Description
Original Item: Gunner’s kit consists of: canvas pouch, extractor removal tool, take down tool, brushes, other tools and solvent bottles, and everything as photographed.
May also consist of some post war M53 unissued accessories.
The MG 42 (shortened from German: Maschinengewehr 42, or “machine gun 42”) is a 7.92×57mm Mauser general purpose machine gun designed in NSDAP Germany and used extensively by the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the second half of World War II. It was intended to replace the earlier MG 34, which was more expensive and took much longer to produce, but both weapons were produced until the end of the war.
The MG 42 has a proven record of reliability, durability, simplicity, and ease of operation, but is most notable for its ability to produce a high volume of suppressive fire.
The MG 42’s lineage continued past NSDAP Germany’s defeat, forming the basis for the nearly identical MG1 (MG 42/59), chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO, which subsequently evolved into the MG1A3, and later the Bundeswehr’s MG 3. It also spawned the Swiss MG 51, Zastava M53, SIG MG 710-3, Austrian MG 74, and the Spanish 5.56×45mm NATO Ameli light machine gun, and lent many design elements to the American M60 and Belgian MAG. The MG 42 was adopted by several armed organizations after the war, and was both copied and built under license.
