Vickers Machine gun ammunition belt, cloth with brass feeder tab. Tape stamped "TF&S Ltd. 250 M/C (fleur de lys) PATENT .303 1950 IV" Post war production Vickers Belt " Belt, Stripless, .303 Vickers" made by TF&S (Thomas French and Sons - England), a major maker of MG belts and cartridge clips (Chargers) before, during and after WW II. Original Item: 250-Round WW2-dated Mark IV web ammunition belt for the Vickers water-cooled machine gun. The starter tab is marked with the manufacturer’s initials, the date, the capacity (250 cartridges), and .303” IV. All of IMA’s Mk IV belts were made by Thomas French & Sons, Ltd, and many show the T.F. & S. logo, a fleur-de-lis. The Thomas French company designed the web belts for the Vickers, and manufactured many of them. WW2 dated. See Dolf Goldsmith, The Grand Old Lady of No Man’s Land, pages 478 – 481. In used, very good condition. Scarce. The other version was the "Stripless" belt which refers to the fact that the completely woven belt was without the brass (or steel) strips used in the earlier (and original) Maxim and Vickers belts made of pre-shrunk cotton ribbon.. Whilst the brass stripped belts were meant to be repeatedly reloaded in the Field, the Stripless belts were meant to be Factory Loaded, and Expendable in the Field. There is a Photo of Canadian Vickers MG group, with their gun surrounded by expended Stripless belts and Plywood ammo liners (tin inside, 1 250 rnd belt), somewhere in Northern Germany in April 1945...there is more protection from the belts and cans than from the sandbags... Commonly found on surplus .303 ammo ( especially the Ex Greek .303 of British origin.) It replaced the brass stripped Cotton belts after WW II, and was used up to the end of .303 and Vickers use in the 1980s. Despite it being "stripless", it will also work in Maxims of all calibres. ( 7,9mm amd 7,62 Rimmed.).