The Bren Gun

The good thing about the L4 was you didn't need an asbestos glove to change the barrel

 

Tom, I have just got hold of a copy of the "The Bren
Light Machine Gun" by Gale & Polden Ltd Aldershot.
In section 2 it says after firing ten magazines at the
RAPID rate the barrel should be changed. This operation
takes a trained man 6 to 8 seconds. Thereare other
interesting points within this book. Section 3 reads
that the 30 round magazine can be filled by hand in
40 seconds...well I have just had a go at this with
30 inert rounds and could only manage a best time
of 1 min 5 secs . They issued a magazine filler
that could load a 30 round magazine in 20 seconds.

I found this short story at link below of the problems
using the Bren in hot climates

short story - The Bren Gun | Toowrite


Since I had been shewn by my Father how to stalk and shoot and indeed supplement our pantry or larder with fresh meat, to wit, wild rabbits, hares, pheasant etc, I did not learn a lot more about guns until later when the Bren gun, which could also used as a machine gun, by flipping a small lever was introduced. However since the Middle east is warmer than Britain the four holes in the gas regulator had to be reset when it was found that the gun now in the Middle East would not repeat with the gas regulator set at the No 2 port since the sun beating down could fry eggs on the mudguard of our trucks and had warmed the Bren gun and on firing a couple of rounds it suddenly appeared not to have enough gas to punch the piston back to reload itself due to being now too hot, so the cocking handle had to be used to reload the gun.
I found that by turning the gas regulator to, “Position three” made the gun work as an automatic weapon as designed, but the kickback or recoil was more violent, and on perusing a now used target one got the impression that a twelve gauge shot gun had indeed been used to make the holes in it all over the place instead of a neat group around the bull’s eye. Since the Bren gun had a bipod support under the barrel it was very accurate on single shots and indeed in the U.K. where the sun was not as hot as the Middle East the Bren gun was pretty good as an automatic weapon and could chew out the bull’s eye from a target. I am writing this because in all the War yarns I have read so far there is no mention of this Bren Gun heat problem. During W.W.1. I think it is common knowledge to most how the water cooled Vickers machine guns were cooled when there were no water pumps or taps handy.
Tom Barker. Ex 1st Bn A & S Highlanders W.W.2.

 

My dad was a Bren gunner in the 6th Division AIF - 19th brigade - 2/8th Battalion. I asked him once about the Bren.

He said you could virtually shoot the same bloke three times or three of his mates in quick succession - very very accurate.

I had never thought more about this until the day we buried him in 1982. Members of his battalion attended and said that if not for dad, they would be dead. They were caught in the open by an Italian machine gun post (Taking Tobruk 21st January 1941) and dad put it out of commission. A few hours later dad was put out of the war by a mortar.

He had never mentioned this to mum and never held a weapon again.

 

Searched this out for accuracy of the Bren!

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/barracks/6745-pictures-board-bored.html

Post 33.

 

and it had a high rate of fire
Compared to what? The Bren actually had a competitively slow rate of fire (CRoF c. 540 rpm) compounded by the need to change magazines.

Having fired, in my time, .303 MkIV, 7.62 L4Axs and GPMG, I can confirm that from experience, out of all of them my favorite was the L4A4.

 

Slow in comparison to the enemy weapons They could cut you in half....It did happen ! But very accurate. carried it across Normandy Belgium and Holland. My short bursts were a pattern of five dead.....Dead accurate.
Never thiought about the weight then...... Some one brought in a deactivated army rifle....... I could not lift it now.
Stone me am I getting old?
Sapper

 

Hello chaps,

Is the soldier in the picture below standing behind a brengun with a drum magazine or am I barking up the wrong tree?

TIA!

 

Nope, there was a drum magazine issued for the Bren, for AA work...and I see it's on an AA tripod mount in that pic ...but I don't know how common it was.

 

It was also used on tanks, as AA/commander's MG. It was even shipped to Russia this way.
Arthur

 

Here is another eg.



Source : Bren Gun trivia which might be of interest: in Wars in History Channel

 

There's a huuuuge thread on here somewhere about it with lots of pics

Where was the pic taken?

Cheers
Andy

 

This was the initial post on the subject


http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/weapons-technology-equipment/5880-bren-gun.html

Regards
Tom

 

Thanks chaps, so it is a bren. Picture was taken in the Liberty park (former War Museum, PC you know...) Overloon, Netherlands by the way.

Regards,

Marco

 

For me the Bren is a good weapon. I still prefer the belt fed MG 42 since it works better with the battledrills I am used to.

 

Hello guys, I am new to this forum. I have heard the Bren had a reputation of oftenly jamming, is that true? I also thought the Bren's firing speed were too slow for a support weapon. If I mention anything wrong, please do tell me(via pm or any means)

 

See post #56.