US troops using Russian WWII guns?

Is this a hoax?

this

or

this

I mean, shown on photos are WWII Russian PPSha machine gun in hands of US brave solders in Iraq. Probably confiscated during raids on the streets of Baghdad. But...what the @#%$ are these doing in hands of the braviest and the best? Some kind of a joke?

Ummm let me see....they must be trophies?

These could be sold off some fancy auction! How dare that guy on the second photo endangering artifact by squeezing it that hard and giving it Gillette Sweet Buttocks odor?

Geez/ anyway, Kodak priseless pics. Or was it Mastercard?..Oghhh..nevermind

Most likely the weapon in question is from past campaigns outfitted by Soviet suppliers, and had ended up in the hands of the current insurgency. An interesting artifact, but to stretch a couple of pictures into some form of conspiracy regarding the armament of our brave men and women in uniform is ludicrous.

The Major is not amused by this flight of fancy.

Dismissed.

Just interesting...that's what I said. Not like the braviest have nothing better to fight with...I'd expect relaxed laught, and still am..just look at the pics..ain't those hilarious?? I mean, you find a pictures of russian solders in...hmmm..let's see...where....ah!..Afganistan and Chechnia, trying M16, superior in every respect rifle, instead of whatever piece of rubbish they are useing these days.

Excuse my English, please.

well it looks more like he was related to some one that was in WW2 and that was something close to him

and for the seconed pic he was orobly seeing wat it was like to fire one of then

Yeah, I agree, on the second pic the solder was just getting a feelin' what it was like to shoot Germans back then. Nice recreational activity. Sort of .."..what else should we try to kill time in a meantime between raids.."

Troops in Iraq have been using a variety of weapons for close quarter battles with insurgents, including trophy weapons obtained in the field. I've heard of the PPSh being used before, apparently it's very well-suited to the urban combat environment in Iraq.

"including trophy weapons obtained in the field..." ---

what have happened to their original combat assult weapons? Isn't it a manditory to use NATO approved rifles. Where the hell they get ammo for those trophies? And why not use US made hardware afterall no matter what. Were this particular unit desperate, caught disarmed?
The reason I ask is that this whole deal reeks hoax or conspiracy, or some one is pooling a leg photoshopping real events.

I mean, how can we even think of picking such a trash garbage found 19th century Napolion era bazooka, glue to it XXI century nano aiming killer and photo opt like my tax was spent on developing ultra advance rifle? Of course, it's a joke. But --- don't we get more of these to go unsispectable slowly...Alert is on!

well smgs these days havent really improved since then.
the ppsh fires fast, is reliable and is accurate.

they probably bought them in a baghdad market for 3 dollars

I heard so much about how well the Iraqi's were armed

I guess this gives the lie to that

$3.00 -

the aiming unit on the top of the gun burrel originaly does not belong there...costs your dog food anual supply just to do R&D to this design to be placed there..You thought I was kidding in my opening post?

Relax Bitdust, bullets are bullets man! Not everything Russian is garbage. In fact the PPsh is reputed to be one of the best SMGs of all time. Russia made it by the million in WW2. It fires a fairly powerful pistol cartridge, it fires a LOT of them, it's resonably accurate, will function in any environment and take all kinds of abuse...the perfect weapon for the urban insurgent perhaps? Personally, I would want something lighter but then again I could use my PPsh to club someone as a last resort...don't think that would work so well with an M4.

Regarding the pictures: I think the first photo is real, likely the gun is a trophy of war as some others have said. The second photo, I am not so sure; might be a fake. Who would go through all the trouble of mounting picatinny rails and advanced optics to a 60 year old piece of captured Russian kit? Seems like an awful lot of trouble...but then again, given the first paragraph of this post, perhaps some enterprising trooper decided the gun would be a nice addition to his arsenal.

It's not the first time I'm coming across we are using an enemy hardware. Hope this is forced and not a momentary advantge. Who cares anyway?

The Ppsh is really a great gun. The ROF and bullet combined probably make it one of the most effective CQB weapons ever produced - I'd take it over an MP5 any day.

The troops in the middle east like to use other weapons for one simple reason. The weapons the US provides are made for a war in Europe against warsaw! The small bullet in the M-16 means that it doesnt push to bolt back hard enough. When sand and dust and other crap gets in there, which happens more in the middle east than anywhere, it causes rampant jammings and other such failures.

In all honesty, the troops over there probably do so little shooting that they dont care what weapon they used.

[edit on 29-6-2007 by BlackWidow23]

i think its a gun that has been seized or found and the soldiers thought of have some fun with it and why not

You know, we had this room FULL of all sorts of weapons that we confiscated. We found Garands, m-14s, lots of AKs and Makarovs, mausers, just about every weapon you could imagine. I can post 10 pictures here of us posing with foreign weapons, we all did it. I even have one of me in a Santa outfit holding an AK.

Do you think they would be left on the street for further use?

We actually often carried pistols that we found as not every soldier gets issued a pistol. Except for MPs, most units have just enough pistols for officers and senior NCOs although that is not how the distribution is done.

Hell, we even kept a couple AKs in the truck. If an M-4 fails, it is easier to pick up an AK then to apply SPORTS to your weapon. And it had nothing to with the AK being more reliable (it is.) Any rifle would do, even an extra M-4, but the military doesn’t give out "extras." One soldier, one rifle.