Lafette 34: found in the battlefield

[ualexj]

As you can understand from other topics, I' managing restoration of MG34 Lafette. I found this monster of german engineering in ithe former ww2 battlefield on thre Shisdra river? central Russia, where the 'Wirbelwind' german advance in 1943 started.
Firstly you can see environment, river Shisdra's bank with monument (Eternal glory to our heroes! 1941-1945), a forest road with the only transport working there, UAZ. Villages there are the same as ~60 years ago.

[ualexj]

these photos are taken in mai 2007, you can see VYa23 from IL2 shot down nearby, a giant artillery piece, and a part of mg tripod, one of 3pc. found in that area. all of tripods were in different conditions and have battle damages, this talks "what a devil fire was there". As you can learn from literature, the Wirbelwind'43 was stopped by our forces with heavy casualities in both sides. A splitter-deactivated MG34 was found there also but it is in the museum now And for dessert check out standart wehrmacht MG trench, in exellent condition hehe. Deadly sector of fire. Several human remains were found in the sector, ~300m.


Having the remains of 3 lafettes I decided restore one from three.

[ualexj]

I have seen several restoration work-logs on this forum already, they make me jealous, in the good meaning. But my rusty metal pile is valuable for me. I have some basic knowledge in metalworking, welding ets.
Firstly all parts were maximally disassembled, cleaned in wated, then in oxolic acid. This acid (5-10%) cleans rust details very vell, neither good metal nor pain is damaged.

I have not possibility to shot all lafette parts, but:

-All rear legs are absent.
-only one elevation mechanism present
-only one slide and frame present, splitter damaged and curved
-two buffers, one hardly damaged with a splitter
-three front legs, two curved, pads are absent
-one sector ruler and remains of two other
-small parts mostly damaged with corrosion, lathe to be found

Lots of patience from me and every who help me!

ps. sorry for me english, dont forget, russian is my native.

[ualexj]

Was bought a depot-condition elevation mechanism (~$200), only one was available.
I couldnt pull the drum to the left. It is described here
http://mg42.us/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=547 ... a&start=30

The problem was solved by hitting the opposite end of the shaft thru the soft metal (copper) spacer - as it has turned out, the spring on photo below was too hard and it was unable to move it by hand. After shaft with the drum moved to the left, the unit was disassembled. The stopper of upper slide with dispersion unit was unscrewed, the slide turned to the top and removed, then two screws and L-shaped shaft stopper removed, the spring raised and the shaft removed. All cleaned< spring loosend and assembled. In my opinion some importan moments showed on photos. Note axle, gears positions.


I will add further steps as possible.

[Bil]

Very nice-thank you for the photos and explanations.The drawings on the photos helped me see the layout.You have great ambition to do a project like this-I wish you good luck! I hope to see more of your adventures and the work on the lafette.Thank you! ---bil

[mkVsten]

Nice Post...

That is just cool!

Cheers...

[Tim g]

Very interesting to see the actual battlefields where you have found these items.

I wish you well for your restoration as it must be very hard work.
You will be a very happy man when you achieve success!

Thier is some bad battle damage to the parts you showed but it looks like you have the skills to work on the items from your photo,s

Please keep us updated on your work, your english is much better than my russki

Spasibo
tim

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

This is one of the coolest posts we've had lately. THANKS!

I forgot what the inside of my lafette search fire unit looked like, it's been so long since I refiurbished it. Still going strong!

[Barrel26]

What you have found is of historical importance. I really envy your being able to do that !

[ualexj]

Sorry for a log silense/ but the work goes on. slowly, in long winter evenings...with help even from the littlest ones...

[ualexj]

and as it was asked above,
this is the universal MG stand looks like now. My lafette was found near the similar stand.

[Bil]

Very nice-thanks for the pics of where it was found! ---bil

[42rocker]

I'm guessing that the little fellow thats helping to clean the lafette pads was the main reason for the delay between the posts. Enjoy the little one......

A lot of posted pictures were lost when this site got hacked, yours included. It would be great if you could repost all/ some/ any of the first group of pictures.

Thanks

Later 42rocker

[ualexj]

I try as i remember.
My friends and i? as many other here in Russia and other countries search former battlefields for lost soldiers and war relics. Several years ago i was lucky to find scorched mg 34 and battle damaged lafette 34. Later i found amount of other parts and pieses of lafette and desided to restore it. here you can see some pics from that period. The region we searched in is situeted 350 km southwest from Moscow,and in small villages do not change much in the past 65 years. Local people often help us and old woman is baba Katya (old woman Katya - in russian), she was a girl in 1943 and remember all quite well. we get the directions and leave the village. A german scheme from lexikon-der-wehrmacht shows some information and the perion giftcards and photos help ''catch the wave". Sometimes big metals lie on a ground - the remains of german PAK35/36 artillery. This one is restored by my friend and used in reenactment.

[ualexj]

details were sanded, cut, welded. Pins, nuts,screws lathed when nesessary, and all is coated with red primer. Now i need to weld and repair a 'Wiege' german word. Manuals help as well. then make slings for carrying, pain everithing in original colour. By the way, the 'Uberschiesstafel' is original, aluminium is often in exellent condition, because of galvanic pair with steel.

I have an optics crate in good condition bought from peasants, dug optical sight in very poor condition, and mg 34 - but oug laws do not simplify the process of guns restoration.
So here you are.
Regards, Aleks

[42rocker]

Wow, that's cool.
Thanks for the posts or reposts.

Glad to see history being restored and not just left in the ground.

Good Luck

Later 42rocker