Trophies in Combat

"To the Chief of the Operations Department of the 3rd Guards Tank Army

The tanks captured during the March-April operation include two functional Tigers that were stuck in a swamp. The tanks were evacuated and there was an attempt to use these tanks to fight the enemy.

During evacuation, our units progressed 120-150 kilometers. When the tanks attempted to make the march, they broke down, the engines jammed up. The tanks were given to a representative of the Red Army Moto-Mechanization Academy.

I think that the use of modern enemy tanks is very reasonable, with the condition that there are mechanic-drivers and gunners trained in advance.

Chief of the Operations Department of the 9th [illegible], Guards-Colonel Koshevatskiy."

The use of captured tanks in the 3rd GTA never really worked out.

"Novikov orders for you to report by 18:00 29/8/1944 the number of captured German tanks for 1943 and 1944 and their use in battle against the enemy, and the drawbacks during their use."

"Replying to your query #7347 on August 28th, not one single tank out of the captured ones was used in 1943-1944 due to a lack of trained drivers and gunners, as well as a lack of sufficient quantity of gasoline to use captured enemy vehicles."

Via dr_guillotin.