Unlike the MG 42, which was a specialist weapon. The entire squad was able to use the Bren Gun. In dire situations, and in doctrine the last man standing was on the Bren Gun, hence "he picked up a Bren Gun" .
@@syhaidar7489 attempting to use that weapon in anger is pretty deserving of commendation. I know of at least one VC winner who tried to halt a Tiger advance with a PIAT.
@@syhaidar7489 makes sense. VCs were quite often earned when things went very wrong. And depending on what is in front of you when things go really sideways, you probably need a Bren or PIAT to keep it from going wronger.
@@nolanolivier6791 i think it's because bren is the one we had the most at that time, because most of the armament indonesian army had at indepence struggles were mainly salvaged from either dutch, british, or japanese army. (Sorry for my bad english)
I rather enjoyed the anecdote of opening the thing up and "Oh. The spring broke. Interesting. Didn't notice when we were shooting it." If the thing still operates with a broken spring, and a broken lower receiver, it's just about as soldier-proof as it's possible to be.
Ask most soldiers what they want most from a gun and it's reliability. The Bren looks like it's built like a tank and very easy to service and maintain. I love the idea that there are no small parts to lose when you disassemble it.
I remember learning about the Australian solider and Victoria Cross recipient Bruce Kingsbury in school when I was about 10 years old. He died in combat on the Kokoda Track. His VC citation referenced the Bren gun, so I asked my teacher what a Bren gun was, but unfortunately she didn't know. I'm now a primary (elementary) school teacher, and thanks to Forgotten Weapons, I will know when my students ask me!
When I was in grade 5 my teacher gave me specifically a book on WW2 firearms just because I showed some extra interest in them. He was a swell old guy!
Another VC associated with the Bren - it reads like an over-the-top Hollywood script (shooting the bren whilst standing and then firing a mortar from the hip) but my cousin, Ken Trevor was CO in the battle and attested to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Arthur_Knowland
@@73North265 I just read the Wikipedia page that you linked, and feel truly humble as a result: what a man, and as a Brit (who is very proud to have been trained on both the Bren and the SMLE No4 Mk1 in my youth) I feel very strongly that this is exactly the type of history that should be taught in schools today (rather than hushed-up/ignored by the education "professionals" as "Offensive Colonialist/Racist/anti-LGBT+/Jingoistic Rhetoric", as I'm deeply ashamed/disgusted to report that it is...) to hopefully inspire some of the utterly pathetic current generation of Special Little Snowflakes that our Once-Great Nation is spewing-out these days before heroism like this is lost from our history and culture forever...
My father, now dead, reckoned he owed his life to a spring in the Bren gun. The story goes like this: He joined the Royal Norfolk Regiment on 14 January 1940 and during a lecture on the Bren gun he disputed the number of springs in the gun with the sergeant which lead to his being put on a charge for insubordination. In front of the Commanding Officer my father was asked about the number of springs in the gun. He pointed out the sergeant had forgotten the spring in the safety catch, the sergeant admitted my father was correct, the charge was wiped and the sergeant reprimanded for wasting the CO's time. A short while later he was given his first stripe and then selected for officer training. The other recruits in his squad were sent France where 97 of them were massacred in the barn at Duries Farm. If not for the spring in the Bren's safety-catch he'd have been there too.
Thank you for this post, it sent me down a rabbit hole of researching the Le Paradis massacre and various other Nazi war crimes, which - while not a particuraly pleasant subject - is important, and I'm glad I did it.
Shut up and take my time! ^-^ But seriously, a Cadillac of machine guns. Would have been better with a belt feed, but nobody really knew how bad a machine gun relying on box magazines would be. Lessons learned.
Believe it or not, a MK1 Bren was found stashed in a hedge close to Bushmills in County Antrim, Northern Ireland a couple of years ago. It was found with several mags and about 1000 rounds of .303 ammo. It had been well serviced and was in perfectly usable condition. Wish to God I'd found it, that's only about 20 miles from my place. Ever since that made the local news I've stared at hedges like a madman any time I'm out driving 🤣
Wow was that a last ditch stash from WW2 in case the Germans invaded? Need to go off combing the country side for forgotten WW2 stashes if this is the case.
I used the later 7.62mmNATO British Army version. It was extremely accurate even though you could sit it on its butt plate, hold it by the flash hider, shake it back and forth and feel and hear the barrel rattling loosely. Legend had it that this was deliberately designed in to enable the bullets to spread over a wider area. Judging from the groups you could achieve with controlled bursts...it didn’t work.
Dad always said that (the wartime ones) were too accurate for a machine gun. They taught him to demolish buildings with the Bren by shooting off the corners!
