I am not sure if this is the correct forum so please forgive me if it should be posted somewhere else. Here is my MG34 fortress mount that I tried to restore as it was a big mess when I acquired it. It is still missing some parts that will be difficult, if not next to impossible, to find. There are bunkers in Norway with these mounts in them that are rusting away to nothing, but that is the way things go.
This is definitely one of those items that, depending on the eye of the beholding, is either a fascinating piece of history, or a big piece of crap taking up a bunch of space.
Please forgive my poor photography skills
Here is an overall view of the mount. You can see the rack for holding spare barrels.
Closer view of the left side of the mount
Here is the mount retracted. The base would be flush with the bunker wall and the top would move up to fire through a port in the bunker wall or be retracted for safety, etc.
The optic scope for the mount, code is dpw (Zeiss Ikon) Pz Zf 1
Scope mounted, from the right side. Notice also that the 250 rd fortess ammo can is mounted on the right side of the mount. This means the MG34 had to be set up for right hand feed for use in these mounts. This only requires a different feed arm and feed tray to do this, but it could not be done for the MG42. This was one of the reason MG34's remained in production after the 42 was introduced.
The front: the big hole was for the MG34 and the little hole on top is where the sight looks through
The little handle is used to retract the traversing gear from the mount so the mount can be elevated/depressed without having to turn the wheel
gear in
gear out
Here is what I think is an example of a little overengineering. The headrest was designed such that it could be adjusted for shooting right eyed or left eyed. The head rest has two slots in the mounting post and a flap that can be moved to cover one eye or the other. That seems to be a lot of manufacturing for this thing. I suspect the Russians would have just asked the gunner what eye he used and then poked the other one out with a stick, but not the Germans.
The best I could do on looking through the sight
Here is a old picture of the mount with a 34 mounted on it. In reality, the germans did not use armoured barrel jackets, but just regular jackets with the AA bracket removed. Two spaces were placed between the barrel jacket and the hole in the big round ball of the mount, but I don't have those.
So anyway, that is my boring tale the the MG34 armoured loop hole mount for the bunker. If anyone has any parts laying around, please let me know.
Thanks for looking
This is definitely one of those items that, depending on the eye of the beholding, is either a fascinating piece of history, or a big piece of crap taking up a bunch of space.
Please forgive my poor photography skills
Here is an overall view of the mount. You can see the rack for holding spare barrels.
Closer view of the left side of the mount
Here is the mount retracted. The base would be flush with the bunker wall and the top would move up to fire through a port in the bunker wall or be retracted for safety, etc.
The optic scope for the mount, code is dpw (Zeiss Ikon) Pz Zf 1
Scope mounted, from the right side. Notice also that the 250 rd fortess ammo can is mounted on the right side of the mount. This means the MG34 had to be set up for right hand feed for use in these mounts. This only requires a different feed arm and feed tray to do this, but it could not be done for the MG42. This was one of the reason MG34's remained in production after the 42 was introduced.
The front: the big hole was for the MG34 and the little hole on top is where the sight looks through
The little handle is used to retract the traversing gear from the mount so the mount can be elevated/depressed without having to turn the wheel
gear in
gear out
Here is what I think is an example of a little overengineering. The headrest was designed such that it could be adjusted for shooting right eyed or left eyed. The head rest has two slots in the mounting post and a flap that can be moved to cover one eye or the other. That seems to be a lot of manufacturing for this thing. I suspect the Russians would have just asked the gunner what eye he used and then poked the other one out with a stick, but not the Germans.
The best I could do on looking through the sight
Here is a old picture of the mount with a 34 mounted on it. In reality, the germans did not use armoured barrel jackets, but just regular jackets with the AA bracket removed. Two spaces were placed between the barrel jacket and the hole in the big round ball of the mount, but I don't have those.
So anyway, that is my boring tale the the MG34 armoured loop hole mount for the bunker. If anyone has any parts laying around, please let me know.
Thanks for looking
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