Machine gunner's body armour (Sappenpanzer), 1916-17 (steel)

(III.4345) Machine gunner's body armour (Sappenpanzer), 1916-1917, Germany. Heavy body armour of silicon-nickel steel plates was issued to machine gun crew and other soldiers in static and vulnerable positions from 1916. The first type issued in 1916 weighed 9 kg (19.8 lb), the 1917 modified version 11 kg (24.3 lb). The plates are joined by canvas straps, resting on felt blocks. It is formed of six plates of silicon-nickel steel, protecting the forepart of the body from the tops of the shoulders to the lower abdomen. The main plate protects and is shaped to the chest. It has rounded lower corners and a large upward-flanged cut-out at the neck. Attached by three, large, round-headed rivets within each of the upper corners of the main plate, is a broad, slightly tapering shoulder plate which originally curved down the back and served to hook the armour over the body. Each of the shoulder-plates has an obtusely pointed proximal end, and a straight distal end with rounded corners. The shoulder-plates have at some time been bent down vertically for display purposes. Attached by a single, large, round-headed rivet within each side of the main plate, a little over half way down it, is a stepped triangular plate with a rounded upper end, and a transversely slotted lower end. Formerly looped through each slot, and secured to it by stitching, was a webbing strap which served to suspend the three downward overlapping abdominal plates. These are curved to the body and diminish in size towards the bottom. The first two plates are of rectangular form, while the last is semi-circular. All have rounded corners. Each plate is pierced to either side of its upper edge with a pair of holes for stitching the plate to the webbing straps. Subsequent to manufacture, the webbing straps have been replaced by ones of leather, and are attached to the plates by single, flat-headed rivets with circular washers, that pass through the inner of each of the pairs of stitching-holes. The lowest abdominal plate has been partially pierced just to the right of centre at its upper end, by a bullet. Painted black.