@@briantate7296 Trained and patrolled there in the early 1980's with 1RNZIR ,for 2 years.We also used the Bren in 7.62mm.1RNZIR served there from 1959 to 1989.
@@yesthecrumbs5806 ."...and thus did many a trial did the Bren undertake.....not one round not 2 rounds but 10000 rounds did the Bren endure!.....and god showed the British yes this is divine! the holy spirit then flowed into many British moustaches in a revelation of twitching!."
What many people don't realize is just how important the Czechoslovakian arms industry was prior to WW2. Once the Germans captured that industrial might, the stage was set for a prolonged fight.
@@muhammadnursyahmi9440 The real blow was the decision of our then-president Havel right after the revolution that overthrew the communist government, to greatly diminish our arms industry. I kid you not, in one of his speeches, he said let´s make love, not guns. Well, plenty of our steel industry was supplying our arms industry. The demand for steel greatly diminished, which made steel companies go bankrupt, which also led to a lot of coal mines closing, and so on, and on, and on. It was one of the major contributors to why the 90s were really bad in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both our small-arms and general military industry was top of the line, and a hippie messed it all up.
@@muratbalkan3430 Nobody financed him, he lead anti communist revolution. It was just stupid and naive call. He was an actor, not a statesman or economist, or some such.
@@PavelKahun Ok, but it is easier for manipulators to cooperate this kind of figures. İ still give a chance to the probability that he was the chosen one by the X. Anyway, actually i know little about your country except that i have luckily been to prag several days.
In the Army cadets at school in the 1970's I fired Lee Enfield .303's and Brens on many occasions. The rifle had a pretty hefty kick for a puny 15/16 year-old to manage - the Bren was like magic. Its gas powered re-cocking took all the energy from the recoil and meant that the gun actually hopped forward slightly on firing rather than trying its best to bust your shoulder. It was a joy to shoot, and, for a 'machine gun', it was amazingly accurate. I could regularly hit a target at 300 yards in single shot mode. Wish I had one today!
Yes, I think if you needed a 'weapon' to defend yourself/family, short of an 'Avenger Auto Cannon' you couldn't go very far wrong with the Bren Gun or a Lee Enfield .303" rifle. My Grandad was able to shoot out a light bulb/lamp in the Charing Cross Hotel from the 'South Bank' during the 'blackout' in WWII with an .303 rifle, that's no mean feat.
Move to the US, submit your identity papers to the ATF's Form 4, wait for approval. Spend $5-10k and now you can cuddle with your Bren every night. Or you can get collector/museums/dealers license and buy the really cool stuff- but you have to register every item. Crazy system but I've never heard of a $10k gun used in a heinous crime. It's almost😊 always stolen handguns/rifles and shotguns.
Every Brit knows that to fix a split Bren receiver, simply piss on your cardigan and bind it tightly around the weapon It doesn't help it keep firing, it never stopped firing- but the War stories it produces increase Britishness by orders of magnitude and make victory inevitable
My father was a Bren gunner in Burma in the last months of the war. He called the Bren 22lbs. of awkwardness. when asked why he said no matter how you carried it there was some part of it which stuck into you.
That's the fate of every mg soldier in the world. At least he has also the fun, the gunner 2 has to carry all the other heavy shit and can't even go BRRR.
I don't mean to contradict your father, but to be fair to the gun, anything and everything becomes an unspeakable awkwardness to lug around in the jungle. And if I *had* to lug a machine gun around a jungle, it'd probably be the Bren. American gunners who had to haul the M60 and fumble around with 100 round belts in Vietnam can attest.
Having had the "honour" of lugging a Bren (plus 6x30-round magazines of .303 and all my other kit) 25 miles across Salisbury Plain in a day more times than I'd care to remember I empathise deeply with your Father, and am extremely grateful that I didn't have to do that in the intense heat, humidity and mud of Burma while dreading the thought that enemy contact could erupt at any time, and I salute your Father for his Service with enormous gratitude...
Yo, Ian. Just watched the original posting of this video. Wow. How far has this channel come? Being enthusiastic without being political. +1. Focusing on engineering and tooling. +1. Historical context and relevance. +1. If your retirement has not been taken care of by UA-cam, boo. You are a National Treasure.
I had the chance to talk with a Canadian WWII veteran years ago, who as it happened operated a Bren during his service, he told me the magazines were some what awkward to carry around and while the gun's rate of fire wasn't the fastest it worked well with modest ammo count before a reload was needed. He really couldn't stress enough to me just how comforting it was to have a reliable weapon like the Bren, it does wonders for the morale on the front, things could be hell but at least your Bren wouldn't let you down.
