One hell of a rack!
 

I ran across this photo and had to share. It is a photo of a German WWII rack of 17 MG-34's in an anti-aircraft role. I had never heard of this before. Just like I never heard of the ten broom handles mounted together which I posted a while back. What a rack!!!

My Dad did something similar while stationed in Panama during WWII. As an Army Air Forces machinist, he was tasked to design and construct a twelve gun mount for the M-2 .50 cal. At the time, December 1941), the Canal Zone did not have much of any AA defenses. Mainly Coastal Artillery. Dad said they mounted it on a barge in Gatow Lake. Fired at night was spectacular! He also said it wasn't a good idea as the recoil caused numerous stoppages. The M-2's were recovered from "hard landings" of the aircraft in the Zone. He didn't take any photos and I have searched, but found none.

Woody

WW2 was an era of innovation and invention as well as a dark moment in history.

One of my all time favorite images is this one:
Attachment 86278Attachment 86279

Sound location equipment in Germany, 1939. It consists of four acoustic horns, a horizontal pair, and a vertical pair, connected by rubber tubes to stethoscope type earphones worn by the two technicians left and right. The stereo earphones enabled one technician to determine the direction and the other the elevation of the aircraft.

The biggest problem with that MG-34 arrangement is the guns are going to run out of ammo pretty quickly. I'm presuming those are the double 100 round capacity drums, so not much ammo per gun, and pretty time consuming to re-attach already filled drums to 12 guns. Quite a noise maker, though.
The U.S. quad mount 50cals typically used a 250 round "tombstone" drum, plus a 50cal cycles about half as fast as an MG-34.

Yes, I thought the same thing, those zipper guns shoot quick :)

I was JUST at the very local to me U.S. Army Museum and was checking out a quad 50 cal. That's a LOT of concentrated firepower!

I do have an affinity for my old Frigidaire 50.

https://forum.lugerforum.com/attachm...1&d=1672323080

https://forum.lugerforum.com/attachm...1&d=1672323080

They look like basket drums to me. So that would be 50 rounds x 17 = 850 rounds, but that 850 is all gone in the time it takes to shoot 50! I agree that it does not offer much shooting time, but what a hail of bullets to throw out.