The Besa Machine Gun

The BSA Factory in Redditch made the Besa Machine Gun. Under the Tool Room were ranges where firing could be carried out day and night in all weather.
The Besa was made exclusively for the Armoured Corps as it used a German calibre round in the anticipation that they could replenish stocks from the enemy. Did this ever happen.

 

Did this ever happen ? Might have done, possibly an account to be found in this file at Kew:

"Investigation into the causes of stretch in 7.92mm case when fired in Besa machine gun

Reference:
DEFE 15/1711
Description:
Investigation into the causes of stretch in 7.92mm case when fired in Besa machine gun
Date:
1946
Held by:
The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department:
EXPLOSIVES REPORT 222/46
Legal status:
Public Record(s)
Closure status:
Open Document, Open Description"

 

I have seen photos of German troops using the Czech version in either Crete or Greece so they were also using the weapon.
When I first heard about it I thought they were making the Bren but later found a BSA website with photos of the Besa gun.
I will take a look to see if I can find it.

 

I had the pleasure of visiting IMI Kynoch in Birmingham about forty years ago. Their display of the munitions that they made over the years was mind boggling.

 

The ZB53m37/Besa had several design features which made it an ideal AFV weapon - notably that gas operation, rather than recoil, vents less gas into the vehicle. When adopted it was realised that it did not lend itself to conversion to a rimmed round (Britain was sympathetic as the techies knew a rimless round was more flexible - we were due to adopt a rimless round around 1914 however that didn't happen, then, millions of war surplus .303in rimmed..). There were a number of factories with tooling and experience of making commercial 7.92mm x 57 Mauser rounds including Kynoch so there was never a problem.

I don't know where the 'replenish stocks from the Enemy' came from. It is quoted in a number of secondary sources. Sounds like a bullish 'inspirational' quote to me. WHB Smith says in a more conservative way (7th ed) "Captured ammunition could be used". I'll look out some wartime stuff when I have a moment...

 

The Besa is a rather funny case. It was a first line weapon used throughout the war, yet you hear much less about it than other types. I believe it had a reputation as an accurate weapon.

This may not be generally known, but the Besa could fit or be made to fit on the standard Vickers tripod. I've seen two photographs of it so mounted for training purposes and I presume this could be done in action. British tanks generally carried a Bren for local dismounted defense as well as AA work, but I think if I'd been a tank commander I would have also stowed a tripod to mount the Besa in the ground role as well. I have also read of infantry (9th Australian Div) stripping Besas from derelict tanks and employing them as ground guns. The British Army had no ground MG intermediate in weight and firepower between the Bren and the Vickers, but at over 50 lbs the Besa unfortunately was not a possible solution to this problem.

 

It never ceases to amaze me how folk on this site place so much emphasis on words. 'replenish stocks from the Enemy' probably emanated from my head as I tend to use my own descriptions rather than quotes from others. The concept came from a website that portrayed the history of the BSA which I can no longer locate.
There was a similar attribute to the use of 9mm in the Sten I believe. Perhaps to make it more attractive for Commando Raids or Resistance forces where replenishment could prove difficult.
They were Dark Times in days of War. The Brits appreciated manufacture and logistical supply difficulties so sought to overcome them just in case. Such phrases often accompanied weapon training talks. The ability to take ammo of the enemy appealed to a class of recruits. It certainly stuck in my mind.

 

I'd be hard pressed to back this up with specifics right now, but I have a thread going about captured and non-standard weaponry and it was pretty common for both sides to press captured stuff into use. The British had large stocks of ex-Italian and ex-German ammo on hand from North Africa and they offered much of this to SOE and European resistance movements. This made sense, as resisters were likely to have some Axis weapons anyway. British troops sometimes used weapons like the MP40, Luger, Walther, MG 34, etc., and naturally used the enemy ammo they captured with the guns. Of course, there is 7.92mm and 7.92mm you know, and not all loadings in the same caliber are made equal. Different countries load their ammo to different specifications, and stuff set up for a machine gun might not be ideal for use in a rifle. I have read of a French unit in the Indochina war which got some excellent MP40s, but the only 9mm ammo they had for them was British stuff which did not function at all well in the German weapon. If I was a tank commander who got hold of a German 7.92mm cache, I'd want to test fire some of the stuff first to be sure that it was OK in the Besa.

