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The use of German tanks in Soviet army

During the war, the Soviets captured large numbers of enemy armoured vehicles, mostly PzKpfwIII, PzKpfwIV (Russian designation T-3 and T-4), PzKpfw38(t) (called Prague) and different self-propelled guns (called "Artshturm"). Some of them were pressed into temporary service because of their small caliber armament and lack of ammunition and spare parts, some were used for training. Sometimes captured tanks there were used in a different temporary units or as a separate tanks. Diversion raids and recon operations were usual - in such cases the tanks carried original German insignias. But for a regular service the Soviet simbols or the red flag were applied to prevent friendly fire (note - the Soviet-made tanks usually carried only unit/vehicle numbers only, and no any stars and so on, ecxept the Guard's sign in the Guard's units).
The Soviets liked to use T-3 as a command vehicle, because of their great comfort and an instruments (optic and radio). Pz.V Panther (T-5 Pantera) tanks were mostly used for anti-tank purposes. Also the Soviets used different halftracks and armoured cars. In USSR even worked some factories which repaired the broken captured tanks. Sometimes these tanks were reequiped with the Soviet engines or armament. Vehicles which were unuseful for Soviet army (for example PzBfwg and French tanks) were rebuld and/or rearmed.

Examples of the combat units:

Date	Unit	Ally vehicles	Axis vehicles
27th jun 1941	8 mech corps	?	13 Pz.III and Pz.IV (T-3 and T-4)
5th May 1942	150nd tank brigade	1 KV, 7 T-34, 7 BT, 18 T-26, 1 T-40, 1 T-60	1 Pz.III (T-3)
25th July 1942	32nd tank regiment	?	1 Pz.II (T-2), 3 StuG.III (SU-75)
March 1942	121st tank brigade	?	3 Pz.III (T-3)
14th May 1942	52nd tank brigade	5 KV, 2 T-34, 13 T-60, 3 M3 Stuart, 1 Valentine	1 Pz.IV (T-4)
5th July 1942	107th separate tank batalion	1 KV, 2 T-34, 1 BT-7	2 Pz.III (T-3), 1 Pz.IV (T-4), 3 StuG.III (SU-75), 1 Pz.I (T-1)
1st August 1942	"B" separate batalion	9 T-60	12 Pz.III (T-3), 7 Pz.IV (T-4), 2 StuG, 10 Pz.38(t)
1st April 1943	151st tank brigade	3 M3 Stuart, 25 Valentines	4 Pz.IV (T-4), 5 Pz.III (T-3), 2 Pz.II (T-2)
1st April 1943	266th separate tank batalion	?	4 Pz.III (T-3)
6th May 1943	62th separate tank batalion	3 T-34, 15 Valentines	2 Pz.III (T-3), 1 Pz.IV (T-4)
30th May 1943	75th separate tank batalion	15 Valentines	9 Pz.III (T-3), 1 Pz.IV (T-4)
10th June 1943	29th tank corps	129 T-34, 84 T-70, 1 KV	1 Pz.38(t)
7th July 1943	244th tank regiment	16 M3 Grant, 2 M3 Stuart	9 Pz.III (T-3), 4 Pz.IV (T-4)
10th August 1943	1938th self-propelled gun regiment	2 SU-122, 2 SU-76	2 StuG.III (SU-75)
28th August 1943	separate company, 44th army	1 M3 Grant, 1 M3 Stuart	13 Pz.III (T-3), 3 Pz.IV (T-4)
4th September 1943	1448th self-propelled gun regiment	14 SU-76 and SU-122	1 Pz.III (T-3)
11th November 1943	213rd tank brigade	4 T-34	11 Pz.IV (T-4), 35 Pz.III (T-3)
November 1943	53rd Guards tank brigade	?	almost 30 halftracks
27th July 1944	28th Guards tank brigade	32 T-34, 13 T-70, 4 SU-122, 4 SU-76	2 Pz.VI (T-6 Tigr)
1st September 1944	5th Guards tank brigade	23 T-34, 47 T-70	2 StuG.40, 1 Pz.IV (T-4)
10th September 1944	separate batalion, 5th Guards tank brigade		32 Hungarian vehicles
30th October 1944			8 Turan, 2 Toldi, 3 Zrinji, 2 Nimrod
16th July 1944	511th tank regiment	2 T-34, 17 Valentine	4 Pz.V (T-5 Pantera)
3rd March 1945	991th self-propelled gun regiment	16 SU-76	3 Pz.V (T-5 Pantera)
7th March 1945	separate self-propelled gun regiment, 27th army	?	8 Hummel (SU-150), 6 Nashorn (SU-88)
12th March 1945	united tank batalion, 27th army	5 SU-76	1 Wespe (SU-105), 6 StuG (SU-75)

Also, in 1943 it was decided to use big storages of German tanks to convert them to assault guns designated SU-76i ("inostrannij" = foreign).

Modifications consisted of the removal of the turret and upper part of the hull in case of PzKpfwIII / PzKpfwIV and the superstructure in case of StugIII, while all other components remain unchanged. Modified vehicles were mounted with welded boxy superstructures (forward armor 35mm, side and rear armor 15-25mm) which housed 76.2mm F-34 or 76.2mm ZIS-5 tank gun and storage space for 98 rounds. SU-76i was operated by the crew of four, who had submachineguns and hand grenades for local defense. A driver used unchanged German equipment, while other equipment was of Soviet origin. SU-76i weighted about 22t; it could travel at the maximum speed of 40km/h as the base tanks. 201 of SU-76i were built, including 20 command SU-76i.
In Augst 1943, 1902th SAP had 15 SU-76i and five SU-76. Also, 1901st SAP and 1903rd SAP were equipped by SU-76i.

The photos presented by John Fluker and Diego Zampini.

WW2 tanks