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Vehicle Damaged in Battles During WW2

• Message 1.Μύ

  Posted by colindj (U14781531) on Wednesday, 9th February 2011

  I am making a model scene of France after D Day and this has sparked a question, what happened to the damaged vehicles from both sides after a battle or minor skirmish, obviously injuried and dead casualties were removed and probably weapons and amunition. Apart from any that could be easily repaired or used for spare parts what would happed to the rest, would they be collected for scrap by an Army unit or just left until after the war ended unless the local civilians delt with them. I know that crashed aircraft were taked to Cowley near Oxford and probably other places to be stripped down for spares and scrap, but a cannot see vehicles being brought back from France unless they were Axis types of special interest.
  
  I hope somebody can shed some light onto this.
  
  Thank you in advance.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by George1507 (U2607963) on Thursday, 10th February 2011

  I think what happened to damaged vehicles depended on a lot of factors. Obviously, an army in retreat could only leave things behind, so the British Expeditionary Force left loads of wrecked vehicles on the roads to Dunkirk. The Germans used some of them, and I assume reused the steel where possible.
  
  In a static war though, it was probably a bit easier to recover and repair damaged vehicles, especially tanks. In Barbarossa, the Germans had a well developed plan for recovering damaged vehicles and repairing them.behind the lines.
  
  There are still tank hulls lying around Prohkorovka from the massive tank battle at Kursk - there just wasn't time to recover them after the battle, and they just continue to lie there. Some of them are dangerous, and there are plenty of live shells lying about too.

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• Message 3

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  Posted by Sambista (U4068266) on Thursday, 10th February 2011

  The same is supposed to be true of the Western Desert. Too far out / too costly to recover vehiclres and ordnance are still out there.

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• Message 4

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  Posted by MB (U177470) on Wednesday, 16th February 2011

  The same is supposed to be true of the Western Desert. Too far out / too costly to recover vehiclres and ordnance are still out there.Μύ A book by a bomb disposal officer described spending some time in Libya (pre-Gaddaffi).
  
  He visited a workshop where they were salvaging metal from anti-tank mines collected from the desert. This was done by chiselling them open, he asked how they de-activated the fuze - they did not bother, they were chiselling open live mines.
  
  Mines waiting to be worked on were piled up the door, he was trying to work what weight would be needed to explode them and how many mines that was equivalent to whilst he got out of the building as quickly as possible.
  
  

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 4.

  Posted by suvorovetz (U12273591) on Friday, 18th February 2011

  Mines waiting to be worked on were piled up the door, he was trying to work what weight would be needed to explode them and how many mines that was equivalent to whilst he got out of the building as quickly as possible.Μύ
  
  
  
  
  
  Kids found a mortar in a ditch by a gore
  Nobody lives in a hut anymore
  

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by MB (U177470) on Friday, 18th February 2011

  Mines waiting to be worked on were piled up the door, he was trying to work what weight would be needed to explode them and how many mines that was equivalent to whilst he got out of the building as quickly as possible.Μύ
  
  
  
  
  
  Kids found a mortar in a ditch by a gore
  Nobody lives in a hut anymore
  Μύ Forgot to mention everything in the workshop was covered in fine white dust, he quickly realised that this was the explosive they were removing from the mines with hammer and chisel.
  
  

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