guys i need some help here... do the MG 17 bow and co-axial machine guns for close support in the Tiger 1 Early get fed by belts of 7.92 or those little drums? or those bags they hang on the sides? would i be 'accurate' if i had a 50 rd belt sticking out the side of the radio op's machinegun? thanks

According to my references it was the pouch or drum for the ammo storage. But, I give you this ti think on most crews also carried a MG34 to aid in close support of the tanks itself for infantry and Aircraft. HTH STUG

So they would have grabbed the belts straight from the bag and slapped em in?
thanks

From what I've seen, the bags are mounted on the sides of the machine guns in a fasion similar to the boxes of ammo used by allied vehicles. The main difference is that the bags are fitted to hangers instead of sitting on something. If you look at the commander's ring mount for the turret machine gun, you can see the two parallel bars on the left side used for hanging the machine gun ammo bags. The bags have a hinged metal top plate that opens to allow the ammo to feed into the machine gun.