfather and grandfather...'procured' an 8 ton truck. It was stripped and served for many, mány years on the farm as a tracktor, and really helped them get back in buisness. My uncle still has a few of the wheels lying around.
Thanks from the Netherlands for that gift.
Not everything was reclaimed by the army...
In my barn I have found tools, weapons and various items from WW2. The locals were also very efficient at cleaning up too!
I know that up in Normandy France, there are private collections which would amaze museums.
3 things.
I have a trench coat that I bought a few years ago, which I still wear from time to time. It has the original tagged in it showing that it was made in 1940 by a military contractor. There's a second tag from a repair Depot in New Jersey, which shows that it was sent back to the states to be repaired. There's also a section on the back of it where it was ripped upward from the tail but then very carefully darned and rewoven and ReSewn.
I used to know a man who had served with a US Armored Division in a salvage Depot. Part of his job was to go into a tank and remove bodies when they were there. He told me about more than one occasion when a large piece of the tank was actually blown away, how he would have to go into the tank with a hose and watch the blood and body parts out. Not only not glamorous, but also something that would induce horrifically nightmarish mental problems for decades.
Also, I have a Filipino balisong which had accidentally wound up in some burner Barrel decades ago, and a smaller one, keychain size. Both were made from salvaged steel, aircraft aluminum, cartridge brass, and plexiglass. Having once owned the full-sized one in undamaged condition myself, I know exactly how it was made.
I mean, it is the quintessential salvaged material object, much like trench art from World War One. Except, much more involved.
Not quite a jeep or aircraft, but when my Grandfather was dismantling a USMC camp in New Zealand after the war he found a US machete in its leather sheath under a hut. He kept it and used it for farm and garden work for decades. I have it now and still get use out of it. It has the initials 'JB' carved into the handle. Always wondered who 'JB' was??
With all the stories biden tells probably his after all he was a Roman general.😂😳
@@lablackzed What? Do you need a nap grandpa?
Justin bieber .
Blazkovich
Jack Black 🤣
Its a shame we've apparently forgotten these lessons. I used to work in what's now known as the Circular Economy and I often cited wartime examples of "make do and mend" as what we should be doing now, and of course the way they used food and prevented food waste was incredibly innovative.
the more digital control systems are integrated into products (that used to were designed with no digital control at all), the more difficult it becomes to do self-repair and keep that gear operational. Then think how there used to be lots of TV and electronics repair shops but now rather few. One reason is transistors are much superior to vacuum tubes (valve replacement the main driver for TV shops), but a more general reason is that the labor cost of repair make it difficult to compete against brand new manufactured replacement. In most cases the economic formula favors replacing vs repairing. The best that can be hoped for now is to improve the ability to recycle discarded products.
My Grandfather upgraded his earthmoving business with a surplus International TD 40 bulldozer. The TD 40 was recovered from Truk island and shipped to Sydney, Australia. He was allowed onto the ship to select the one he wanted. He was advised to strip and rebuild the machine because it had been sitting in the jungle for two years, he was able to purchase surplus replacement bearings and seal kits for the rebuild.
a great tale. necessity is the mother of scrounging
My grandad and his brother started a building company on their return to London after WW2 and bought an army surplus lorry and surplus tools. They started off clearing bomb sites and salvaging materials and built up the business which still exists today being run by my uncles.
@@raymondtonns2521 well i9 know one of my grandpas friends did make exavator and logging machine out of t34
Was not a TD 40 they came out in 1964 we bought one new. Could have been a TD 24 or 18
A play ground near my home where we grew up had an old WW2 tank that had the turret removed and was repurposed as a jungle gym. Us kids would climb all over it and use our imagination of driving into battle. Can you imagine an old tank being part of a playground today? Sad how times have changed.
Same in Europe, what happend after the 70's🤷♂️🤦♂️
I live in NZ and I work with a bloke who is from Tarawa. He recalls playing as a kid on the abandoned Sherman that is still in the lagoon at Betio. I was amazed when he told me about it. He was amazed that I knew about the battle of Tarawa
It has changed for the WORSE too.
@@peasant1381 I mean, once you scrape out the dead bodies and live ammo, clean out toxic hydraulic fluids, gasoline and brain spatter, you got yourself a neat children's toy!
z
Mark is the best historian on the internet today!
I’m an aspiring historian and I can’t thank you enough for your videos Mark! Truly informative and keeping the past alive.
