Germany III Reich. Ammunition Box for the Czechoslovak ZB 37 Machine Gun.

The ZB vz. 37 was a Czechoslovak medium machine gun. A versatile weapon, it was used both as a support weapon and mounted on tanks and other armored vehicles, as well as in fixed positions within Czechoslovak border fortifications. Adopted before World War II by the armies of Czechoslovakia (under the designation TK vz. 37) and Romania, it was also manufactured under license in the United Kingdom as the Besa machine gun. After the Munich Agreement, German troops captured large quantities of this weapon and used it during the war under the designation MG 37(t). The Germans equipped Waffen-SS units with this machine gun.

The ZB vz. 37 was designed by engineers Václav Holek and Miroslav Rolčík of the Zbrojovka Brno factory as a replacement for the Schwarzlose machine gun from World War I. Based on the earlier ZB vz. 35, the prototype was tested in 1936, and the following year the Czechoslovak Army adopted the new machine gun under the designation TK vz. 37 (“TK” stands for “těžký kulomet,” Heavy Machine Gun; “vz” stands for “vzor,” Model). It was introduced as the standard machine gun for Czechoslovak tanks, including the LT vz. 35 and LT-38. Czechoslovakia exported this machine gun to Romania, Yugoslavia, Argentina, Afghanistan, Iran, and China (with fewer than 850 units used during the Second Sino-Japanese War), while the United Kingdom bought a license and began producing its own version, the Besa machine gun (over 60,000 units). The British adopted it as armament for their armored vehicles. During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the factory produced large quantities of this machine gun for the Waffen-SS until 1942.

It has two ammunition belts (without the rounds) with serial numbers in Farsi, as they were exported to Iran.

Mesures 35 x 17 x 9.