50cal Vickers cloth belt

[rrpg]

Hi Everyone

I am chairman of the WW2 Relic Retrieval & Preservation Group (RRPG)and during a dig today at a British army dump site permission of mine, we found a very large quantity of strange Vickers belt brass strips and starter tabs. The brass strips are chunkier and wider than the 303 belt strips, and the starter tab is also bigger and chunkier. We managed to clean one and I believe they are from a 50cal Vickers belt. Can anyone confirm please?

Also, I can't find a picture of such a belt on the net, despite searching for ages! Anyone got a picture of a complete 50cal Vickers belt please?

[andrewupton]

Jun 26, 2016 18:49:04 GMT 1 rrpg said:

Can anyone confirm please?

Also, I can't find a picture of such a belt on the net, despite searching for ages! Anyone got a picture of a complete 50cal Vickers belt please?

Certainly appears to match the .50 cal Vickers belt - complete example can be seen below, about 2/3 rds down:

www.vickersmachinegun.org.uk/acc-ammunition.htm

[rrpg]

Brilliant. Many thanks Quite a rare beast by all accounts. I now have over 50 of the starter tabs!

[rrpg]

Thought you might like to see some of the tabs cleaned. They are all marked the same so far. I was wrong in the above post as well.....I have more than 80 of them! Along with about 1,000 of the brass strips.

[andrewupton]

Very nice - if you don't already know, T F & S LD is "Thomas French and Sons Limited" - hence the emblem of the fleur de lis.

Incidentally, what will happen to all the finds having been recovered and cleaned?

[rrpg]

Thanks for the info As for the finds, they are cleaned and preserved and retained in my collection. I regularly display at military shows and schools up and down the country so they will form part of my displays.