Gurt 34 - Late War Dated?

[Alan Smith]

Over the years I have accumulated a decent number of the WWII German "Gurt 34" belts for the MG-34/MG-42 machineguns. In sorting through them I have noticed that a very large percentage of them are dated 1940 or 1941, with 1942 following close behind. Very few are dated 1943 and of the 100 or so of them I have, only one (1) is dated 1944. I have not observed any Gurt 34 dated 1945.

The belts I have come from a wide variety of sources over a 15 year or so period, so I think I have a pretty accurate representative sample of them from which to form the opinion that production of these seems to have been VERY heavy in 1940 and 1941, tapering off thereafter. In fact, I have often wondered if the German produced so many of them in this early-war time frame that production may have been curtailed in later years?

Anyway, here is a photo of the latest dated Gurt 34 that I have ever seen - June of 1944.

Has anyone observed any that are dated later? Also, any thoughts/comments/observations on Gurt 34 production dates and markings would be welcomed.

[Alan Smith]

Here is the June, 1944 dated belt.

[Alan Smith]

Here are about 1/2 of the belts I have sorted through.

[Alan Smith]

Belts

[phil337]

looks good, cant see no issues with it,its the first 44 dated one i have seen . I agree with early production levels, as most of mine are all dated 40,41 and 42, i have some just marked with a 3 letter code mostly cvo, i was told these were late war, but i think certain manufacterers marked thier products differently?

[Alan Smith]

Tonight I went back through all of these belts that I could put my hands on; the vast majority are 1940 or 1941 dated, with a few 1942's. I found none dated 1943.

Also, I found one coded "acw" and dated "8.4" with no WaA. I think this may be another 1944 production belt; when I get a chance I'll clean it up and post photos.

I found a number of belts with no maker's code, but dated and WaA'ed. Most of these were 1941 with one 1940 and one 1942 dated.

The overwhelming majority of the belts were dated. Of the undated belts most were the "cvo" code that you mention, along with a "gbd", several "cpg", a "dwc", and an "ar".

[Alan Smith]

Here is the other 1944 dated belt I found; I believe the maker's code is "acw", with the belt dated August of 1944.

Anyone seen any belts dated later? How about any 1945 dated belts?

[Alan Smith]

Another view of maker's code and date

[Alan Smith]

Anyone have any idea what the little "x" marks are on each of the links in the "acw" August, 1944 dated belt?

Virtually all of the links have the "x" marking. I have never seen the "x" (or any other marking) on the links that comprise the Gurt 34 belts.

[Alan Smith]

Another view of the "x" markings

[foy1944]

the "x" on weapons are related to postwar use in East-Germany ,so maybe this is the case with these gurt 34 belts...

[jh-ss44]

I assumed on late war ,many did not date them ,to help speed up production (hence no waffen amts either).
plus on a lot of late war items , much of it never left the factories ,most likely recycled later on = ??
nice to see a 44 dated one.
most of mine are 40 or 41 , then a few "gbd" only marked.
jeff