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Nazi WW2 Mg42 manufactured by Gustloff-Werke in early 1944
Fully strippable and dry firing
Manufactured by Gustloff in early 1944 and designed to be low-cost and easy to build, the MG 42 proved to be highly reliable and easy to operate. It is most notable for its very high cyclic rate for a gun using full power service cartridges, averaging about 1,200 rounds per minute.
This compared to around 850 for the MG 34 and perhaps 450 to 600 for other common machine guns like the M1919 Browning or Bren light machine gun.
The ability of the Mg42 made it extremely effective in providing suppressive fire, eventually four factories would be engaged in the manufacture of the MG 42
This Mg42 was manufactured at the Gustloff-Werke Factory code dfb from1943
to 1945 and just over 105,00 Mg42 were manufactory before the Russian Army over ran the the Gustloff factory.
• Maget (cra) 1942-1945 (165,000 guns)
• Gustloff-Werke (dfb, svq) 1943-1945 (105,00 guns)
• Mauser-Borsigwalde (ar, dd) 1943-1945 (54,000 guns)
• Waffenfabrik Steyr (bnz, swj) 1942-1945 (70,000 guns)
The Berlin Suhler Waffen- und Fahrzeugwerke (BSW) company was formerly the Simson & Co factory in Suhl, which had been established in 1856 and became an important supplier of arms to the German military.
After the end of WWI, Simson was the exclusive supplier of arms to the Weimar Republic. In 1935, the factory was taken over by the Wilhelm Gustloff foundation and renamed BSW, and later Gustloff-Werke. Production ran from 1943 to 1945, resulting in a total of around 105,000 MG 42 manufactured.
The manufacturer code allocated to the Gustloff-Werke was ‘dfb’ during the first two years of production of the MG 42. This changed to ‘svq’ in 1945. The Waffen Amt inspector mark remained ‘WaA 4’ throughout the entire span of MG 42 production at Gustloff-Werke.
The above photo of the receiver has the Warren factory stamp Wa139
Above
Very clear Waffern Stamp and factory war code and the i is for the first two weeks in April (1944) the MU stamp is for 1944.
This MG 42 that we are offering today was made by Gustloff-Werke in the first months of 1944.
The receiver is inscribed with the year code ‘M.U.’ for 1944, the designation ‘M.G. 42’ (this was dropped in the case of guns manufactured later in the year), the serial number ‘654i’ and the manufacturer code ‘dfb’.
The receiver is also marked ‘arz’, which is the code for Deutsche Kühl- und Kraftmaschinen GmbH, the sub-contractor that provided the receivers for Gustloff-Werke.
The rest of the components all have the various sub-contractor codes, as may be seen from the photos.
The top cover has waffern Factory inspection stamp Wa147 which is the factory inspection stamp for the top cover manufactured Grossfuss AG .
Grossfuss AG changed names a few times since the end of the of WW2 but is still trading in Döbeln, Germany.
The condition of this Gustloff-Werke Mg42 manufactured in early 1944 is in fantastic condition and has a smooth dry firing action and is fully strippable.
This is a great example of an WW2 Mg42
£4350.00