More pics added in OP

That story is one that needs to be made a scene in some future WWII movie.

I met an 88 year old veteran of the Battle of the Bulge who said that he picked up an MP-40 during the battle, and loved "that little Nazi burp gun" so much he carried it for the rest of the war.

Sounds like he had better luck with his than my great-uncle did with one, he picked one up off a Hermann Göring Div. guy in Sicily and thought it was the cat's meow, until the first time he was on a night patrol and had to use it. They were returning from a patrol and almost back to their lines, they bumped into a German patrol and engaged, they were close enough to American lines that the guys on the line could see muzzle flashes and hear the firefight and decided to help out...by aiming at where they heard enemy weapons firing... Uncle Bob said as soon as he heard rounds incoming from his own lines and realized why they seemed to be aiming for him he slung that it and pulled his 1911 and used that until they got back in. He traded it to a supply sergeant for a case of booze.
He told me that story when we were watching Heartbreak Ridge and Gunny Highway did the whole,"This is the AK-47, it is the preferred weapon of your enemy and has a distinctive sound when fired at you..." part, he chuckled and said,"So does a fuckin' MP-40" and told me about that incident.



ETA: He did carry another one briefly in The Battle of the Bulge too, but that was when he was in a defensive position and people could see it wasn't a German firing it. He brought back some nice Axis pistols too, but he said he really never used them in combat because once almost bitten, twice shy.