Since Russia and China had Shermans in W.W.II, would they have given North Korea some of these leftovers to fight Allied soldiers? In the case of China, would they used their leftover Shermans in the Korean War? Could there have been an Allied tank vs. a Soviet Sherman tank, or even a Sherman vs. Sherman battle? Has anyone ever heard of this happening?

I don't doubt it happened in Korea War. I have a pic of a 'German' Sherman that was knocked out by an Allied Sherman.

off topic but the east germans had a unit who used captured US/NATO equipment from Veitnam and other conflicts such as m113's ect and some other types of armour their mission was to cause troulbr behind the Nato lines just like in the Buldge I read this some years ago in a magazine maybe anyone else can shed some light on it?

Hmmm... perhaps a captured one could be. But I doubt anyone would capture a Sherman that easy.

why's that SR? theres a famous picture of a captured firefly being used by the germans you can quite clearly make out the commander, dragon used to give the decals and paint scheme for this on the older firefly kit

Shonen,
It would be unlikely that the North Koreans would have captured any usable equipment. Even during the retreats, UN forces had a habit of destroying any heavy equipment or supplies that they had to leave behind. Anything that the North Koreans would have captured would have been either burned or blown up beyond repair. Besides, unless they captured vast quantities of stores, they would have never been able to use it (due to no ability to repair/maintain) plus, no ammo - no shoot.

Shaun

in the '56 Sinai War (a.k.a Operation Kadesh) Israeli shermans engaged egyptian shermans equipped with amx 13 turrets.

would be intresting to show both of these relics in a single diorama.

IMHO I highly doubt that the russians provided any western equipment to the North Koreans and same for the Chinese. That said it is possible to portray captured equipment. All armies do it and have done it for centuries so that is without question. I have seen pictures of Chinese troops using American weapons in Korea including Jeeps but I have not seen any armour being operated by them. So I dont see why you cant model a captured one. remember captured could mean rebuilt from seveal "scrapped" vehicles. Just my two cents
cheers,
Bryan

Bryan,
You could be right. In my opinion, I don't think that the N. Koreans or Chinese would have used captured armor. Both armies were notorious for traveling light and only employing their armor sparingly. I doubt they would have had the facilities (or even desire) to use UN stuff, except in only exigent circumstances (like overrunning a position, which would really only provide light weapons or machine guns.)

The only war where both sides started off with Shermans is as Elad said ..Egypt versus Israel ..And with the AMX turrets the Egyptian Shermans didn't look much like their counterparts.

Rick

Wouldn't the North Koreans use Soviet T-34's? I know North Vietnamese used them, in my opinion these would be the better tank, not to mention that Communist countries don't like western influences, even if it a captured vechile.

Sean

According to everything that I've read or seen about the Korean War, the North Koreans were heavily equipped by the Soviets with T-34/85s and Su-76s but no shermans. Not that it means anything definitely, but I've never seen anything about NK or Chicom shermans or seen any photo evidence of any such creature existing.
As for the Chinese, they tended to travel fast and light and apparently brought very little armor with them. Their main tactics involved human wave attacks rather than combined arms.
Of course, now that I've said this, someone will come up with a photo of a Chicom M4A3E8 reapainted with communist slogans just to make me look like a (bigger than usual) fool.

Ed,
I would say that you are correct. Korea wasn't really suitable for armor deployment, except along the roads (and the movement or travel of armor would be especially perilous in the face of allied air power.) Mortar and machine gun (because of ease of portability) would have been the most efficient weapons. The communist did employ artillery, when available, but again at the peril of UN planes. I believe the T-34/85 would have been the Red tank of choice.

Hi!

In one of my books (I can't tell you title because I lend it to my friend but it's something like Armor in Korean War ) there's a photo of Cromwell used by communists forces. Caption says it was the only enemy tank knocked out by Centurion in Korean war. So for sure communists used captured tanks but no info about Shermans.

Piotr

Piotr is right. I just happened to stumble upon this fact this morning while reading a back issue of MMIR #28. In it it states that a Centurion called "Caughoo" from C Squadront the 11th hussars fired several shots and destroyed a Cromwell that had been captured by the Chinese. Of note it states the Cromwell was ingaged and destroyed at 3000 Meters . So anything is possible Its not a Sherman Vs Sherman engagement but it is proof of Captured armour being used by the Chinese in Korea. Never Say Never in this hobby
cheers,
Bryan

I was watching a video of a PBS documentary from about four years ago, and it had a lot of good info about communist armor in Korea.
According to the show, the North Koreans started the offensive with 250 T-34s and an undetermined number of Soviet made towed and SP artillery pieces. The Chinese didn't use tanks until the spring of 1951 when them employed 4 regiments of T-34s. The video also had footage of Chinese troops towing captured 105 howitzers with American/UN 2 1/2 ton trucks still marked with white stars.
I didn't doubt that the Chinese and North Koreans would use captured UN equipment, but I did doubt that they were ever issued old lend-lease tanks.