What amazes me is that there are still brand new WWII rifles being found in warehouses even now. Not as many lately, but still...
The various governments especially Russian and America still have tons of weapons (more so for Russia) from WW2 all coated in a very thick layer of cosmoline.
B B beware ! almost all of the "new " are items that have non original parts and sold as new. Lugers have numbered parts even the inside of rhe grips are numbered! i knew a guy that did part time gun smith work on M 1 garands they had to replace worn parts . but who knows?
@@raymondtonns2521 that’s true for lugers and most German made weapons but not so for American guns especially the M1 garand not everything has a marking on it and it could and did leave the factory with different serialized parts so an all matching M1 garand would be really rare or a fake.
@@curiousentertainment3008 during the early days of the Ukraine and Russian conflict the Ukrainian army militias were using world war 2 machine guns
In Syria a couple years back, a cache of brand new STG44s was found. Just no ammo for them
Happy Thanksgiving from you're brothers across the pond Dr. Felton! You never fail to impress. Thanks for all the wonderful content. It's the best on youtube.
I once had the pleasure of knowing a man who had started work as a young deck hand during the war, he was shot by an ME109 on his first day, but that's another story. During the late 40s and early 50s he had worked up to ships master and found himself working for a rather dubious northern scrap dealer. This dealer had bought a war surplus freighter and employed my friend as master. His main route for a number of years was to take the ship down to north Africa and load up with scrap before heading back to the UK. He would tell me heavy tanks and guns were loaded into the lower hull first following by trucks jeeps etc. Aircraft were placed on top followed by another few tanks to "keep it down" before closing the hatches. I asked him if he'd ever thought about keeping the odd Spitfire or Panza tank, he just smiled and reminded me they were ten a penny and no body cared, they were after the scrap value, he also reminded me that a Hurricane is no longer air worthy one it's been placed under a burned out Sherman. RIP Al.
After the Japanese surrender, my father and a few other sailors were sent over to the RN main naval yard at Trincomalee from Katukurunda. They boarded a fleet carrier, he didn't remember which one, and they sailed out to sea for about 4 hours. Anything American went over the side. Guns, ammunition, parts, stripped air frames, engines, complete aircraft of all types, Corsairs, Hellcats, Wildcats, Avengers and even aircraft in crates right from the factory. Apparently if it wasn't on charge, Britain didn't have to pay for it.
He got a day's pay and an extra tot of rum for that. I called it a waste but he said all the aircraft at that time were everywhere, a dime a dozen. A Corsair or whatever flew over and you never even looked up from what you were doing to look.
Many years later he watched a Corsair in flight with me at an air show and he couldn't take his eyes off of it. In the hangar, along with the pilot, he looked the aircraft over from propeller hub to tail and for that time, he was back in his early 20's again.
Very interesting. I recall my dad was a fan of visiting "war surplus" stores in the mid-1950's. I still have my steel Civil Defense helmet and gas mask. We even had a field phone to connect my grandmother's house next door.
A couple of years ago I was in the Oakland, CA police department property vault. They had more German, Italian and Japanese rifles, pistols, SMG's than you could shake a stick at. All in remarkable condition all, all turn-ins from spouses and family members of WWII veterans who passed away.
No offense to those folks , but that was DUMB ! I hate fools who turn stuff like that in to "gun buybacks" ! Un-American!
@@johnnypopper-pc3ss we can’t all like guns lol
@@johnnypopper-pc3ss, yes, incredibly sad. All the classic firearms that weren't NFA items (like submachineguns) could have fetched decent prices in the surplus collecting market. Lots of historical firearms probably destroyed for no good reason.
@@spannaspinna It's more a case of historic artifacts than what those artifacts are though ...
@@johnnypopper-pc3ss some old lady just wanted it out of the house I guess,picked up the odd bit of hardware like that myself
A day without a Mark Felton video is....... not as good as a day with one!
Thank you sir, for what you do and even though it's not one of your holidays, happy Thanksgiving anyway!
What was that mr president? It didnt quite make sense.
I absolutely agree. Thank you Mr. Felton for the amazing videos. When I watch your videos I always feel immense gratitude to all who served during WW2. Without those that scarified sometimes everything we may be living a very different life. God bless & Happy Thanksgiving to all.
@@matthalstead7933 This is American Thanksgiving. Dr. Felton is British. Thanksgiving isn't a holiday in Britain.
@@hughjass1044 I was making a biden joke.
