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WW2 MG42 7.92 Nazi war code BNZ for Waffenfabrik Steyr
Serial number GZ (for 1943) 8310d
This Waffernfabrik Steyr manufactured Mg42 is in great condition and has a smooth dry firing action and is fully strippable. Manufactured in early 1943 at there Austria Factory with a total manufacture of Mg42 in 1943 was 4895 units.
Waffernfabrik Steyr adopted in early 1943 the pre fix GZ for the Mg42 which was the pre fix for the 1943 Mg42 production run.
This Mg42 still has 90% of its original factory blueing and the overall original condition is very good. This Mg42 has waffern factory code WAa623 stamped on the receiver and is common numbered to the top cover 8310 and also the bolt is common numbered 8310 as well.
The Mg42 butt is number 2142 which is not uncommon with any war time issued Mg42.
The feed system is in very good order as is the top cover
Below is the typical war time BNZ factory stamps for model type the dated code (GZ) and serial number.
The 'd' is the month code for the last two weeks in February 1943.
This is a very nice original condition Mg42 and it has not been messed
with.
£4550.00
History Foot Note
The Dark history of Waffernfabrik Steyr
Like many other Nazi controlled companies Waffernfabrik Steyr relied on forced labour, employing them from the Steyr-Münichholz subcamp of KZ Mauthausen which was a very large Nazi concentration camp.
On 9 August 1938, prisoners from Dachau concentration camp near Munich were sent to the town of Mauthausen in Austria to begin the construction of a new slave labour camp.
In 1943 the year this Mg42 was manufactured , an underground factory for the Waffernfabrik Steyr company was built in Gusen.
Altogether with 45 other larger companies they took part in the construction Mauthausen concentration camp and its subcamps with more than 11,000,000 going though that camp.
On 5 May 1945 the camp at Mauthausen was approached by a squad of US Army soldiers of the 41st Reconnaissance Squadron of the US 11th Armored Division, 3rd US Army. The reconnaissance squad was led by Staff Sergeant Albert J. Kosiek.
His troop disarmed the policemen and left the camp. By the time of its liberation, most of the guards in Mauthausen had fled; around 30 of those who remained were killed by the prisoners a similar number were killed in Gusen II.
By 6 May all the remaining subcamps of Mauthausen, with the exception of the two camps in the Loibl Pass, were also liberated by American forces.