Rare WW2 ZB37 Tripod with Anti Aircraft Attachment

This is a rare 1939 dated Czech ZB37 machine gun tripod with integral anti aircraft leg. This tripod has definitely seen active service with several significant impacts to the frame and leg tubes and one locking nut. This type of damage can only have been caused by shrapnal and/or bullet strikes. The traverving bar has the Czech military inspectors and acceptance stamps "E3 the prancing lion and 39 (1939) the year of acceptance. This tripod would have been captured by German forces after the successful invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Czech weaponry was considered to be among the best in the world however, as none standard captured weaponry the German hierarchy deemed it not suitable for issue with frontline forces who were equiped with MG34's and MG13's. Initially they gave them to the SS and second line units. This soon changed as German forces became over stretched and German arms factories targeted by Allied bombing. The tripod has the makers name C.S. Zbrojovka and a serial number 4643 and was clearly made for the Czech military. The factory was captured by the Germans and renamed Waffenwerke Brunn and produced weapons for the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS.