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One aspect I do think would be cool would be being able to add abandoned enemy vehicles to our forces in the SP campaign after a battle, seeing as it seems to bring back the persistent forces of wargame.
Most tank crewmen in real life were liable to withdraw from combat or even bail out after the first hit. The people crewing tanks are mortal and aren't going to stand in place taking hit after hit.
On the matter of vehicles abandonned and left to the enemy, Villiers-Bocage was like a super-market of British Beute for the Germans.
Several British vehicles captured there were salvaged, repainted with a Balkenkreuz and reused at short or longer terms ...
Several British vehicles captured there were salvaged, repainted with a Balkenkreuz and reused at short or longer terms ...
Germans also captured a few Fireflies and 76 mm Shermans, and bren carriers.
Though I am not aware many tanks getting captured by british or americans (except for Cuckoo), I know they liked to use german halftracks.
Though I am not aware many tanks getting captured by british or americans (except for Cuckoo), I know they liked to use german halftracks.
Cuckoo might have been an exceptionnal case.
The only other example I know of Allies using captured equipment are:
- the British airborne troops at Pegasus Bridge turning a PaK 40 & Flak 20mm against their former owner. But they hold on it for a mere day at best.
- by the end of 1944, early 1945, due to lack on ammunitions, the US Army organized 2 or 3 three batteries of artillery with captured 88mm guns.
- French FFI (= Résistance) in 1944-1945 using captured German tanks against the German pockets still holding along the Atlantic coast (see Escadron Besnier, which was composed of 1x Tiger I, 1x Königstiger, 1x Panther, 11x Panzer IV, 1x Panzerwerfer 42 & several half-tracks).
- the US 83rd Infantry Division was dubbed "Rag tag Circus" in Germany in 1945, for its commander had orderer to press into service any serviceable German vehicle along the way, in order to improve the division's firepower & mobility in its ride East. They are known to have commandeered this way a StuG, several half-tracks, and even a Messerschmidt fighter (and found someone in the division able to fly it)! But, unlike Cuckoo, those were used has long as they were running, then ditched.
- 129th Ordnance Battailon in the Ardennes even had restored a Königstiger!
The only case of official and major use of captured enemy equipment by the Allies was, AFAIK, in the Libyan desert. There, both side used A LOT of enemy equipment.
The whole 9th Austrialan Division was equiped with Italian trucks and guns captured from the Italians, and even had formed an armored company with first French R-35 or H-35 captured from Vichy troops in Lebanon, then with Italian M11 & M13.
Still in the desert, a Free Polish armored unit was formed entirely of captured Panzer III:
Any Allied unit in the desert capturing an Italian Breda 20mm gun in working order would try to bolt it on a vehicle to reuse it. LRDG were especially fond of it:
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Because tank crews are as afraid of dying as infantrymen are when they surrender/rout the field.
Sounds like a waste of resources.
Well, I do hope there is more to the whole surrender mechanic (otherwise having enemy units surrender would become a huge liability if we can't deal with them and they can be recaptured by the enemy. Unless "surrender" works exactly the same as "killing" a unit) and I do hope we can capture vehicles once the enemy crews abandon them.
Surrendered units just kneeling in place and then rejoining the fight if you reach them again sounds way too gamey for SD. But I could be wrong. We'll find out in three days.
The thing is, when abandoning their vehicles, crews routinely destroyed the vehicles themselves specifically to prevent capture. With that being the case, I would find it to be quite gamey to have random tank crews running around the battlefield and climbing into abandoned tanks lying everywhere.
Maybe making Tiger IIs self destruct will be the easiest way to take them out.
I hope they do get destroyed. If you ditch your tank, you blow it up IRL. Easily done by dropping a thermite grenade in your ammo rack and bailing.