@@matthalstead7933 LOL I got the joke LOL
Today the US leaves 1 Trillion dollars of perfect material/weapons to the enemy.
Ha I was looking for this comment
All I could think about watching this was the f'ing Taliban and China Joe ! 😡
Ironically...that was the first thing that came to my mind. How our current employees, politicians, waste our hard earned money and make our existence more dangerous.
@@johnnypopper-pc3ss LOL China Joe. If only Biden were remotely leftist, or not a warhawk toward China. Right wing delusions are funny
@@johnnypopper-pc3ss dido!
I bought an M-1 Garand. Looked up the serial number, manufactured September 1939. It's got some Italian parts on it, including a Beretta bolt. It also got a new barrel in 1951 at Frankfort Arsenal in Philadelphia. Thing was lousy with cosmoline.
Got a steel pipe, capped the end, pulled the wood off, and soaked the rest in gasoline for 3 days. Took care of most of the cosmoline. 👍
Where do you look that information up , I would like to check on mine.
I was just telling my daughter that when I was a kid (1960s) my dad would take me to an army surplus store that was still full of WWII equipment and that there is always distinct smell to those places. Canvas and cosmoline. I rebuilt a 1943 halftrack and all the surplus parts had that wonderful smell.
Oh Yeah, that smell is unique. It’s like perfume to me.
The civilian marksmen program here in the U.S does a fantastic job restoring and refurbishing M1 Garands that come back many years later from other countries that the U.S has loaned them to and return them into shootable pieces of history.
Pretty sure the Obama Admin defunded that program. I attended one or two shooting sessions but didn't qualify for a free rifle
Ping!
@@jimuren2388 they are still operating and selling M1 I would check on their website
@@jimuren2388 it was started back up with Trump
8th Army headquarters in Seoul S. Korea had a full rebuild shop for all vehicles in country. It burned down shortly after Dad got there in 1957. Dad was the NCO in charge of rebuilding the facility. He setup assembly lines to rebuild major components once they were stripped, cleaned and inspected. Utilizing serial numbers he tracked performance of rebuilds to make sure his guys were doing good work. He could also determine which units were abusing their equipment. He got a Commendation Medal for cutting waste, improving efficiency and saving the Army a bundle of money each tear!
That sort of job is counter productive in today’s military.
@@kdegraa rebuilding broken equipment is counterproductive? What do you do if a war breaks out wait for new vehicles?
@@JohnRodriguesPhotographer more money is made when the army gets a new machine.
Dr. Felton, before I even begin to watch your videos I hit the “like” button. I know your videos are informative and historically correct. Happy Thanksgiving my good man.
Same
Umm, thanksgiving ain't a British holiday, dontcha know.
@@danielheistg9385 Yes, but nothing wrong with wishing someone a Happy Thanksgiving.
@@miked1765 No hard feelings, but thanks for the out loud laugh. And next July you can wish Mark a Happy 4th. I'll try and remember next Nov 5th to wish you a happy Guy Fawkes.
@@miked1765 Thanks Mike. I appreciate your comment.
Mark, as a amateur military historian, I appreciate and look forward to all of these new productions. I finally broke down and contributed something I'm going to do it again it's totally worth it keep them coming it's wonderful
Dr. Felton --- yours is by far the GREATEST WW2 history channel. I learn something new from each video. THANKS !!!
The most sought after were Lugers and MP40s.
P38s, MP44s and Kar98s too.
I had an older co worker who was in Patton's army. He said Lugers were a top prize to find and he found one but didn't take it. I asked him why not and he said the pistol had someone's brains on it. True story.
If the Germans captured you with it ?
I work in aircraft reclamation in Arizona, working on aircraft from the A318 all the way up to 747s. This video was so neat to see as its almost the history of my industry. Thanks Mr Mark!
Bill Mauldin in his book "Up Front" relates a story about one of his cartoons. As an American cartoonist he drew a Tommy looking over an American battlefield who says to the GI - "You blokes leave an awfully messy battlefield". The observation being that the British were more prolific at reclaiming damaged gear.
I was going to bring that cartoon up. Actually it had more to do with the excess of equipment and ordinance that the Americans had. If a G.I. lost his M1, he just got another. If a Tommy lost his Enfield, it was a huge deal.
@@HemlockRidge - Well said, I could have said more lol, but it's 3am here. Do you remember if Mauldin managed to upset both the British and US commands with that cartoon? It's been a while since I read it.
