djensen
All in good time mate!
More insomnia.
I got a look at the French tank mini - Renault R35? - yesterday. I noticed it had a cross with indented arms painted on its tail.
Wait up, I thought. That’s not French. It’s Romanian.
A little checking revealed that the Romanian Army had over seventy R35s that they bought from France in the 1930’s.
So, your R35 mini can fight as
French, allies, in 1940
-Vichy French, axis, against the British in Syria in 1941 or the Brits and Americans in Tunisia in 1942
Romanian, axis, as German allies against the Russians in 1941-44
Romanian, allied, as Russian allies against the Germans in 1944-5
German, captured, 1941 onwards.
French, allies, in 1944 (they hid a few and dusted them off after D-Day).
For that matter the Syrians used some R35s against the Israelis in 1948, and the Israelis captured several and used them right back….
When fighting alongside the Russians, the Romanians were still using lots of German kit including PzIVs.
In the same vein, there was a short - lived Australian Tank Regiment in Lybia in 1941 equipped with captured Italian medium tanks (they all had to be scuttled as the British didn’t have the diesel fuel to run them), and the British Guards Armoured Division had a ‘pet’ Panther tank named Cuckoo that saw action against its former owners in 1945.
Anyone know any better examples?