 

Thread is now making me think of Project Eldest Son

Project Eldest Son - Wikipedia

 

Going a bit off piste here but talking of using captured weapons and ammunition. Tunisia Lt Noel Beadle C Troop 266 Bty 67th Field Regt Djeida May 1943 written 30th June 1943. (attached)

 

The Germans in both World Wars were major users of captured weapons. In WW1 they set up production lines to convert captured Russian and Belgian Maxims and Vickers machine guns to take German ammo as well as producing field conversion kits for Lewis Guns. In WW2 they changed tack and had some production of Allied ammo

 

Can anyone interpret the above regarding Besa stoppages for someone who knows next to nothing about guns 'n' ammo? What is an IA? I'm guessing they got some seriously faulty ammunition, or was there a problem with the reliability of the Besa?

This was regarding an action by a detachment of 8 Valentines from 'C' Squadron, 146 Tank Regiment, at the FDL Chaung near Donbaik, Arakan Province, on 1st Feb 1943. The whole operation was a disaster, but one thing that stands out is that four Besas jammed solidly - half the guns, and that's with three tanks lost almost immediately and having little chance to fire. Others had clearable stoppages.

Full description from the CO is attached below, but he reports that in the initial attack:

• Sgt Pratt... Besa jammed, breech block failing to eject round... when trying to extract cannular ring came away on extractor leaving round in breech
• Self... Besa jammed hard.

The Squadron pulled back to regroup, three tanks lost and two damaged. The jammed Besas were removed and replaced with serviceable guns stripped from the damaged tanks. Three tanks then went back into action and the fresh guns jammed too:

• Own Besa jammed hard, could not get breech block back. It failed to fire and jammed with round in.
• Sgt. Pratt's Besa jammed, his tank hit with H.E. mudguard smashed down on tracks.

Full report on the action from war diary appendix:

 

Ist IA
Immediate action.
The first drill to be carried out when gun stops firing .
Soldiers were constantly drilled in training on carrying out the IA's of all weapons to get them back in to action in the shortest time possible..
They could be carried out in seconds ,seconds that could save lives in a fire fight.

 

A quick scan around the ever-trustworthy net using 'stoppage' and 'jam' as keywords does not suggest that the Besa had a reputation for breaking down like that. Four out of eight...wow.

"Spaces in the belt." Could this indicate a bad batch of ammo?

 

Bit of a diversion from the Besa but I experienced using another nation’s ammunition in a British Army weapon in the early 1980s when we were provided with Indian 9mm ammo, presumably because it was cheaper or someone had forgotten to put it on the Army’s shopping list. It was awful and caused endless stoppages in the SMG. Fortunately 3 Shock Army did not take advantage of the situation! I would imagine that in wartime you would only use another nation’s ammo as a last resort.

 

I was flabbergasted by the term Cannular Ring so checked on line. Now I know what they meant, the bullet came off the cartridge and stuck in the barrel when the extractor pulled the cartridge out.
In laymans terms it stuck in the start of the barrell (Breech). On a Bren you would change barrel (2nd IA) It seems they didn't carry spare barrels as they weren't so easy to change.
I think this is what they meant:
Cannelure - Wikipedia
Looks like they has a problem with the Ammo not the guns.

 

A dismounted Besa can be seen very briefly at 1:02 on this clip of 6th Airborne soldiers engaging a target in Germany, April 45: SOLDIERS OF 13TH BATTALION, 5TH PARATROOP BRIGADE, ADVANCE THROUGH OCCUPIED VILLAGES AROUND NEUSTADT, GERMANY (PART 2) [Allocated Title]. Interesting to surmise where the gun came from.

 

Moving from the flank: I became aware over the years that Ammo became less reliable as the war progressed, 1944 seems to have been one of the bad years. SA ammo became more liable to jam and artillery (particularly 25 pdr) had the occasional explosion due to the percussion shell becoming armed during transport or handling and being bonked on the breech of the gun when loaded.
This resulted in the death of numerous gun crews a few of which were in the 67th Field Regt.
In the 1960's the instructors in 267 FR who had been in WW2 67th were very sensitive to this.

 

A hard extraction happens when the round fires but the case remains jammed in breech and the extractor tears the base of the case off at the cannular ring leaving the remains of case jammed in the breech the bullet will have left the barrel..
I know the later GPMG had a hard extraction remover tool the Besa may have had the same