That was fascinating. I'm not really into guns, but my father drove a Bren gun carrier in WWII, and one of my childhood memories of him (he died while I was still young) was hearing him rave about the merits of the Bren gun. I've associated the name with him ever since, so it was nice to learn more about it. Thanks.
I'm super keen to see a video on the 7.62 NATO L4A2 Bren. I've always been curious as to what changes were necessary to convert the Bren from the rimmed .303 case to 7.62. Also worth noting that the L4A2 Brens were made to accept 30 round L1A1 SLR magazines instead of the traditional curved Bren magazine.
@@mikael7084 Well, I suppose it’s partly “comments for the algorithm”, trying to drive up engagement to help the channel. On a more fundamental level of course, the drive to communicate is arguably what makes us human, and has give us the technology with which to enjoy Ian’s pedagogy. Whilst UA-cam comment section is hardly the exemplar of the Socratic method, and Plato believed oral communication more powerful than written language, I think there is always something to be learned from discourse with a fellow human. There is also the question of why you would use your undoubtedly valuable time in responding to what is, if I’m honest, a fairly inane comment of mine. No matter, I am sure we will cross paths again in more congenial circumstances.
@@dentonw6ir0qf15 absolutely! I believe the ease of conversion was possibly due to the work already put into export versions (which fired more modern rimless cartridges) and the original design being in 8mm Mauser. I’m really looking forward to the next few videos! (Edited to change “8nm to 8mm)
‘You can almost see moustaches twitching in excitement’ - I always enjoy your characterisations of the British military. Your piece on the Sten, when you describe the upper lip unstiffening urgency with which the Army realise they really do need an SMG, also had me laughing. Love your work.
As a left-hander, and veteran British soldier, I found it easy to shoot the Bren, (actually the later LMG 7.62 version) right-handed. It was so forgiving and extremely accurate I didn't find it a problem to shoot with my "wrong hand".
How did that work with the sights offset to the left of the weapon? Curious as a lefty myself as I would have guessed it to be extra awkward to use compared to using sights mounted directly on top of the barrel.
too accurate for suppression. And Type 99 can be modified to fire 7.62×51mm NATO ammunition with a barrel replacement (easy twist off) near identical to Bren.
I love these videos, the reason I started watching this awesome channel because I wanted to know about the weapons my Dad used in WW2. He was a mortar man in the British Army, 2/7 Queens Royal Regiment. He told me he was trained on all the guns of the time, the Bren gun, Enfield Mk 4 No 1, even a Boys Anti Tank rifle (which he hated.) He ended up with the Enfield. For a time in Italy during the Anzio landings he was equipped with a Thompson the 'Chicago Typewriter' varient. He said he like the Thompson a lot. Bren gun carriers rattled his teeth because they were fast and everything bounced around over the slightest bump. He ended up a POW after a terrible battle during the Anzio campaign where his unit was overrun by a German panzer brigade. Lost most of his unit in 2 days of fighting. He's been gone for 20 years. Proud of the man.
"This Czech gun did well, much to everyone's surprise" has been said so many times that people should stop be being surprised by now. The Czech people tend to hit nothing but home runs when they make guns.
Agree. Heck, I think they perfected the CZ75 when they made the P-09/07, which is a 75 design but with a polymer lower frame. My p-09 is a sweet shooting 21+1 handgun that weighs less than a 1911
My dad loved the Bren, he used it in the 50's during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya & Rhodesia....Saved his bacon more than once One story he told me, early on in his military career he was on the range with the Bren, fired 5 rounds into a target at 200 yards i believe. He was appalled when they gave him just two hits and three misses... He couldn't believe it so asked for a re-check... Sure enough, a closer examination showed 5 hits...but just two holes...three rounds went through the two holes....iron sights too!
Yeah. I had that happen when qualifying with the 1911A1. I was shooting expert so they just gave it to me. There was one round I knew I'd bucked - but I could see where it was. If the rest of my rounds weren't right - that might not have happened but I was shooting so well - they just assumed that I'd put a second one through a previous hole. If you're shooting multiple rounds from an accurate weapons at the same bulls eye - you are _trying_ to put them al in the same place - so it's not surprising that that happens. I think we marked every round for the rifles but we didn't have people pulling butts for the pistol range so we'd fire a set number of rounds - then walk over and take the targets down. I don't remember how many rounds we fired at a time ... maybe five? [shrug} .
Literally a couch commando. Yeah that was a great scene, from a great film. Edit: I’m not calling Tommy a couch commando. See the movie and you’ll understand.
I used this as a cadet, fantastic to shoot, very accurate and had more of a pull forward than a recoil which is surprising in .303. I also used it in the blank firing format, there was a "masher" on the end of the barrel that broke up the projectiles which were made of wood! Painted blue as I recall for identification.
