I bought these items many moons ago and just recently dug them out again.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could tell me who had their hands on them after the Germans. The Laufschützer appears to have no original paint only the dark green and the stencilled number and from some rudimentary research it would appear that it may have been used by the French. The carrying strap is near mint but does have the 'Lux' fittings.
The Gurtrommels and carrier has a slightly darker green paint finish with German Grau and Gelb underneath. Any ideas who this Green paint belonged to?
The Laufschutzer looks a trifle long for a 42, more like a 34 model (It may just be the angle of the pic?) in which case the style of stencil might suggest one of the ones exported to the Portuguese, as I have an identical pair that were packed in the (Portuguese) transit case with my MG34 and a few other bits. Both had stencilling like yours.
The two drums and carrier could well be original. Do they have any manufacturer's codes on them - hqu and ddf are commonly found?
Pug42,
The Lauf is fine, it must be the angle.
The carrier is marked 'bdk 43' as best as I can read, too much paint, while the drums are marked 'hqu 43' and 'wc 43'.
42rocker,
Cheers. Yes, it would be interesting to hear more about the Portuguese contract.
Tom
I bought a Portuguese contract "transportation box" and it still had a couple of mg34 spare barrel carriers in it and I believe they were painted grey and had white lettering..
More later.
