Mg42 research

[sap159]

I am researching MG42 manufacture, production figures, serial numbers and markings. I am inviting the forum members to post pictures of the receiver codes on their wartime MG42's (1942-1945). I am getting the ball rolling by posting the earliest one in my collection, bpr 1942 sn 289. The result of the study will be shared with the contributors. Keep safe! Stephen

MG42 bpr 1942 289.jpg

[gurtsack]

Hello, very Nice.
Can you send more picture, please.

[JanC]

Must be a 1945 one

[k98]

My

My 6 ones!.
The PJ has been reused by Austria and the serial number has been enhanced

[JanC]

My 6 ones!.
The PJ has been reused by Austria and the serial number has been enhanced

Your number 3 comes a little before mine 👍🏻

[beginner]

Here is two, adding a third later on

[koser]

Hello, here is mine

[beginner]

ONe more

[Abominog]

Hello, I hope some of you with 1944 Gustloff MG42 can help me.

I am trying to determine the serial number in which Gustloff eliminated "MG42".

My data is currently:

Highest number with "MG42" 568e

Lowest number without "MG42" 2767g


If anyone has MG42 dfb MU between 569e and 2766g I would greatly appreciate a photo!

[searchandfind]

Hello, I hope some of you with 1944 Gustloff MG42 can help me.

I am trying to determine the serial number in which Gustloff eliminated "MG42".

My data is currently:

Highest number with "MG42" 568e

Lowest number without "MG42" 2767g


If anyone has MG42 dfb MU between 569e and 2766g I would greatly appreciate a photo!

Hello Charles, sorry for my delay. At the moment I´ve got no spare time and the economy here in Austria is in critical condition and so I have to work a lot. I will contact you when the situation gets better and I have more time.

And now to your question. In my database the highest serial number with "M.G. 42" is "8606 e" and the lowest without "M.G. 42" is "9270 e". Somewhere in between the "M.G. 42" inscription was cancelled.

[Abominog]

Hello Charles, sorry for my delay. At the moment I´ve got no spare time and the economy here in Austria is in critical condition and so I have to work a lot. I will contact you when the situation gets better and I have more time.

And now to your question. In my database the highest serial number with "M.G. 42" is "8606 e" and the lowest without "M.G. 42" is "9270 e". Somewhere in between the "M.G. 42" inscription was cancelled.

Thank you Sir! I wish you the best and hope to hear from you via email when you have time. The economy in some (socialist) areas of USA is very poor also...no jobs, high taxes.

I am also looking for the same (or more) information concerning Mauser: highest number with "MG42" is 1448a, lowest number without is 3293b.

Aside from that, there is much more information I am in need of, some geographic/ historical, and some trying to figure out what failure(s) occurred during the change from MG34 to MG42.

Thank you again, and best wishes.

[searchandfind]

Thank you Sir! I wish you the best and hope to hear from you via email when you have time. The economy in some (socialist) areas of USA is very poor also...no jobs, high taxes.

I am also looking for the same (or more) information concerning Mauser: highest number with "MG42" is 1448a, lowest number without is 3293b.

Aside from that, there is much more information I am in need of, some geographic/ historical, and some trying to figure out what failure(s) occurred during the change from MG34 to MG42.

Thank you again, and best wishes.

I think you mean 3293c and not 3293b, am I correct?

The highest Mauser serial number in my database with "M.G. 42" on the receiver is 7906b and the lowest serial number in my database without "M.G. 42" on the receiver is 2924c. So between 7906b and 2924c Mauser cancelled the "M.G. 42" inscription.

There are also some abnormalities: Some Mauser MG42 from the d-block have no year code. 7050d has no year code and the inscription is hand stamped. 7250d has no year code and the inscription is typical engraved. From my research I believe that this happent because of the allied bombings. On the 22nd of February 1945 the Mauser Werke were bombed, especially the power plant was destroyed and also some buildings from the factory and so the inscription was improvised hand stamped first and after the normal machine was available again they omitted the year code first. Short time after the year code was added again. I also believe from the produced quantities that Mauser changed the factory code from "ar" to "dd" not on the 1st of January 1945 rather later short after the bombings. It would all fit together.

[Abominog]

Thank you for the information on the Mauser "MG42" inclusion. This is good information, and the additional information about hand-stamped markings is also excellent.


To briefly change topic, I present the production numbers provided by Mr. Myrvang, in chart form, comparing MG34 (orange) vs MG42 (blue):




Presuming these production numbers are close to correct, there is a significant point of interest in early 1942:



Again, if these numbers are close to correct, the question is: what the hell happened?