This takes me back over 60 years to my school cadet "service". Thank you for the memories. I really liked the Bren but my great love was the Vickers MMG. On weekend manoeuvres I had to carry the tripod because I was a tall bugger. Damn it was heavy.
Love the Bren Gun. My Great grandfather was a Bren Gun operator on the Universal Carrier. He claimed to have shot down a BF 110 in North Africa with one.
Not beyond belief. The BF110 was no race horse, and the Bren had a specific drum magazine and feed for AA use. The tripod would swing up for AA use , and specfic twin mounts were available for AA use. .
@@51WCDodge Some of the British Army unit's produced locally made Quad mounted Brens for LAA. As you correctly state there was a 100 round drum magazine for them. My late Grandfather claims that the ones on his unit shot down a Me-110 with them in 1941.
Agree. From a moral stand point i dislike guns but fuck me the brilliance that goes into the engineering and indeed comes from it (like the micrometer) cannot be overstated.
Guns are tools and like all tools they serve to manipulate the world, guns just so happen to specialize in ranged destructive manipulation (and are by extension tools of threat). Hands are required operate guns, and if there's something to loathe it's the kind of hands that get ahold of a gun. You can't loathe the guns themselves unless you think there shouldn't be a tool that empowers someone to kill, but then you'd have to loathe many more things like cars because they can mow people down, hammers because they can bash people's heads in when wielded and even will/premeditation of the kind that allows to kill with or without weapon by deceit (and to loathe that there is the question of if people should kill one another for any end, even not strictly, but still kind of loosely personal ones such as for an administration). One that tries to loathe guns while thinking that people should kill one another for any end including personal and public safety must understand that weapons can also be used purposes that don't involve hurting people such as to hunt for sport or for food (hunting is a whole other can of worms) or for defense against deadly animals and that weapons meant for those uses are of course still going to kill a person if fired at them, war existed before the invention of firearms and that firearms are only used because they are the most efficient means to wage war, with swords and maces preceding the invention and adoption of firearms. Murdering a person can be as simple as bashing their noggin hard enough with a rock, It's true that pulling a trigger is easier on the body and probably also the mind, due to distance from target and the act of pulling a trigger being faster and probably feeling less personal that swinging an object toward someone with ill intent and the distance between attacker and target makes defense harder, but this swings both ways and someone with a firearm can defend themselves or someone in danger with far more ease compared to someone wielding a cold weapon. This of course comes back to the weapon being a tool and requiring hand and will to wield and the will being what ultimately decides if the weapon will cause harm against the harmless or cause harm against the aforementioned wielder to defend the defenseless. This whole tangent of course assumes that the person judging and potentially loathing isn't a notionist who bases their decisions on "barrel shroud/muzzle compensator/box magazine/forward grip/fully automatic/any other weapon characteristic is scary!!" of course I don't mean that there aren't weapons that shouldn't be used but causing unnecessary suffering along with causing harm necessary to act as a weapon is a whole other thing, without forgetting that a weapon can and often is very efficient while causing plenty suffering and even a knife can cause unnecessary suffering if you make some hundred shallow cuts on the victim and wait for their body to ever so slowly give in or, with a gun, shoot arms and legs of the victim, shoot holes in their ears, feet and hands and wait for them to bleed out. Of course these examples wouldn't be the slightest bit efficient at anything but pleasing a sadist or masochist, a better example of an efficient weapon causing copious suffering would be mustard gas killing everyone who inhales it through 3 days straight of hellish blistering illness certainly was, as seen is WW1. Watch UA-cam delete the comment I spent all this time writing, which I think likely.
You should be loathing the people that use guns in ways you dislike, not the guns themselves. Many people owe their lives to guns in more ways than one. Our family grew up as poor as you could be, but we survived off supplemental wild game my father was able to provide by hunting. You sound like every other elitist in our society today who has had it too damn easy.
What an excellent run through of the Bren Gun (otherwise known as the LMG) - the memories of handling and firing this weapon come rushing back after some 40 years !!
This is a real cool weapon to fire! I fired this several times in the early 1970's. It had a very close bullet spread when fired at a target. I remember the Army training to strip this weapon was in this order - Piston, Barrel, Butt, Body, Bipod. Procedure reversed for assembly. When firing laying on the ground using the Bipod, your left hand would clasp the Butt, just behind the Rear site, and you would pull the Butt into your shoulder and hold it while firing. We were told this keeps it more stable and it did! When fired the Bren had a tendency to "pull" forward because of the Bipod.
