MG34 Bridge Mount

[lucasner]

I have found quite a few pics now of the MG mounted on the bridge. What I want to verify is that the mount looks like it was attached to one of the life-belt rings set into the bridge coaming. Is this true? Could it be mounted to any of them? It seems that in most of the pics I have found that it is on the starboard-rear side of the bridge, but I found one pic that shows it on the port side.
TIA
Dave

[Rokket]

Can you post a pic?

[lucasner]

Here are two of the best pics I could find on the web.

[Rokket]

In principle, not tooooo dissimilar to the US Gatos. They had a fist size round bit of pipe, with a small finger sized hole. There was a pin on the bottom of the swivel ount (.30 and .50), that just dropped in. Very low tech. This seems to be more sophisticated in that it is an elevated mount, but not anything wild.

[SG]

What I want to verify is that the mount looks like it was attached to one of the life-belt rings set into the bridge coaming. Is this true?

 

Not necessarily, as the next pictures show (though the MGs in the pictures were not MG 34s):
(?MG 81z, below)

(MG 15)

(MG 15)

(MG15)

(MG 15)

 
MG Mounts could be attached on one side (port and starboard side indifferently), both sides, not necessarily on the "life-belt rings area" of the turret. The mounts varied in terms of appearance even if MG 34 mounts seem to have quite a basic design if compared to the other MG type mounts which look more elaborate. Every boat differed from another in terms of field modifications and general appearance, so my advice is to pick up the boat you want to build, get as many pictures as possible of it, and base your project on those pictures.
Anyway, am sure most of the experts in the forum will add further specific information on the matter and hopefully post better pictures.
Interesting subject, thanks for bringing it up Dave!
Cheers!

[falo]

Just another one, please follow this link:


http://hermann-buesken.de/cd/Bild3.jpg


The picture was taken from the typeseven/41 (U995) conning tower (ct).


I suppose one of these pictures from the post above shows the German MG 15 mounted on the ct-sidewalls. The MG 15 was the classic defense machine gun in aircraft bombers like "Heinkel" or "Condor". You can recognize the use of round magazines instead of munition-belts (hope I choose the correct translation) and the huge anti-aircraft sight.


There is a model kit in 1/72 available for this mentioned guns from the well known czech company Eduard. Just for those who are interested in upgrading the ct:
http://www.dersockelshop.de/militaermodellbau/militaermodellbau-1-72/1-72-flugzeuge/1-72-zubehoer/20084/mg-15-guns-/-1-72


Regards
falo

[SG]

2 more shots, the mounts look more or less the same, but they differ from the MG 34 mount you posted, Dave:
(MG 34s)

(MG15, U960)

[42rocker]

SG
The pics that you posted are interesting to me. The top one has the standard MG34 top mount that is used on the ground Lafette "tripod" when it is converted to anti-aircraft . The part that attaches to the MG34  is a "Y" shaped yoke that slips into a pole on the Lafette. It looks like the same part that again slips into another pole like item on the sub.

Note the top pic on this page on a friends of mines website.

http://www.bergflak.com/PT34.htm

You will see the same "Y" yoke style piece going into the vertical pole. There is a button release on the side of the bottom of the yoke so you can remove with easy.

If you go to this part of his website and look towards the bottom of the page you might see my handle "42rocker" next to a couple of pics of another one of my hobby items.

http://www.bergflak.com/lafette/evo34.html

Any rate if you want to know more about the MG34 and or MG15 stuff I might know a few things if you have questions.

In one of the first pics there is not a "Y" yoke, it looks like the top part of a bipod has been welded to a pipe.

On both styles of hooking the barrel shroud on there is a semi circle that goes 1/2 way around the barrel shroud to lock onto. Takes a lot longer to remove than the push button that on that yoke piece.

Later Tim

[SG]

Later Tim,
I was inspired by your project to read the excellent book "U-boat war patrol" and found new pictures of the MG 34 mount, this time sported by U-564,which started to convince me that what i nicknamed the "S-rune mount" could really be a standard mount for U-boat MGs. I have found it in many pictures of late type VII with Turm 0 and turm IV configuration.
(U564)

(U564)

The "S-Rune mount" in detail (below)

On Turm 0 VIIB and early C types and on type IX boats the basic Y-shaped mount can be seen more frequently, such as in the case of U-124 below:

To date none has really replied to the original question by lucasner: were the mounts attached to modified "life-belt ring holes"? so far I still havent found a clear picture showing an MG 34, its Y-mount and the conning tower area where it attaches on a turm-0 (basic) configurated boat.
I think that Lucasner assumptions are basically correct, in one of the pictures he published it's quite evident that the mount fills a life-belt hole actually, but it's possibile that mounts could be fixed to different holes on the tower designed specifically to host the MG mount, like the two that can be seen in the picture below on the portside of the turret, aft to the last life-belt ring hole (far left on the picture). Who knows?

(A propos of this picture, the UZO cover is a fake, the picture has been retouched, i managed to find the original picture which showed a normal, "naked" UZO )
The picture below shows details of U-552 turret where the possible siting for an MG mount is visible. It's located aft of the last life belt ring hole, exactly in the same spot of the hole sited above the wood chips shown in the previous pic. A modified life-belt ring hole or something meant specifically for the gun mount?
Whatever the answer is that's the place i would probably choose to put a gun mount on a Turm 0, 1941-42 VIIC model..

Thanks for replying, I think this is an interesting subject for modellers!!
cheers
SG
 
 

[42rocker]

Very interesting pics. Thanks for the share.

Later Tim

[Capt Kremin]

Hi all
 
Been following this thread with interest and thought the following items might be of interest if you are intending to build bridge mounted machine guns onto your models:
First our old friends CMK;
 
7086 MG 15 machine guns (8 , resin, from the instructions would appear to come with 7 spare magazines
Q72139 MG 15 Magazines (28), resin
 
Also Eduard, Eduard Brassin;
 
672017 MG 15 (2), resin and brass, come with shell collector and 2 spare magazines
672019 MG 81Z (2 pairs), resin
 
And finally from Mini World, available from Hannants and others;
 
7221 MG 15 brass (1) with shell collector (different to Eduard type)
and finally the one you are all hoping for
7218 MG 34 (1)
 
 
Prices are:
£7.00 for CMK MG 15
£4.50 for the Eduard guns from Hannants
£7.50 for the Mini World MG 15 and, hold your breath £16.80 for the MG34, again from Hannants.
 
Regards
Jon

[SG]

beautiful little wonders!! 

[Rokket]

really nice!

[falo]

Hi Cap,


thanks for sharing. Built the single one from eduard brassin a few months ago and it was very very very fiddly. To give the wooden grasp and the leather stripe the brown color it is recommended to use a fine brush with not more than one hair   


Regards
Falo

[Rokket]

Oh I'm sure they are fiddly! But they look nice...!