I can understand the inversion of MG34 and MG42, with the possible thinking that MG42 would replace MG34; while there is no documentation to that effect, and it would be hard to believe ("oh **** we forgot about tanks") perhaps it's possible. At the time Germany has sufficient metals available, so it was not a matter of raw resources; nor is the near-total drop in MG34 explained by production facilities, since Brno should not have been impacted.

Arguably the greater question is why the seemingly successful MG42 production was suddenly crushed, and then restarted VERY slowly. I suspect that the first thousands of MG42s fielded did not perform well, so production was paused while solutions were engineered.

Of course, this is conjecture. If anyone has ideas, I would be most pleased to hear them.

[Sturmtiger]

Maybe the construction had some issues that needed correction. Like the shells were thrown out so fast that they collided in each other and the one which was upper popped back to the mg. Thats caused immediate stuck and the shell torn in in a very f***d up way (also read in the Myrvang Bible - inspection was only possible with high speed cameras). Would worth to think about export purposes but i am not an expert... (when talking about the production numbers)

[searchandfind]

Thank you for the information on the Mauser "MG42" inclusion. This is good information, and the additional information about hand-stamped markings is also excellent.


To briefly change topic, I present the production numbers provided by Mr. Myrvang, in chart form, comparing MG34 (orange) vs MG42 (blue):




Presuming these production numbers are close to correct, there is a significant point of interest in early 1942:



Again, if these numbers are close to correct, the question is: what the hell happened?

I can understand the inversion of MG34 and MG42, with the possible thinking that MG42 would replace MG34; while there is no documentation to that effect, and it would be hard to believe ("oh **** we forgot about tanks") perhaps it's possible. At the time Germany has sufficient metals available, so it was not a matter of raw resources; nor is the near-total drop in MG34 explained by production facilities, since Brno should not have been impacted.

Arguably the greater question is why the seemingly successful MG42 production was suddenly crushed, and then restarted VERY slowly. I suspect that the first thousands of MG42s fielded did not perform well, so production was paused while solutions were engineered.

Of course, this is conjecture. If anyone has ideas, I would be most pleased to hear them.

I am sorry, but these numbers are definitely wrong. Your table lists about ~27.100 MG42 in 1942 and that´s definitely wrong. Here are some numbers from my database:

- The highest known Gustloff serial number from 1942 is 142 and the lowest known serial number from 1943 is 1392. Gustloff built at least 142 MG42 in 1942 and maximum 1.391.

- The highest known Maget serial number from 1942 is 4969a and the lowest known serial number from 1943 is 6302a. Maget built at least 14.969 MG42 in 1942 and maximum 16.301.

- The highest known Steyr serial number from 1942 is 1184 and the lowest known serial number from 1943 is 1264. Steyr built at least 1.184 MG42 in 1942 and maximum 1.263.

- I have no Mauser MG42 from 1942 in my database. The lowest known serial number from 1943 is 133. So may be Mauser did not produce any MG42 in 1942 but theoretically Mauser could have built 132 pieces in 1942.

- Großfuß built 600 test pieces. The Heereswaffenamt published in August 1942 a top secret "overview of the state of developments in the army" (in German: "Überblick über den Stand der Entwicklungen beim Heer") and on sheet number "A 12" there is a description of the MG42 develepment with status from the 1st of July 1942. It says that 600 test pieces were delivered from Großfuß and the serial production will start on the 1st of August 1942. The capacity will be 4.000 pieces per month and with 1st of June 1943 the capacity will be 13.000 pieces per month. So these 600 MG42 are the preproduction guns with the "bpr" code on the left receiver side. Some years ago I have seen such a "bpr" gun with a serial number between 600 and 700, so Großfuß built at least some more guns may be as a reserve or replacement for the test trials, I estimate 100 additional guns.

Minimum 16.295 MG42 were built in 1942 (600 test pieces included) and maximum 19.787 (600 test pieces included + 100 test pieces as reserve as estimated).

The table lists ~27.100 MG42 in 1942, there is evidence of 16.295 MG42 from 1942 and theoretically 19.787 could have been built in 1942.
At least 7.313 pieces less were produced than listed in the table and a maximum of 10.205 pieces less than in the table. The fluctuation range is 2.892 pieces.

The serial production started on the 1st of August 1942. Before the 1st of July 1942 600 test pieces (+ may be 100 additional pieces) were produced.

I think my data and the data from the Heereswaffenamt answers all your questions or better there are no questions now