In the cadets at boarding school in England I learned to shoot the Bren in 1984. It weighed almost as much as me back then (or seemed to when I had to carry it around) but there was something amazing and magical about it. At 200 yards I nailed the target with three round bursts on full auto. I was only 15 at the time. It was flipping awesome. Ours didn’t have “the thing that goes up” 🤣 on the butt stock or the stabilizing handle. R Lee Ermey (RIP) did a bit on the Bren and liked it. Nuff said!
According to Ian, the Bren is "feature rich." What a perfect way to describe it. I love "feature rich" guns, especially when the features are actually useful and practical (like adjustable gas, adjustable carry handles, dust covers, and built-in modularity). I always wanted a Bren, but after this video, I REALLY want one.
Australian Army Cadet Corps, 1955-1958. Speaking of "adjustable gas". The gun stops firing - First Immediate Action: magazine out, replace it, charger handle, continue firing. Stops again. Second Immediate Action: crawl up along side the gun, use the nose of a cartridge to rotate the gas block to the next larger hole. Continue firing.
Nearly ten years later and Ian is still doing videos on the bren, and yet the quality of the content only improves and I still learned something new. This is why I watch your videos 👍
This is the only machine gun I've ever fired. Our school cadet force had three of them, along with a stack of Lee Enfield Mk 4 rifles. Very enjoyable on the range at Pakefield in Suffolk. :)
@@615SU We were camped out in leaky tents there over a weekend, and it was throwing it down. Didn't seem to bother us as teenagers ;) I see the range is slipping into the sea now, with coastal erosion.
The hook that goes over your shoulder and the handle you pull down on with your left hand was useful. They even added the same feature to the L86 light support weapon. The hook prevents you pulling the weapon too far down and keeps it perfectly sat in your shoulder when firing. especially when prone. You just have to maintain pressure with your left hand. Its remarkably stable. In the cadets in 1992 we had both a Bren (7.62 NATO) and a brand new L86 and I got to fire both.
I fired a heavy barrel R1, which was the South African version of the FN FAL. It also had a plate on the butt that folded out to rest on the top of your shoulder, and it really helped a lot to stabilise the weapon.
Hey Ian... a comment from Britain; your videos are SO good. You are very well-informed, really articulate, and an engaging speaker with no recourse to stupid slang or sensation. I'm by no means knowledgeable about firearms, but your presentations are a careful explanation that anyone intelligent and enquiring can understand. Tremendous work.
I used the last version of the BREN in the 80's, it was then called the LMG, but it was basically a BREN. It was a beautiful weapon. He stripped it wrong, much easier to remove butt assembly and bolt carrier first, then the barrel and bipod. God, we use to practice doing it blind folded again and again and again. You could literally field strip and reassemble it in seconds.
As a 13 year old army cadet (in Derry in the 1970s - bad times) I was trained to field strip a Bren in the dark. Apart from moral issues of training kids to use automatic weapons in an active war zone, it was a fascinating experience. The Bren was easy to use and very accurate on exercise.
Australian Army Cadet Corps, 1955-1958. Field strip, blind-folded. Sequence: piston, barrel, butt, body, bipod. Got to fire two magazines worth in camp, with a regular army instructor. "Hang on to it, it's going to try to walk forward on you." And it did. Surprised the heck out of me even after being warned. Carried one on a field exercise where our patrol was to be ambushed. I was issued 10 blanks. NO way! Cleaning a Bren barrel - a three man operation with a double ended pull through. I wasn't about to dirty that barrel. The rest of the story? I was behind a Cadet Under-Officer, patrol leader. When the patrol ahead of us was hit, we went flat. The ambushers would hit a patrol then walk back to a vehicle on a dirt track that paralleled our compass course through the bush, drive about 100 yards, then walk in for the next patrol. Quick conference, "Let's ambush the ambushers." We went too far ahead and missed being hit. "You will return to camp on the road. You will be ambushed. Do not leave the road." They did it right. A gully with a plank wood bridge, thick scrub. They waited till I, with the 'heavy fire power', was in the middle of the bridge before opening up. A very instructional exercise. (60+ years later I still correspond with that Cadet Under-Officer.)
Great weapon. Carried and used it as a .303 and a 7.62mm weapon. Very easy to clean. Used to grip the stock with the left hand and rest the cheek on your hand. Would jump slightly forward. Properly sandbagger you could put two rounds through the same hole.
As an early teen, in 1973, I was in the Australian Army Cadet Corpse at my high school. After training and under the supervision of Army NCOs at military firing ranges we fired Bren guns and did strip and assemble drills with them too. The strip/assemble drill used the mnemonic "You can piss on the barrel but not on the bloody bi-pod" which translated to piston, barrel, butt, body & bi-pod.