@@HemlockRidge My dad said exactly that. If a British soldier crashed his jeep he had to fill out reams of paperwork etc. American G.I.s just got another jeep. Also, I read about a British officer who lost a piece of equipment and went to the stores for a replacement. When he returned home after the war the MoD sent him a bill for the missing piece??
@@MotionMcAnixx Bill Mauldin pissed off all the Brass. Do you remember how he was commissioned to do a Willie and Joe cartoon for an Officers Club. He had them looking like they were right out of combat, looking wistfully in the window of the O-Club. I would imagine that put a damper on many evenings.
@@HemlockRidge Bill also built up a Jeep for himself out of wrecks, he bought the parts out of his own pocket. He had Joe and Willie painted on the sides.
My First Sergeant in the US 17th Cavalry grew up on the outskirts of Munich. He was 12 years old in 1945. He remembered waking up one day near the end of the war and his back garden was occupied by a Hungarian cavalry unit. Anyway, after the war ended his mom found him a job working with a salvage guy and he told me they used a lot of cannon barrels to repair broken residential water lines. I wonder if any of those 88mm water pipes still exist. His Dad was captured on the Eastern Front but starved to death in a Soviet work camp in the late 40's. The family was unaware until a returning POW delivered the news in 1954.
He was lucky. I read a testimony from a.. 14yo.. German 'soldier' who was captured at the end and barely survived imprisonment in Siberia. He mentioned that the older men were more likely to succumb to starvation rations situation.. 💀
In Vietnam, we had a similar situation. After the Vietnam war, a lot of US equipments were left behind in the battlefield. It was a mess. So this is what we did:
- Lightly damaged or intact vehicles/weapons (M16, Huey helicopters, M101 howitzer, trucks, PT boat,...) were collected, repaired and put into service with the Vietnamese army.
- Heavily damaged or destroyed vehicles (notably F-4, A-6 and B-52 aircrafts, shot down over North Vietnam) were stripped to collect precious metal. We used that huge amount of metal to create domestic products, like trays, buckets, bowls,... Actually I have a pot made of metal coming from a B-52. Thanks the US air force for their generous metal donation, especially when we needed them the most.
"They are given an acid bath"
Guy washes metal with his bare hands and a rag.
For aluminum the acid only needs to be about as strong as the acid in coca cola. Coca cola is commonly used to clean the decks of aluminum fishing boats in lieu of other cleaners. I worked in a bicycle factory that mostly made aluminum frames, we used an acid bath to clean the frames prior to shipping. Sometimes a frame was forgotten over night in the acid bath and was unable to be shipped but still quite solid, and probably quite light too!
i saw that! and said OMG
Folks were just tougher back then.
Happy Thanksgiving to all 🦃 and another Mark Felton masterpiece!
While in the RAF in the 1980's, I used an LMG, (Light Machine Gun) it was dated 1942 and was a re-calibred from .303 to 7.62 BREN Gun.
I actually use surplus WWII vacuum tubes to this day. My hobby is restoring antique radios, and these are useful for this. They are fairly common, even now.
Patty i am 71 how may 17 year olds know what a vacuum tube is or a typewriter?jeez
May your hobby bring you joy and fulfillment....and many surplus vacuum tubes
@@raymondtonns2521 or a rotary phone, cassette tape, 8 track tape, B&W TV, etc. I would in include records, but they are making a comeback, being sold at Walmart along with turntables.
And some are worth big bucks and very expensive.
@@randlemcmurphy2672 Yes, the ones audiophiles use. Tubes are still made in Russia and used in Fender amps and such. Tubes usually used in antique radios are usually not to expensive. There are a few exceptions, such as the tuning eye tube. Tubes used in 1950s/1960s TVs are almost worthless.
My dad, when coming home from Europe after the war, acquired a German Schmeisser Pistol and was going to pack it away in his duffle bag for the trip home when he'd heard that Army officials were searching bags for weapons and other items and penalties or more were possible if caught. He decided to sell it to another soldier for what I recall was around $12. What a HUGE mistake! No searching of bags ever happened and he regretted it. Many stories of great 'finds' were made. Mark, always great detail on your work and absolutely rare found videos to share. THANKS!
