The collection of the MoD Pattern Room holds many unique guns, including a one-of-a-kind model unknown to most of the collectors and researchers of militarv small arms, as it has never been photoraphed in a book before. This machinegun. called the S 3-200, is a Rheinmetall gun incorporating elements from the S 2-200, the MG17 aircraft gun, and the MG34.
When the author first saw it, he was under the impression that it might be a lost prototype of the MG34, although a couple of details tells us that it might be of later manufacture. These include the flash hiderand booster assemblv, whichare identical to the same parts on the MG34 as we knowit today, including the locking catch for this assembly: although the MG34 originally had a different arrangement for securing the booster assembly to the barrel jacket.
Further examination reveals that the S 3-200 incorporated the basic mechanism features ofthe Parly Solothurn guns the MG30Sand the MG15:the sights, flash hider assembly and front contour of the barrel were directly copied from the MG34, and the feed mechanism was similar lo that of the MG17 aircraft gun. The belt must be placed with the open end of the links up on the sprocket in order for the machinegun to work properly, but it is not known for sure today whether the belt used was the standard
MG34 belt.
No reference is made to this gun in anv publish ed works that the author has been able to locate, except for the brochure mentioned above, found in the old Rheinmetall files at the WTS in Koblenz which states that the S 3-200 was a machinegun developed by Rheinmetall on their own initiative between 1933 and the outbreak of World War II. It is quite possible that this machinegun was intended for commercial sale abroad, since the MG34 could not be exported as it was classified as secret and reserved for German Army use. This would explain its extreme rarity today, as the war closed down any possibilities of the companies making foreign sales
on their own.
