MG34 Ammunition Box - are all 300 Rounds in one long belt?

[harrison987]

Below is the standard loadout for the 251/1.

a loooooooooooot more ammo.

12 Snail drums in total. That is 2 carriers at the back with 4 snail drums in total...and 4 up front with 8 snail drums in total.

Followed by:

28 Patronenkasten 34, with 3 Oil/Petrol Boxes and 3 Ergangzkasten.

With the MG34/42 being the primary front armament on that one, it makes sense. It all being stored under the 4 seats.

However on the coax MG being only for help aiming the 75mm...one can assume it would not have that much (no storage room either - there is only 1 short bench seat in this vehicle...)

mmmmmmmmmmmm...

[harrison987]

thinking about the StuG...that is the closest vehicle to the late 251/9.

Does anyone have the ammunition load list and internal parts list for that vehicle to reference?
TIA

Mike

[me6_130]

Here is a shot from the manual.

What I need to do is acquire all parts listed...buuuuuuuuuuuut...I need some slight adaptation, as this is for the early variant...and I need what the most "probable" loadout would have been for the late variant (KwK51)...with the additional MG42 Coax.

As I am organizing the ammunition loaout...not sure if they were loaded as 50 belts, so they could re-load the drums when needed...or if it was better to have a long belt.

In speaking with someone else, the MG manual states "either" 50 round belts (separate, with or without tabs)...or...50 round belts, all linked together.

Keep in mind that the coax was only used to aid in targeting for the 75mm. I am "assuming" that there would have been a loooooooooooooot of tracers an AP ammo?

Carles...any chance you have another one of those MG werkzeug boxes?

Hello,

I've got some spare MG Werkzeug box, no problem on that side. About accesories for MG:

- if you only had 1 auxiiliary MG34 and also had some 50 round drums, I would guess that MG would be provided with 1 MG Werkzeugtasche, so a gunners pouch.

- if you only had 1 coax MG34 I would guess that MG would be provided with an MG Werkzeug box, as panzers.

-But if you have 2 MG34s, 1 auxiliary and the other coax, you would most probably have only an MG Werkzeug box, as in Panzers. You might also have a gunner's pouch but I have not found any document that proves so.

It would be like in StuGs, I'll have to revise my information to see if those that had an auxiliary MG34 had an MG Werkzeug box or not. If not, they would surely be provided with a gunner's pouch.

Carles

[harrison987]

Thanks Carles...

Keep me posted...



Mike

[me6_130]

About StuGs,

A couple of years back (September 2016) I was allowed to crawl into 3 of the 4 StuGs still in Spain. I shot quite some pics, no too good, I'm afraid.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...t=spain&page=3

I have just gone through the pics and haven't found an MG Werkzeug box in any of the 3 StuGs. 2 of them are really complete, so no doubt they never had such a box. Now, after rereading George Bradford's AFV Interiors article about StuG III, he states:

"[...]The loader's black seat is barely visible at the lower left of the photo, behind the ammo boxes. To his left, and in the corner of the fighting compartment, is a floor clamp for storing a MG 34.[...]"

There is plenty of storage space and boxes in a StuG to store a gunner's pouch, so I am inclined to accept that option for StuGs, but for a coax MG34 in a SdKfz 251/9 I would think of an MG Werzeug box.

Oh, I've got some pics of some StuG III manuals... but very difficult to read, and some hundreds of pages. I'll try to go through, to see if I can clarify something else.

Carles

[me6_130]

OK, I don't know German so might have mistaken the info but I have only found the following reference about MG34 and it's ammo. Seems a StuG only had 7 ammo drums. I believe they would be 50 round drums, nor 75 round Doppeltrommeln, so 350 rounds in total!!!! No mention about an MG Werkzeug box nor a Gunner's pouch.


Carles

[me6_130]

Hello Mike,

In the following thread, post #53 you can read 2 different content lists of "Ergänzungskasten für MG34" for PzKpfwIV, and following posts discussing about if MG Werkzeug boxes or MG Tasche:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=675091


BTW, if late SdKfz 251/9 had a coax MG34, that would probably be a Panzermantel version, so would also need an MG-Zubehör box


Carles