Ha ha, sounds like my deceased father-in-law. He had a P-38 with the holster and belt/buckle and a couple of daggers stashed in his kit bag. Word went around that Customs and military police were waiting on the pier and anyone with firearms or weapons would be charged accordingly. He said that around the ship in harbour, it looked like it was raining as all manner of things went over the side or out port holes. Got off the ship, nothing, not one Customs or military police officer. On the train, guys were selling pistols helmets and daggers for far more than what they were worth in Europe. He figures these guys with a ton of these things started the rumour to jack up the prices on their loot.
Happy Thanksgiving Mark! Thank you for your dedication to bringing real history to us year round, it’s awesome to be able to learn about interesting topics from your research!
Many blessing to you & yours!
You come up with such great topics, I thought to myself many times what had happened to all those vehicles and equipment. Once again you prove yourself to be the creator of a best history channel on YT.
Mark, I was in the US Navy from 1972 to 1975. While stationed aboard a DE, during small arms practice, we use ammunition with manufacture dates of 1944 and 1945 on the cases brought out by the gunners mates.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked, World War I-era ammunition web belts were in use, if they didn't disintegrate during that furious fight.
@@Otokichi786 at the time of pearl harbor ww1 equipment was only 20-25 years old. It’s equivalent to the us military in the 2010’s using equipment from the 90’s.
I have been to the Ardennes area a number of times. There were reenactments and vehicle shows.
The 75th anniversary had so many different types of US vehicles and even Piper Cub air shows. The finale was a mock battle between German and US reenactors. And the museums have tons of displays. I stayed in Bastogne. So that was very memorable.
My great cousin Robert Richardson during WWII in North Africa then Italy; as an engineer used to salvage planes. He said, his colleagues nicknamed one type “Wimpeys” He said, whilst in Italy, you had to be quick to beat the Italians getting to the planes as they would quickly strip the wheels off the planes. He passed away in 2016 aged 101. Such a gentleman.
Would those have been Vickers Wellingtons, by any chance?
@@TallboyDave David, just to get back to you. I would have to dig out my notes/videos from when I spoke to my great cousin “Bert” on this. I’ll try to keep it in mind your question to get you the answer at some time in the future.
@@willbee6785 I only ask, since "Wimpey" was very common RAF slang for the Wellington bombers.
I’m not sure whether you’re aware, but there’s a story that barrels from German 88mm flak guns were repurposed and bought by the Irish state to use as lighting and electrical poles. Some can still be found in certain areas of Dublin city (examples in Ringsend and Sandymount in particular).
I guess also they thought they would possibly have to fight the red army so salvaging and repairing as much equipment and weapons as possible would have been an important job. Amazing what that generation accomplished.
Incredible Mark this has to be one of the best channels on TH-cam 👍
Great video. This piece reminds me of how many military equipment after WW2 was recommissioned as for farming and civilian work in Australia. I have family photos showing bomber tyres being used as rear tyres for tractors. Old tanks were modified for tree clearing and used as bulldozers. Blitz trucks were used everywhere from tow trucks, forestry, cranes, farm trucks, etc. a lot of old military equipment found a long life working in outback mining and you’ll still found a lot of this old equipment sitting around in yards and paddocks today gathering rust.
You cover so many interesting topics which are neglected by the mainstream media channels!
Props to you sir.
Mark Felton is a legend...you are ww2 history keep up the great work 👍
Alot of ww2 armor vehicles were also still being used in the 80s as targets. I was a gunner on an M1 and we shot up alot of them. Also we watched the A10 Thunderbolts use them for targets too. Also the army would stack them up and cover them with gravel for defalades during gunnery. I also seen a few more modern vehicles like the M114.
In the early mid '90's, I rented a Kia Sportage and accidently drove along side a targeting range that the Air Force A-10's used. As I thought about where I was at having gone cross country just looking around, two A-10's, flew by and banked hard to come around and fly right over me. Now, my vehicle was 'white' and brand new, but I had a tight butt hole there for a few seconds.
@@johnshields9110 LOL A10s are flying destruction. As we watched in the far distance, there were chunks of steel flying all over the place as their guns fired. I bet the targets didn'
t last but a day or 2. We were at law rocket class shooting at the same targets.
Thanks for sharing Mark!
Excellent, Mark. A trip down memory lane. I was assigned to the Quarter Master ordnance depot when I was in the Army. While I was in the Airmobil platoon, which flew soldiers,supplies and munitions to forward bases, we had QM Group that was dedicated to recycle and repair of everything - from rucksacks to guns and vehicles. A huge job. That was 1972. I realized why we still had equipment that was of U.N. 69 Pattern. Reading all the comments here is quite fun.
