My favourit Relic item

[Swingcat]

In the Danish army we use the MG62 and these belts still have the springs between links.

My favorite relics.

Attachment 333905 Attachment 333906

Attachment 333907 Attachment 333908

Regards, Lars

wow i love the ek 1 and the sielhandgranate, need some of this too

[Matt L]

I stand corrected, it is deffenitly a "Gurt 17" just found a matching picture in my data base.
A gurt 17/81 to be precise for the MG81 according to guys from IAA.
Apparantly the french AA52 belt was derived from it.
The MG 81 was derived from the MG34.
But it was not mounted on Fighter planes like the Bf 109 or Fw190(they had 13 and 20mm guns mounted), it was mostly mounted in bomber type aircraft on a mount to replace the ageing MG 15, there was also a infantry model made.

No, the belt isn't a Gurt 17/81, it's the 17 nA; the 17 nA is for the MG17 only and has a hinge joint with a permanent pin- the Gurt 17/81 has a little hook tab on one side of each link and a slot on the other and it's a disintegrating belt. The hook and slot arrangement allows significantly more lateral flexibility because the MG81 and 81Z were primarily flexible weapons that required a belt that could move well; the MG17 is a fixed weapon so doesn't.

You can see images and information on all the various types here: International Ammunition Association {iaaforum.org} - View topic - 7,9 German Mauser

So yes it is, as I said, from a Bf109 or FW190 or like aircraft that was armed with fixed MG17s. Not until the G6 model for the '109 and the A8 for the Focke-Wulf did the 13mm MG131 replace the MG17 too.

[WW2Hunter]

Hey Matt,
My mistake, you are right about the Na, I misread the info with the pictures, in the topic on AAI.
For the fighter ref I was talking about the MG81 and I didn't find any ref of them been mounted on fighter planes.
I'm not an expert on airplanes and I only have general info on them, so I won't argue about the fact that they were armed with the MG17.

Regards,
Steven

[Matt L]

Yeah, sometimes it's tough to follow information presented in a thread like that as opposed to a proper article or in a book or such And you are right the MG81 wasn't mounted on any fighters, it was your statement about fighters being armed with 13 and 20mm weapons that I was commenting on- just so fully accurate information is presented here