Now for something completely different! Machine gun barrel

This was given to me by a long standing friend, who was cleaning out his fathers garage, after he sadly passed away. I recieved a phonecall to go and see him, "I have some rubbish for your collection mate!"
The story goes that during the battle of Britain, his father was assigned to the anti aircraft positions guarding the ariel masts for radar, near Dover.
They had a busy time of it, and after one particular day, and shooting a plane down, which crashed relatively close to their position, off they went souvernir hunting. His father found the barrel lying in the grass and took it for himself.
So this barrel has stayed in a small village in N.E Scotland ever since.
I dont know what aircraft it came from, so any ideas would be welcome.
It has a number stamped to its body, I tried to photograph it as best I could.
It reads 205220
The old boy must have varnished it at one time to preserve it.

regards John

 

Great piece of history there mate ;-))

 

What a superb relic !

I'm almost 100% certain from looking at your photos that it is the barrel of a Rheinmetall-Borsig MG17 7.92mm machine gun. Unfortunately, at the time in question, it was the standard armament of just about every Luftwaffe aircraft operating over the UK ( eg Do17, Bf109, Bf110, etc ) and there's no way of telling which particular aircraft type this relic is from.

Nonetheless, it's a really great, authentic relic of the BofB/Blitz era.....

 

very nice to have !

 

Thanks for all the info Martin. Its something else to think about what exactly went on in those fateful days. Its certainly a part of history that leaves you wondering what it would tell you if it spoke. I have one other relic of the Bof B. A piece of shrapnel, my fathers aunt gave me when I was a boy, she lived in London and was in the wrens with her sister. I will post it in a moment. Thanks for the other comments
regards John

 

Heres the bomb shrapnel as promised. Its extremely sharp.
Its little wonder the damage bits like this caused.

regards John

 

All the kids used to collect that stuff and all their parents couldn't wait to get rid of it ! My Dad ( who lived in the East End ) had a shoe-box-full and it went the same way....

Ironically, today militaria dealers sell it for quite good money. Most of it is actually not from German bombs - it's from British 'ack-ack' shells which were fired in vast quantities and rarely brought any night-bombers down.

 

Makes sense Martin, although you dont really think about AA shells. Another bit of good info.