When people say, “had to be a bit different”, I always think of the french... I like to think British do things differently when there is a good reason to, but the French do it because they want t be a bit different.... perhaps we’re actually just more similar that I give credit.
Note to Ian, all Bren tripod catches are tight. The Tripod is a work of art in itself, also capable of AA deployment, extra bits stored inside the legs. .There was also a twin AAmount and a drum magazine feed for AA use.
When I was a kid, we used to strip and reassemble the Bren while blindfolded, as part of our school cadet training. They also had SMLE in .22 LR, to train us in marksmanship on the cheap and without to much recoil for 12 year olds.
I’ve never shot .303 British, but maybe it’s due to American tradition but at 12 I could handle 12 gauge high brass or .308 fine… but I can definitely see the cost thing. .22lr bricks are the same price as 20 .308 😂
In India, we used SMLE until 1960's and Bren LMG into 1990's. I heard that they trained college students with these 2 in the mid to late 60's in case of a war with PRC/Pakistan.
@@Zeunknown1234 hi Arush, one of my ambitions is to get a 7.62 Bren, I’d also love a Mk 1, as a curio, but the 7.62 as a gun to shoot. I think the 7.62 is still used in India, at least for Reserve Units. I did my time in the Army, by then the Bren had been phased out, but we had some in the Regimental Museum, I worked over the Christmas break one year, only about 40 men in the whole base. One of those remaining had a range officer certification. So we would go to the range daily, one day we took one of the 7.62 Berns, I loved it, at that time my only comparison was the Pig M60. We must have put about 20,000 rounds down range over that Christmas. I know that it improved my weapon handling and accuracy immensely. A few years later I went on my Corp promotion course and the 100 students on the course had a shooting competition, in which I outscored the nearest to me by 300%, so it did some good. I’d like to see how it would stack up tactically with a Negev 7.
A lot of these guns were made at Inglis in Toronto, a household appliance company whose factory was still working 30 ish years ago. The whole place is now gone and redeveloped as condos.
Watching this video, has brought back some memories, from the late 70's & early 80's. At the time I was in the British T.A. & I was a section mg gunner & this was my weapon. Albeit, it was the 7.62 version, with leaf sight. It was still an awkward mg to carry, as something was all ways sticking in your body. Very accurate then.
@@SoWhat1221 I saw where he did a comparison between the 1860 Henry and the Spencer and tried to say the Henry was a better battlefield weapon. He's allowed to have his wrong opinion of course, but it made me dubious about his tests.
@@jfcard0055 You dont think that the Henry is better than the Spencer? Ian and Karl did a whole series of video about it and certainly believe thats the case.
In about 1966, I was sent to near Nadzab (near Lae, New Guinea) as a School Cadet instructor. I was also tasked with uncrating a brand-new Bren. The wooden box was marked with 1942. This gun was a little harder to assemble than the well-worn guns I had used with school cadets in Charters Towers and Mt Isa (Queensland, Australia). My platoon was then tasked with setting an ambush against an "enemy" patrol consisting of SAS specialists. One of the boys in my platoon was carrying the Bren, and asked if he could try it on "Auto". I said "yes, but set the gas port on 4" (the biggest port - one would usually start with the smallest -1). In this ambush, this Bren fired at least 5 rounds in Auto before "running out of puff". The SAS fellows began screaming out (well this is the polite version) "Abort, abort, this was not supposed to be a live exercise."
I use to carry the LMG in the British Army in the 80’s. The LMG is a Bren, but converted to 7.62 NATO. We had to disassemble and reassemble blindfolded.
"The British were using cordite because they just had to be a little different" - We are not even remotely sorry. Also - Ian, mate, please, and I do believe that I am talking for the majority, take all the time you like. There is no such thing as a 'too long already' Video on this channel!
About 1960 or a year or so each way,: Hendon Air Show in North-West London. My Dad gave me a either sixpence or a shilling (just a few cents) and for that I fired ten rounds on a Bren set up in a prone position firing range. I can't really remember much of the experience but I was thrilled to bits. Incidentally, I believe the Air Show featured the first public showing of the English Electric P1, which became the Lightning. What I remember most was it flying along the length of the runway very fast at ground level. All great stufffor a ten or so year old!
I had to carry a Mark 1 around on an exercise with the ATC in England in about 1966, being fifteen and quite small at the time it was a bugger. I did get to fire a .303 Mark 1 down at Shoeburyness ranges the same year, it was wonderful to fire and easy to field strip.... Pete.
