Gerben,
according to my printed source, "Weapons of the Third Reich, An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939-1945.......great source book for info by the way....copyright 1978 by Terry Gander and Peter Chamberlain........
states; 7.92 Maschinengewehr 13, type of feed 25 round box or 75 round saddle drum, rate of fire (cyclic) 550rpm, weight 11.43kg, length 1341mm, length of barrel 720mm, Original Manufacture, Rheinische Metall-waren-und Maschinenfabrik, Sommerda.... umlaut over the o
Remarks,
Evolved by Louis Strange from an earlier Dreyse design to prvide a modern air-cooled selective fire light machine gun for the German army. Officially adopted1932 and pricipal German weapon of this class until 1936 when superceded by MG 34. Afterwards most MG13s sold to Portugal and Spainbut some remained in German service (mainly with garrison units) until 1945........
I believe that this reference makes this LMG much more plausible for the time frame of the photo's you recently acquired............
The book is a great reference source on all weapons that were produced or captured and it gives the German designation for theirs and all captured weapons in their inventories..........plus lots of great black and white photo's of troops and weapons possibly in action..........
HTH, Regards, Paul
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