Dt28, Dtm44

[Wesley's Dad]

Does anyone out there happen to have a magazine for the DT28 or DTM44 LMG. This is the tank version of the DP28. I have just acuired a couple of shoulder bags that I am fairly certain are for this weapon. It was issued fairly regularly to infantry units in the later half of the war, makes sense there would be a drum carrier for it as well. I will post some pictures when I get a chance to take some, but until then I could use the diameter and thickness of the actual magazine.

Mike

[Kozlov]

DT magazines are notoriously difficult to come by.

I know this from a Comrade of mine who is busy trying to fill out the racks in his T34...

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Mike, I expect you already have the DP28 bag? I don't have any mags for the DT but they are smaller in diameter and much deeper than DP28 mags.

Hi Andy, there should be some in a field near you next week The only trouble is trying to get spare mags, as they tend to be for sale only with the gun. Adie and Karen from Derby did have some last year. All were arsenal refinished.


Cheers, Ade.

[Kozlov]

Indeed Ade, all the ones I have seen are ones paired up with the gun itself.

Jim used to have a load (but not the gun)... I wonder whatever happened to them.

Yes, Beltring would be a good place to look!

Might be a bit far for our Comrade to go for some shopping tho...

[Wesley's Dad]

DT magazine

Yes Beltring would be a hopping place to look, too bad I'm across the pond. Any change either of you could put me in contact with any of the other folks you mention in these posts?

Yes, I have the bag(s) already and will post pictures soon. One has leather fittings that are recycled German leather. The buckle tab on the front closure is German maker marked and 1944 dated.

Regards
Mike

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Mike, I will certainly take note of any I see for sale and pass the details onto you

The bag sounds really interesting, try and post it before I leave on Tuesday

Cheers, Ade.

[Wesley's Dad]

DT Bag

Ade and all,

Here are the shots of the bag. It is similar to a DP bag in exterior construction, but smaller in diameter. There are no interal metal fittings like most DP bags, and I suspect that this bag will only hold one, maybe two drums.

Mike

[Wesley's Dad]

DT bag

Here is the side construction. The corner leather looks salvage and reused in it's original form, that is a flap corner. It has an embossed line that is original to the initial manufacture of the component. I say this because the leather loops along the side to secure the shoulderstrap around the bottom of the bag have these same embossed lines and they run parallel to the old stich holes where these parts have been salvaged off something else.

[Wesley's Dad]

DT Bag

Finally, here is an attempt to show the German maker mark and date. The leather is a bit fuzzy to read the maker, but the date is clearly 1944


Mike

[Kozlov]

If you assumed it held just one magazine, how thick would you say the magazine was?

I'd say a DT mag was about 4" from memory....

So is it about 5" accross or 9" - just from this magnitude estimate you can tell how many mags it would take.

I guess its 2...

[Kozlov]

BTW, those light brown leather bits that hold the strap on... looks Yugo or Rumanian or Hungarian.

And that dark green webbing on the strap.

Actually, possibly even Iraqi!

I'm not saying its any of the above, but I'd probably pass it up when sifting through a pile of gear because of that observation..

[Wesley's Dad]

DT Bags

I can say with 100% certainty that these bags I have come from Soviet military stock in the early 1990's. There was an early US importer of this "exotic" stuff at the time that was shut down do to some US customs violations. These items were part of a siezed shipment from that time that was auctioned off by US customs a couple years ago.

The leather I think is from German cavalry or medical equipment I think. I cannot be 100% certain that it is German, due to the degree that the maker mark on the leather tab is not legible. It is legible enough to say that it is certainly not Romanian. The maker name cannot be made out, but what I believe to possibly be the city name is ("Something" a.W.) Seems like I have seen the "a.W." before ??

As for the shoulder strap, there is no archtypical Soviet wartime web material, the Soviet wartime production, Lend-Lease etc. the variation are innumerable. The construcion of the shoulder strap does bare typical warime Soviet "waste not" measure. The leather reenforcement on the end is made up of several scraps. This is often seen on other things like the leather reenforcement on wartime Soviet web belts. Along those same lines, the buckle is the same as often found on those belts. That is a heavy roller buckle with a frame made from a metal with a heavy bronze/brass/copper content. These typically have a copper like hue of the raw metal and grow a nasty blue verdigis over time

Mike