German WW2 Ammunition supply - belted 7.92mm Ammunition

[khanmak]

Does anybody have any idea how 7.92 belted ammunition was provided during WW2 for weapons such as MG34/MG42. I haven't seen 7.92 ammunition factory supplied pre-belted (as British & USA did).
I'm therefore assuming that all ammunition was supplied boxed to troops in the combat zone, then manually (or by machine belted at section/unit level) for use in the Patronenkasten 41 (for instance). If so then presumably belts must have been supplied separately in a fashion similar to the ammunition and I've never seen boxes or cartons for any of these. Any thoughts welcome.
Mark

 

[jonnyc]

I just tried Googling and got all these:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=strict&q=german+belted+ammo+boxes
Not all are German, or WWII, but you will see some examples of boxes and drums.

 

[orpheus72]

For the aircraft MG's (gurt 17/81) it was hand-filled:

D.(luft) T. 6081 : Der Gurt 17/81 wird mit dem Kurbelfüller 37 oder von Hand gefüllt. Die Patronen werden von hinten so weit in die Gurttasche geschoben,bis sich die Erhöhung auf der Zunge in die Eindrehung amPatronenboden eindrückt.

 

[Dutch]

The 15 round boxes were marked " Für MG "

Rgds