MG34 rh feed

[anjongni]

http://youtu.be/GaxQ24fTyhc[/video] Good video. Great mini-tank (Goliath?) clips. For all the bad press about the Panther's faulty power train, they always seem to be "working" very well in the movies. Anyway, at minute 2:55 are a couple soldiers firing a "right hand feed" MG34. Where did they get that?....Phil

[roadrunner]

Great footage. Gotta love the schwimmwagen at work. RR

[JBaum]

The right hand MG34 could possibly have come from a twin anti-aircraft trailer mount. The trailers weren't used much later in the war and they had one left feed and one right feed MG on them.

[Matt]

great clips and music. is that RH footage reversed, the negative that is?

[JBaum]

The picture is not reversed, unless they made a left side charging handle (they didn't). The charging handle is on the same side they're feeding from. It's a right hand feed.

[anjongni]

At 2:07, a fellow holds a spare barrel carrier, as if in anticipation. In hours of watching German movies, I've never seen anybody ever stop to "change" a barrel. No short bursts, they just keep blasting away! Maybe it was so routine, it didn't get in the filmclips...Phil

[JBaum]

Firing in short bursts, it was strictly prohibited to fire more than 250 rounds without changing the barrel. Firing excessively long burst was also prohibited, according to the manuals.

[Pug42]

Some wonderful clips there, rare vehicles (251 Drilling halftrack) and garish camo schemes (the Panthers) but also interesting details like the Stg 44s being unloaded in transit crates and being issued. I was also taken with the guy with the Tank Destruction badge - 11 kills!!!

Superb compilation!

[jonathanseverin]

A great watch, very interesting.

[haak48]

Right hand feed tray (reversible) & top cover with right hand feed lever installed. Fun to shoot. JH

[Folke]

The right hand feed was used on MG34's mounted in tanks and fortress mounts. As the picture above shows, a reversible feed tray and a right hand feed arm was necessary.

I assume that the "twin anti-aircraft trailer mount" mentioned in the thread is the Zwillingssockel 36, first seen on the If.5 MG Wagen 36. The wooden carts were not used much in the later part of the war but the mounts were used all through the end of the war and some even adapted to mount MG42's and other MG's. Ryan Schnee wrote a great chapter on them for Volume 2 of the German Universal machineguns book. For the record, the two MG34's on these mounts were regular left hand feed guns. The right hand feed was never used with these mounts.

[anjongni]

Ahh, all very interesting. Here is a poor photo of a zwillingsockel mount. It looks like each ammo can is on the left of its cradle. Great pic of right hand drive weapon!...Phil

[stegger]

Few pictures , left hand feed only :

[42rocker]

Great video with lots of stuff to take note of. Like shipping crates. Spare barrel carrier, use of several mg42's. Cool video which I'm going to download to watch later.

Later 42rocker