Gurtstifte or Belt pins

[dolchmann07]

Hello, I sometimes find it hard to find a category for some of my posts. It is because I usually do not need help on anything easy. This wooden box is marked Gurtstifte translation: Belt pins, now I have decided this could not be for clothing belt pins, so it must be for firearms. Has any one seen a box like this. It is 2 5/8 tall, 5 1/8 in length and 3 5/8 wide. It is well made and it also has the number 131 on it.
Thanks
jack

[dolchmann07]

Wooden box

Anybody have a clue ?
Jack

[Alan Smith]

Jack,

The Rheinmetal MG131 was a fully automatic cannon used in WWII German aircraft. This gun was fed by a linked belt know as a "Gurt 131". This belt is shown and discussed at pages 72 and 73 of German Machineguns (Rev. Ed. 1992) by Daniel D. Musgrave.

The individual links to the Gurt 131 were held together by removable pins. Thus, I suppose it is possible that your little box was used to store the linking pins for Gurt 131 aircraft cannon belt links. Just an idea.

BTW: Does the box have any other markings on it? Any chance it has some Lufwaffe acceptance stamps on it? If this box is for LW ordnance-related items, it will more than likely have an LW acceptance stamp (possibly very faint) somewhere on it.