I know, for example, that the MG42 lives on in today's MG3 that the Bundeswehr uses..but how much other equipment that was used by Germany was still used/produced after the war? Most of the small arms, to my knowledge, weren't "obsolete" in the immediate post-war era, and the semi-auto and automatic rifles that were being used at war's end were ahead of their time. Were these weapons picked up by any other nation or produced again in any capacity?
When I did my army service in Norway (we were occupied by Germany during the war), there was some old german items still in use. Shelter halves, mess kit, the MG of course, 20mm anti aircraft cannons (the single barrel type) Also, the Schmeisser submachine gun was used for a while after the war. I cant remember any more off the top of my head, but the bolt action rifles were being sold off as hunting rifles to civilians.
I know the French used the Panther tank for some years after the war also, so this was probably standard practice in all the formerly occupied nations.
Most German vehicles saw very little use after the war. Speaking broadly whatever tanks could be scrounged together and cobbled into functioning units were used, but no one particularly missed them when spare parts ran out and they had to get moth balled or sent to a museum. I don't think any domestic German productions saw major use after the early 1950's, as US and domestic production simply rendered whatever German leftovers were available a moot point.
The Hetzer- technically a Czech design, built by Skoda- saw use after the war as the G-13.
The French cobbled together some panthers into coherent armor units after the war but, as I said earlier, they stopped using them as soon as it made sense.
The Jadgpanzer 4 would find it's spiritual decendent in the form of the Kanonenjadgpanzer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanonenjagdpanzer#mediaviewer/File:Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-F027421-0002,Kanonenjagdpanzer%28KanJPz%29_-_Jagdpanzer_Kanone_90_mm.jpg)
Franco's Fascist Spain would produce Me109's and He 111's well after the war as they were adequate designs that were durable and fairly rugged. These properties would see the Me109 a lot of service in Cold War skirmishes in the middle east.
Heavy tanks and their decedents (elephant, jadgtiger, ect) were all but ignored.
General equipment is another story but still generally the same: It's post-war usage was directly proportional to how complicated it was to keep and maintain.
Panzerfaust and Panzershrek were held onto by many Soviet bloc countries till domestic RPG production kicked up.
The Mauser 98 was a very good rifle model and saw service well after the war. They turned up with the VK in the Vietnam War, and US soldiers reported seeing them in Iraq.
MG42's would be retained and refined after the war.
MP40's were common and well built and would see service well into the 1950's.
The Walther P38 would see service in Western Germany as the standard police firearm.
The MP44 saw some use in Soviet Bloc countries before being exported around the world. Some examples still turn up even today in actual combat.
Norway converted MG34's to 7.62X63, then to 7.62X51 caliber rounds and would retain them for many years. IIRC the Israeli's also got their hands on a number of these as well for the '48 war. Germany had also sold a number of MG34's to China before the war broke out. Communist China got their hands of these guns and they ended up all over.
Obviously there was also the massive effort by the Soviets and the Western Allies to scoop up as much of the technological edge of Nazi Germany as they could, but weapon systems such as the V-2 rocket, the ME 162 and so on were generally treated as dead ends. So much would need to be changed on them to fit practical needs that you'd be building a completely different weapon.
Oo, an Ask Historians thread I can contribute to!
Ironically, Israel acquired a number of Czech-built, German designed Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighters during the lead up to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