My father was in the 107th Ordnance Company in WW2. One of their main jobs was refurbishing weapons. He had a very nice collection of German and American small arms. 😉
small arms? they had midgets fighting on both sides?
sorry, dad jokes
Did they try to recycle the brass cases from artillery/tank rounds?
Those Garand Rifles are still be purchased, although through civilian market by the American public, as are many other items used during WWII. The Garand is a prized and glorius piece not only for the history it represents, but hunting, shooting, competition sport to this day.
I went thru the DCM program in 1986 and purchased a almost pristine M1 for $125.00 they delivered it by US mail.
Katrina i worked with a guy that was a part time gun smith refurbishing M 1's almost all of them have all replacement parts save for the stock!
@@raymondtonns2521 Civilian Marksman Program does still sell them although they are few and far between these days even compared to a decade ago.
@@raymondtonns2521 living near the Anniston Depot where the CMP was out of a decade ago, you could go stand in line when the M1Ds were in stock and it was like a black Friday feeding frenzy. The have since moved to a beautiful facility in Anniston Alabama that I have not been to. I think I have 12 CMP Garand cases kicking around from my ex. lol
Beautiful rifles, wish I had bought one years ago when you could buy them for $200.00 for one in very good condition!
Happy Thanksgiving to you Mark and all your family and friends. Thank you for another wonderful year of learning and great entertainment. Thank you as well for this excellent group of followers who share incredible stories and anecdotes of their own.
My father was a technical sergeant in WW2 and worked on mostly knocked out Sherman’s getting them back in working order. Unfortunately I didn’t get to hear his stories as he died in semi truck wreck when I was young. There is a great book about this written by the late Belton Cooper, it’s a fantastic read!
Sad to hear that you couldn't hear those stories from your late father but I'm glad that someone took the time to put the experiences on paper.
The amount of knowledge I’ve accumulated from your videos has been substantial Mr. Felton! Thank you for the high quality accurate content you continue to churn out sir we your fans appreciate them!
Excellent glimpse of what is NEVER addressed in any documentary, which is the monumental amount of materiel left behind after every battle.
Thank you for this.
Happy Thanksgiving to anyone who Celebrates it..!
I remember watching a documentary about one of the Pacific island battles. It included a clip where an assembly line was set up in front of some tents and -M1 Garands, minus their furniture, were being dipped in barrels (probably gas or kerosene, by soldiers, 4-5 at a time. Picked up from the field, they were being inspected, cleaned and prepped for reissue.
Yup, all the vehicles being shipped across the seas would be unloaded covered in cosmoline
My Dad as a young teen remembers getting German guns out of the ditch after the Canadians chased them out of town (Netherlands) and blasting cans off fence posts...
Thank you for covering content nobody else does! What happened to equipment has always been on my mind!
This is really interesting Dr Felton, thank you. Have you seen the reporting about WW2 shiprecks in Asia that have been recycled, even though they are registered war graves? If you have the scope, that would be a good investigate story for another time.
I needed this! Thanks Mr. Felton!!
This brought me back to John Stewart's new show and learning that US troops in Iraq were burning their trash and damaged equipment, so backwards compared to what we used to do.
These practices have a lot to do with the "under the table" payment influence that military equipment and supplies manufacturers have to do with our bought and paid for legislators and their demands on DoD to buy new equipment rather than reclaiming used equipment. It's all part of the corruption filled military industrial complex.
@@charlesmills6621 Interesting, thanks for sharing.
@@charlesmills6621 the payments are out in the open. The bought and paid for politicians dont even try to hide it anymore.
Buying new equipment instead of re using the old stuff means new tax money for the military industrial complex..
Sadly true, its all about money and profits for the companies and corporations these war profiteers.
My father was in Burma from 1943, before being sent home in 1946 there were many thousands of tons of trucks and equipment (some of it unused) that were sailed a few miles out to sea and tipped overboard.
My cousin was in charge of the motor pool for the Alabama National Guard for decades. He used to tell me stories of a construction project at an Alabama base where they found several jeeps buried in crates, packed in cosmoline. They were straight from the factory, and well preserved. They assembled 3, sent 2 to museums, and kept one on the base as a toy.
My father's cousin served in Europe in WWII. He was a very quiet man. After his death, I learned that he had recovered and repaired tanks immediately behind the front line. Having to clean out what was left of the previous crew might have contributed to his reluctance to talk about the war.
