I like books with lots of piccys. Thats what i like about many of these books from Schiffer. Thanks for the heads up on that one.

 A load of goodies arrived yesterday that I ordered/won while waiting for the GB to kick off. The "Tigers at the Front" is filled with magnificant photos, which is all this book is. Very little text. I just perused it last night and i see that was well worth getting. Worth it so much that I order Jentz's other book on the Tiger I development. I already had Squadrons newest edition of "Tiger in action" book and it shares a few of the photos in Jentz's book. I won the barrel, tow cable and shackles from an ebay sellerfrom Poland whom I have done business with before. He tossed in the antenna and the bucket for free. He ships rather quickly too.

                                           Joe

Thank you. If all goes well I start the 16th. I may start my kit early. Haha

Yeah Congrads Eric!!! Hope it goes better than the sales job you hated.

Congrats Eric.....hope its something that you will enjoy and leave you some time for family & other activities.

Congrats Erich.

Thanks. It's way over due.

Ugh on the hours Eric but glad you found a job .

Congradulations Tigerman. Hope it's doing something you'll enjoy.

Well, I might have to change subjects since it appears I may have finally got a job. All but in! Hours will be brutal and leave me next to no time to build. Might have to go with the Tamiya Jagdpanther instead.

Strange things happening round here ..................

p38jl

humm..  I accidently canceled myself....

Ouch, i hope you have seen a Doctor.

Shellback

tigerman

Sorry, bumpity, bumpity.

Its ok , i was being p.c . Bumpity bump , better back up and find out what that was . Bumpity bump ...............hmmm

Sorry, my bumpity bumpity was in reference to the thread falling off the page. I was giving it a gratuitous bump.

tigerman

Sorry, bumpity, bumpity.

Its ok , i was being p.c . Bumpity bump , better back up and find out what that was . Bumpity bump ...............hmmm

humm..  I accidently canceled myself....

Sorry, bumpity, bumpity.

No Eric i cant ...............all of those lives lost on both sides for a few square miles of island .

That was such a numbing scene to see our boys being chopped down after hitting the beach. Can you imagine the hell that the Marines met at Tarawa?

Ok , yes i know the scene .....it gets my blood boiling every time .

Sorry, Saving Private Ryan. I was thinking of the beach landing scene with the German MG gunner in his bunker spraying the bech.

Bish , i havent followed the entire thread here ..............SPR ?

Ye, i would imagine it was. If you look at the opening scene in SPR, it wouldn't taken that German in the pillbox long to get through 350.

Changing the barrel out after 350 rounds is probably under ideal circumstances  only .

It does all depend on the role. In the SF role, you also have the tri pod to carry as well as a lot more ammo. In the light role, you genearlly don't fire at the same rate. But 350 rounds isn't many before a barrel change.

I've been only going by one reference, but I can't see why it couldn't employed with just two ppl.  In a crew of three, the third person would be the spotter.

So from another source found this of interest: Its drawbacks included its voracious appetite for ammo. The MG-42 was only capable of full-auto fire, while the MG-34 was also capable of semi-automatic fire. Due to the organization of the infantry squad in the Wehrmacht, with heavy reliance on the machine gun both offensively and defensively, it became very difficult to produce enough ammunition. In addition, because of the heat generated, barrels wore out faster and gun crews were trained to replace the barrel after every 350 rounds fired in combat to preserve them. Probably some of this was due to the fact that the majority of German infantry carried the ’98 Mauser bolt action rifle. Due to the need to remove the barrel by unlatching the barrel shroud’s right cover, the MG-42 did not lend itself to mounting within armored vehicles’ front glacis plate.

Also went to youtube to listen for the different sounds the two guns make.  I had to link this one, hiliarious - two happy old men with their MG 42.

regards,

Jack

Ye, the extra rate of fire would certainly make a difference. With the GMPG we had to change barrels every 800 rounds, i would imagine the 34 and 42 would be the same. But then any well trained soldier would keep his rate of fire controled.

When you say it should of had a crew of six, i assume you mean in the SF role. In the light role i believe it was a two man team.

Yes, the 34 also was designed to make barrel change's 'on the go' but I'm not sure how different this was between the two types.  It also had slighly less rate of fire (about 800-900 rounds/min.) , and assuming the operator didn't react to a situation like it was an arcade game, the barrel would not overheat as quickly.  

I should have mentioned the MG 42 could go as high as 1500.  So yes, more likely to over heat.  On paper, it should have a crew of six, but the war situation being as it was, normally only three were assigned per gun.

regards,

Jack

But then the same would be true of the 34 in regards a barrel change surely.

I think the main point of difference is the rate of fire, with the MG 42 it was 1200 rounds/min.  (some very colourful names were given to this gun, "Hitler's buzzsaw" has to be a favourite).  This high rate of fire necessitated regular barrel changes to avoid over-heating.  Although it was designed to be a quick change in field use, it wasn't practical for  the hull and co-axial placement in tanks.  Except for the Jagdpanzer IV, all other panzers continued to use the MG 34, hence it's production continued to the end of the war.  

regards,

Jack

GPMG's are not really meant to be accurate, at least in the same way as a rifle. They are more of an area weapon. I would think that tanks would be fitted with 34's as there was plenty of these around after the 42 came into service and the tanks didn';t need the 42 as much as the ground troops would.