During World War II, the Wehrmacht captured a significant number of enemy tanks and other armored vehicles. According to a report by a team under Generalmajor Hellmuth Reinhardt on the utilization of captured materiel, “The Beutepanzer (war-booty tanks) did not play a role of any great importance for Germany in World War II.” This stands in considerable contrast to other captured weapons, especially artillery, where captured weapons constituted a significant fraction of the Wehrmacht’s arsenal during the war. Not only were they modest in numbers, but most were assigned to secondary missions such as security and anti-partisan operations.

Yet Beutepanzers have retained enduring fascination for their sheer variety and exotic service: Dutch armored cars in the battle for Leningrad in 1941; French tanks on the Arctic Circle in Norway and Finland; Polish tankettes in Alsace in 1945; Italian tanks in the siege of Vienna. The list goes on and on. The Beutepanzers were seldom used in front-line Wehrmacht units. In most cases, the Panzer force found that the foreign designs were not compatible with German tactics. This was the case with French tanks, which usually used single-man turrets that were incompatible with the fluid style of German Panzer tactics. In other cases, such as the Soviet Union, the supply of spare parts was an insurmountable problem. Germany came into possession of large numbers of Italian tanks and assault guns in September 1943 when Italy withdrew from the Axis, and these were extensively used in Italy and the Balkans for anti-partisan missions.

In only two cases – France and Italy – were Beutepanzers adopted on a standardized basis. This was because Germany took control of both French and Italian industrial facilities and supply depots, and so was able to maintain and support these vehicles in service with spare parts. In the case of most other countries, their tanks and AFVs were used on an impromptu basis, with no centralized support. In most cases, Beutepanzers that were captured in operable condition were kept in service in German units until the local supply of spare parts ran out. This was notably the case with Soviet tanks, which were captured in large numbers but were seldom operational in any significant number due to a lack of replacement parts.

In some cases, Beutepanzers served as the basis for AFV conversions, most often the conversion of tanks or other tracked vehicles into self-propelled guns. Most famously, the Becker Baukommando converted several hundred French tanks and AFVs into a bewildering assortment of self-propelled guns and specialized AFVs. These played an unusually large role in Normandy in 1944, since the 21.Panzer-Division – which fought there as part of the 7. Armee – was largely reconstructed from 1943–44 using these vehicles. In total, about 590 French tanks were converted into self-propelled guns.

 The chart here gives a quick picture of the number of Beutepanzers in use in June 1943 by front. This data underestimates the number actually in use, since many units on the Ostfront (Eastern Front) made small-scale use of captured Soviet tanks that were not reported to central authorities in Berlin. Also this chart does not include tanks converted into self-propelled guns or for other applications such as prime movers or recovery vehicles. By way of comparison, the Wehrmacht had 2,900 other Panzers in operational use in June 1943, so the Beutepanzer represented about 20 percent of overall Wehrmacht operational tank strength.

Beutepanzers in use by Front, June, 1943

The composition of Beutepanzer strength changed dramatically in the final years of the war. While French-built tanks made up the bulk of the Beutepanzer arsenal from 1940–43, by 1944 these vehicles were obsolete and mechanically exhausted. In addition, the majority of French Beutepanzers and self-propelled guns were deployed in France, and so were lost in the summer 1944 fighting.

Italy’s capitulation led to the Wehrmacht seizing over 600 Italian tanks and AFVs in September 1943. The overall number of Italian Beutepanzers increased into 1944 due to continued production at Italian plants. Consequently, Italian types became the predominant Beutepanzer in the final year of the war. Nevertheless, Beutepanzers played ony a minor role in the strength of the Panzer force in the last year of the conflict since they were increasingly obsolete and confined to minor theaters such as Italy, Norway, and Yugoslavia, as is shown on the accompanying table. By April 1945, only about 11 percent of Panzers and 16 percent of StuG assault guns were Beutepanzer types, the majority being French and Italian types.

Beutepanzer strength, April 10, 1945

BEUTEPANZER FROM THE 1940 CAMPAIGN

1) SpPzWg202 (h) (Landsverk 180), 22.Infanterie-Division (Luftlande), Soviet Union, 1941

The 22.Infanterie-Division (Luftlande) was a specialized air-landing division using gliders. It took part in the 1940 campaign in the Netherlands, where it captured at least one of the Dutch Army’s Pantserwagen M.38 (Landsverk 180 armored cars). It is unclear whether this was repainted in the usual Wehrmacht dark gray or retained its original dark green Dutch finish. In the event, it was prominently marked with white Balkan crosses when used in Russia in 1941.

2) LeFH 16 10.5cm auf Geschützwagen MkVI(e), Batterie 15, Artillerie-Regiment 227, 227. Infanterie-Division, Soviet Union, 1941

This was the first of the Becker conversions, used to mechanize his own artillery battery during the fighting on the Leningrad Front in the autumn and winter of 1941. It consisted of a World War I leFH 16 10.5cm howitzer mounted on a captured British Vickers MkVI tank chassis. The standard camouflage scheme on Wehrmacht tanks from 1938–40 was an overall finish of Dunkelgrau Nr46 (dark gray), later redesignated as RAL 7021. A secondary pattern of Nr45 Dunkelbraun (dark brown) was added. This scheme was officially ended in July 1940 in favor of a uniform dark gray finish, but it appears to have been used on these vehicles. The GP1 marking on the hull side indicated Geschützpanzer 1 (Armored Gun 1). On the front is the red/yellow divisional star insignia, and next to it the artillery regiment insignia.