I was a Weapons Instructor back in the day and of all the weapons I ever fired the LMG was by far the all time best. Accurate as hell and a good LMG gun team was a grand thing to see in action. Far superior to anything in operation, even in the 1980s and it was a sad day when the LSW replaced it. I fired the RPK and various other foreign weapons and nothing came close to the reliability, fire power and ease of operation of the LMG in 7.62 Nato. In its support fire role, on tripod with proper sight it could be laid quickly and delivery a beaten zone of fire at long range. The immediate action drills were simple and had the gun back in action. In all its roles I doubt we will see a better Light machine gun anytime soon. I remember the Royal Marines hung onto their for a long time and had to be driven weeping to the Armoury to hand them in.
In the mid 70s I was in REME, one of the worst shots with the SMG and SLR. The LMG was good to me as it allowed me to shot with accuracy, to the surprise of the instructors and my mates. Every unit I was posted to I would end up as the LMG No1, thankfully.
My unit used the LMG upto at least 1989-90. Of all the weapons in our armoury, I always chose it. Lovely to fire, easy drills and cleaning, only ever had 1 stoppage on the range due to crap ammo. The mag slso fitted on the SLR ... illegally 😁 Weapons of choice in order: LMG Browning HP(9mm) Sterling SMG (swung like club rather than fired) Nothing FN SLR. Achieved Marksman on the first 3, couldn't hit a barn door with the last.
@@PhilipKerry only way I'd have got a grouping was by throwing the $#!%%&$ thing down the Range. 🤣 May have had something to do with the fact that about a month before I left, during an armourers inspection, most of the SLR barrels were found to be warped. It was also discovered that some of them were "first edition" weapons 😂 The Army didn't class us as high priority, or even secondary for that matter...
I am tickled pink to see this series. I think the Bren is grossly underrated and often misunderstood. I myself was pretty ho-hum about it until 15 or so years ago when I watched a demonstration of the Bren at the Hiram Maxim shoot by a couple of fellows that clearly knew what they were doing. Very impressive gun. Far more capable than most people realize.
Thank you for an excellent summary of the function and use of this superbly designed machine known affectionately as the Bren. In my younger days, I used this machine in shooting competitions between counties at Bisley in England, and over a thousand yards had to fire ten rounds every hundred yards at targets which were ten inches diameter, with a backpack filled with housebricks to slow me down, running on loose pebbles, adjusting the sights for range , and by the end of the competition, out of breath, it was one of many competitions which included Le Enfield .303, and 38 calibre pistols. Watching the disassembly of this fine gun was nostalgic, and fascinating. Brilliant eloquence in the script, and great to hear this short lecture from an informed and enthusiastic professional.
Isn't virtually all of Elbonia's small arms WWII surplus, or at least from that era? Anyway, everybody knows that Elbonia actually adopted the Johnson LMG re-chambered in 7.35×51mm Carcano.
Doing a 150,000 round endurance test on a gun with a 30 round magazine sounds like it would be incredibly fun for the first twenty minutes and then incredibly miserable for the rest of the dozens of hours.
SAF Lithgow built an entire "modern" factory building just to make the Bren in the 1930's. My practical experience with the species is concentrated on the L4 series. They stayed in Australian service for a long time, but were eventually wrenched from the hands of their users to be replaced by the "cantankerous" and somewhat more fragile (but much lighter) F-89 (Minimi) / M-249). Those of us in units still driving Brens into the early 1990's loved them. They were standard issue kit for the big wrecker trucks operated by the Recovery Mechanics. . All "recovery tasks" deploy a "security team" and do so in war (MG and friends) and peace ("traffic controllers"). The L4 was perfect as, in its transit case, it fitted neatly in the cab of the truck and if it had to be deployed on exercise, there were no ammo belts to drag in the mud. (If your exercise area in not a muddy swamp, then it is likely to be a wind-swept "dust-bowl"-not many training areas could be described as "sylvan glades". If a team has to run any distance with a Bren, the gunner grabs the wrist of the butt and the No.2 grabs the flash-hider and they carry it like a short stretcher. If for some reason the flash-hider is excessively warm, the No.2 can grasp the nice wooden handle on the barrel, but this can be a bit clumsy. There is also a perverse legend that the Bren was "too accurate". This is classic BS spread by people with absolutely no idea of MG deployment and capability. Accuracy is good, Precision is better. If, on "Repetition", it can shoot like an F-class rifle, then you know EXACTLY what it will do on "A". Randomly ventilating the scenery with "spray and pray" ain't where it's at!
This thing was actually still in service in Ireland until fairly recently, trained on it in the reserves in the late 2000's (ish) As hilariously outdated as it was, I have a lot of great memories of it, was a joy to fire, crazy accurate for a (light) machine gun.
