Hey guys, I was curious if the US used captured enemy equipment a lot in WW2. Ik that the Soviets and Brits made extensive use of captured equipment, and that the Germans made very extensive use of captured gear, but what about the US? Considering that the US wasn’t really at risk of a mainland invasion and had all of its factories away from the front I don’t think they’d feel the need to deal with the logistical nightmare of using captured equipment extensively.
Generally speaking, no. The US had plenty of equipment, and it was almost always of better standard than captured German equipment, so what reason would there have been to use it? That said, there was an incident near Aachen when a US unit used a captured StuG to lead an assault, though I am unsure if it was due to a lack of other equipment, or if it was a deception plan.
Much of the major hardware captured intact (not all that common, allied soldiers tended to blow up German equipment on sight on the basis of safe rather than sorry) was sent to the rear for technical intelligence. Either to shoot at, to see what would happen, or shipped back to the US or UK to see what made them tick.
Minor stuff would be taken for souvenirs, mainly, though I did interview one Sherman crewman who nicked a field stove from a wrecked Panzer IV, he said it was a wonderful piece of equipment and he kept it through the war. It is not improbable that such conveniences, or items like jerrycans may have been pressed into US service, and there are occasional photos of US troops with Panzerfausts. But if you’re looking for captured Panthers or Tigers in combat wearing US markings, you’ll be looking for a long time. One British unit famously used a Panther named “Cuckoo” until it broke down, but that’s it.
There was one notable exception I can think of, but even that was a British usage. Upon the introduction of the M3 Medium tank, it was noted that the standard US AP shell had substantial difficulty against the armor of Pz III and PzIV tanks, even though the paper specs said that they should pose no trouble. Turned out they had issues with the face hardening of German vehicles. At about that time, the British overran a German supply dump, in which was a reasonable amount of 7.5cm ammunition for Panzer IVs. Someone had the bright idea of mating the German AP projectile to the US shell casing, this proved far more capable, and a program was started for mass conversion. However, by the time those started being fielded, an improved round started arriving from the US as well, making the conversion a little redundant.
One exception to the general comments made is that of transport vehicles. There are numerous photos taken during the Allied drive into Germany of forward columns using captured German transport vehicles (cars, kubelwagons, trucks, etc.), usually with rapidly applied US markings. I have no idea if this was authorized at higher than local level, or if it just reflects the normal American attitude towards war-- "if it works, let's use it". I agree that use of actual enemy fighting vehicles was rare.