BACKGROUND: Among other restrictions, the Treaty of Versailles banned Germany from developing any type of heavy machine gun. To circumvent this German development of an all purpose machine gun was secretly being done in Switzerland in the early 1930's. By 1934 designer Louis Stange of the Rheinmetall armaments factory had made improvements to the secret machine gun developed in Switzerland and the MG34 was introduced as an all purpose selective fire weapon. In spite of the relatively high production cost the MG34 was accepted by the Wehrmacht Ordnance department and deliveries of the MG34 began in 1936. In 1937 due to the high cost and manufacturing time of the MG34 development began on another general purpose machine gun which utilized stamped and pressed components making it cheaper and quicker to produce. Further developments, including a quickly detachable barrel, resulted in the introduction of the MG42 general purpose machine gun in late 1941. Both the MG34 and MG42 were manned by a three person crew with one individual being designated the "#1 gunner". The gunner was equipped with a specific gunners belt pouch which carried special tools and accessories for the weapon including a protective muzzle cover that was designed to fit on the MG34/42 muzzle for protection from dirt and could be shot off if necessary.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Roughly 30mm diameter molded green rubber construction MG muzzle cover. The bottom edge of the cover is opened with a small embossed lip to the outside edge to fit on the MG muzzle while the top is closed to prevent dirt from entering.