This is an very fine example of an early WWII German MG-34 light machine gun. They were used throughout WWII by all German forces and were originally developed prior to WWII by Rheinmetall and initially produced by the Mauser factory. Eventually, they were also produced by the Steyr-Daimler, Gustloff Werkes and BRNO factories during WWII. They were an excellent, highly refined and very reliable machine gun that had all machined parts that were, in many cases, hand fitted with exacting tolerances. This proved to be too costly and time consuming to produce, and they were eventually replaced by the later stamped and machined MG-42. This example was manufactured by the BRNO factory in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The top of the barrel jacket is marked "dot/194" and "double Eagle 63 Waffenamt/345". It has a front sight and tangent rear marked 2-20 (200-2,000 meters) and is fitted with the late dark brown Bakelite buttstock. This is a fairly rare example in that it has matching serial numbers (345) on the receiver, barrel jacket and buttstock assembly, the only mismatched main parts are the top cover and the barrel; however, both are WWII German manufacture. It is common to have mismatch numbers on the barrel and top cover as barrels were changed during use and the top covers were discarded before capture. It has the original folding bipod and comes with an anti-aircraft type tripod mount with a correct top cradle and the corresponding mounting bracket on the barrel.