A silly question that came up while playing Company of Heroes. I know conscripts were not always issued a rifle. What became of the battlefield small arm acquisitions after the skirmish? Was it common practice to keep what you found until issued something, or would they turn equipment in to be re-issued in a more structured fashion? I know tanks could get 're-branded', but what of the Mausers?
A silly question that came up while playing Company of Heroes.
This game is not historically accurate by any stretch.
I know conscripts were not always issued a rifle
That's a myth. AKA "One rifle per (two, three, four, ...) [conscripts]". Usually 3 is favorite number.
Interestingly enough, origins of this myth could be traced to WW I. It was utilized by both sides in Russian Civil War too - to emphasize how heroic they were, each side (Red and White) has claimed that their side didn't have enough food, arms, etc. - so one of the sides is clearly wrong.
Here's old thread - http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1skdcw/is_there_any_truth_to_the_popular_image_of/
Was it common practice to keep what you found until issued something, or would they turn equipment in to be re-issued in a more structured fashion?
German pistols were quite popular. Walther, Luger, Parabellum etc. NKVD periodically confiscated or exchanged them with soviet TT (mostly to decrease number of untracked guns and avoid ammo issues).
German rifles, MGs, SMGs weren't that popular, but used in a pinch - they use different ammo (7.92 vs 7.62). At Stalingrad, defenders often collected ammo and small arms of germans they killed while repelling an attack, since they were most of time semi-encircled and ammo was going out fast, could be re-supplied only at night.
While for pistols you could get a dozen of cartridges and lug it around, supplying rifles and MGs with 7.92 german ammo was impractical. Also, Mauser K98 wasn't that better than Mosin's. MG42 was quite a wonder, but with such high ammo consumption rate, that it was used by Red Army only occasionally. MP38 were used in 1941-42 by soviet tankers. PPSh with disk magazine was unwieldy in tanks, there weren't enough PPD and PPS with box magazines in 1941-42.
Sources
Russian - myth "one rifle per 3 men". Examined least equipped divisions - Divisions of People's Militia (DNO - Diviziya Narodnogo Opolcheniya). And even those hastily assembled, all-volunteer units didn't lack in rifles.
Russian - Medinsky "War. Myths of USSR, 1939-1945". Examined genesis of this myth. First appeared in russian press in 1914. In USSR it gained credence after being floated by Khruschev. But not confirmed by archival evidence. Even 2nd and 3rd wave divisions had enough rifles. They did lack in MGs, AT and AA guns though (but not completely).
Trophy Walther was brought to police in Aralsk, Kazakhstan. If you just search for "трофейный вальтер" (trophy walther), you'd get a number of hits. So, they still pops up and it shows how popular trophy pistols were.