Vietnam Loves American Booty; What Did the VPA Do With All The Captured Weapons?

I never would have figured that they would have kept so many systems in even reserve use for so long.

Russia still has a ton of German military hardware from WW 2. In fact, if you want to buy yourself an authentic StG44 or a G43, the place to go is Russia.

I hope one day that some of the hundreds of thousands of the various pump shotguns they captured from the South Vietnamese, that were supposed to be issued to local village militias and never were due to official paranoia, are made available for purchase.

Supposedly they are in rough shape due to being carelessly stored, but there must still be a few decent ones in the bunch?

I wonder how much US equipment the Taliban will be getting soon?

All of it.

During WW2 we provided tanks to Russia. They went with full kit. Among that kit was Thompson SMGs. Although the Russians liked them, they lacked 45 ammo for them and just warehoused them. A few years ago when I bought my Thompson, the Russians released them and they were imported but without the receiver. So in effect they were full parts kits except for the critical receiver. I got a few of them for parts for my Thompson.

I also got three of the “Russian capture” German Mauser K98k’s that the Russians released from their warehouses.

To this day, weapons are still being dug up from WW2 battlefields, restored and sold on the black market in Russia.

Although at this point I suppose that it would take a lot of cannibalization and/or fabricating to yield a working item.