I grew up with a back neighbor that was a mechanic with a 3rd Army armor recovery company. He was assigned to a forward repair station that was around 1/3 mile behind the front lines where tanks with problems could motor into during battles for quick repairs. He also went out to disabled tanks as the fighting progressed to either repair where sitting or tow back to the station for repairs or use as a parts donor. Said he never handled any bodies nor their parts and refused to work inside one until a crew washed out the interior and sprayed it with a disinfectant. He never talked about battle damage, other than some fared better than others. On the other hand, he would talk all day about the BMW R75 sidecar rigs, Kubelwagens and Kettenkrads they had captured in North Africa and used in Sicily then Western Europe since those were useful and seemed to run forever with only regular maintenance done to them.
Another great video, Mark! WWII equipment was sturdy. I collect what I can. I love my German observation optics and FlaK rangefinder!
I spent 2006-08 threading and flanging pipe on a giant lathe at a plant in Leeds, Al. The maintenance supervisor researched the history of every machine that came in. My machine once cut gun barrels for warships in the '40s.
Now THAT is Cool! Retired Gunnery Officer, USN.....
My dad, his siblings and friends would find abandoned WW2 equipment in the woods of Eastern Lapland and play with them. One of my dad's friends found an old mortar grenade and tried to crack it open with a rock, but unfortunately the mortar grenade blew up on him, flinging him into the air. He was killed instantly.
You never disappoint Mark Felton! Thank you!
Very interesting subject! I like hearing things that happened behind the scenes or behind the front that we would not know or think about. I'd love to see more videos like that, Mark
Should cover the Bougainville Civil War where WW2 weapons were literally recovered from the battlefields.
Super interesting to me, in the 80s I got some WWII vehicles running again so much fun to do. Thanks Prof. Felton!
I remember the massive "bone yards" at Grafenwoehr, Vilseck and Hohenfels that contained all the WWII Kraut equipment. It was used for hard targets on the gunnery ranges.
2ad cav, RECON the best. Love Germany.
Thank you Dr Felton for another cool piece of WWII history! Not a day in the UK but happy thanksgiving to you all the same!
As a lot younger Veteran, your content is priceless and very informative Mark, wish I had a history teacher like you back in the day, liked and definitely subscribed, respect from Edinburgh Scotland ( ex-3 scots, The Black Watch)
Not always. A former girlfriend's Dad was in US Army supply in the Philippines at the end of WWII. He was stationed at a huge base that was stockpiling equipment for the invasion of the Japanese mainland. Not long after Japan's surrender the order was given to dispose of everything, as it would be too expensive to bring it all the way back to the US.
He witnessed Jeeps, trucks and all kinds of equipment just dumped into the sea.
It affected him so much that when he came home he became a hoarder.
dirty americans couldnt just give it to the philipino . them scrap metals and engines could supply the pinoy civilian industries for years to come.
Ian from "Forgotten Weapons" next book: "Mess Trays of the Chinese Warlords".
The marines and the army that faught in the Pacific got second had supplys. Also think of how much harder it was getting those supplys all over the Pacific ocean. Its truly amazing. The logistics to do all that was as hard as planing a battle.
The founder of Walmart was Sam Walton. He served in the Pacific with the Navy assisting the beach masters that controlled the unloading and placement of supplies and munitions. He used that experience to develop his own warehousing system to keep his growing number of discount department stores well stocked at a lower cost.
The Navy was experiencing constant problems in the Pacific Theater having supplies and munitions unloaded onto the beaches then sent out to the troops so the USN sent in an efficiency expert to analyze their current system and find solutions. Commander Richard Milhous Nixon made the rounds then wrote up recommendations that eliminated the problems after being implemented. The base commanders were probably happy to see him leave since Nixon was a highly skilled card shark. After the war, Nixon decided to run as an unknown for a US Congressional seat and financed his campaign by gambling at cards at night. He won and eventually became elected twice to the White House.
@@billwilson3609 WOW! Very interesting.
@@gwenmckeithen614 You may remember the radio broadcaster named Paul Harvey and his radio spot called "The Rest of the Story". He'd talk about how people's past enabled them to become famous later in life so provided the obscure details that were left out of the history books.
Another least known but fantastic n interesting vid. Well researched with those awesome archival films n pictures. You've set a higher bar by producing this vid. Kudos. Anticipating ur next one.