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Unread 12-03-2002, 05:22 PM   #28
John -Melb
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Melbourne, Peoples Republic of Australia!
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Regarding combat troops stripping the dead, my experience (not personal, but from speaking to veterans) is that combat troops generally only strip weapons from enemy dead (apart from moving the weapons away from the body in case the sod is playing possum) when there is a need to.
There is a fairly well known picture of Australian troops in New Guinea using a Jap Type 96 light machine gun (the reason being is that there was no ammo available at the time from the Bren)
A fellow I know who served with the Israeli Army in the late forties and early fifties put it this way "You shoot an Arab at fifty yards, all you've got is a dead Arab, you shoot an Arab at five yards and you've got a good Number 4 rifle and fifty rounds of ammo."
There was also a report from the Boer war in which some of DeWet's Commando waited until Britsh troops were nearly on top of them before springing the ambush because they needed the ammo in the British bandoliers so desparately. Deneys Reitz who was quoted writing about this particular ambush stated that prior to this ambush he only had two cartridges left for his Mauser! After the ambush he had a Lee Enfield and two full bandoliers.
Bugger that for a game!
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