@@ninaakari5181 it was big and heavy (lighter than its replacement the GPMG though), you got 12 mags in a steel box which the no 2 could carry or could be split between a couple of the section. But it was a great weapon, the slings we had helped a lot to spread the weight (sling over my shoulder, weapon on my magazine pouches across my body) I used them in 0.303" and in 7.62mm
@@paddyhickey1135 To be honest it would have been great it we'd had it in Afghanistan, lighter than GPMG and exceptionally accurate suppressive 7.62 fire out to 1000 metres would have been very useful, far more so than the Minimi...
There's a couple of pics of Brens in use by British reservists in the first Gulf War. My friend that served in the RN also used them up to the end of the eighties.
Brens were also useful for anti-sniper work. A British officer in the Border Regiment, named Cooper I think, was involved in a clash with the Japanese in Burma. His unit was taking sniper or sharpshooter fire. He saw a muzzle flash in a distant tree so he picked up a Bren, lined up the sights on the tree and fired off a whole magazine. His sergeant said he had got him and the Japanese was swinging at the end of the rope he had tied around his own waist.
Just in case anyone was wondering about the value of the licence fee: "If you want to compare the value of a £3 0s 0d Commodity in 1937 there are four choices. In 2019 the relative: real price of that commodity is £195.00 labour value of that commodity is £528.60 income value of that commodity is £889.10 economic share of that commodity is £1,257.00" 1£=1,41$=1,16€
The sheer amount of machine work that had to go into this thing is astounding. Even with CNC, I can't imagine how much it would cost to make one today.
im a former royal marines commando and used both the gpmg and the bren or as we called it the lmg, the geeps was great as it had a spread pattern of fire, the bren however was considerably more accurate which really was its demise as a light maching gun, i used the bren in norway ski ing as it was easier to use, i also carried the gpmg which was heavy and awkward when ski ing down a mountain. i did however prefer the lmg when patrolling in northern ireland. fyi the mod tried to make the bren a spread pattern weapon by using cartridges with different powder loads but it wasnt effective.
I've seen at least one video* touch on the differences between British and American inches, though googling the "Enfield Inch" gives me the impression that was another separate issue, but I'm not sure. *( ua-cam.com/video/gNRnrn5DE58/v-deo.html is the bit with the differences between Imperial and American inches, mostly as a result of the US basing their inch on the meter and getting a shiny new meter artefact from france and the British yard artefact being very old and changing shape ) (I also found a newsletter from a metrication uh, group? that talks about it metricationmatters.com/mm-newsletter-2011-03.html )
I think that in order to simplify the conversion from the BRNO metric drawings they made their Enfield inches 25mm and produced special guages and micrometers to read 'apparent' inches but were in actual fact 0.984" and each 'thou' was .000984". Micrometers would have been specially produced for the factories with thread pitches of 0.625mm and all other guages made to the same standard. As long as they were only used in the factory the machinists and fitters would have just accepted them. All graduated feedscrews and barrels on machine tools would have to be similarly modified.
@@pilgrimm23 I think that would be a pretty good description. It actually went further than that. Due to delays in the contract and set up at the factory, the brits decided to order from Brno a batch of brens for the Irish Army. ( Badley equiped and we had worries of the germans comming round the flank through Ireland.) However the guns delivered were to the last ZGB pattern and not full Brit pattern. So the irish got a hybrid weapon and due to the inch defect brit mags wont work and its not "very" interchangeable. A batch of them came out of ireland and i got one for my collection.
My Dad was in the Home guard during the war. He had a Bren gun mounted above the fireplace in the house on Kits Coty waiting for the German parachutists to turn up in the big fields and South Downs surrounding them there. The Homeguard used the big Chalkpit for target practice. The Germans bombed it several times. I used to pick up used rounds down there as a child. On the Coty there is a big crater in the woods where a shotdown Dornier bomber crashed. That generation was rock hard.
Fun fact. The British choice of .303 inch seems odd. Why the extra 3 thousanths? Why not go .30 like the yanks?. Reason is that .303 is Imperial speak for 7.7 mm. Yep the Enfield bores have been metric since the 1880s. When Brno had to change to .303, they were actually going from 8 mm to 7.7 mm. They stayed metric. The real challenge was switching from rimless to rimmed. Then the design had to be adjusted so that it could be manufactured on British machine tools.
In WW2 every British and Commonwealth infantryman was a trained Bren gunner. They each carried 3 full Bren mags, when they setup a defense, they would drop 2 mags to Bren gunner and keep 1 for themselves. The concept was that the last man standing would have a Bren gun with a full mag. Thus the posthumous VCs.
A trip down memory lane. I used the 7.62 LMG version in the 70s. Was taught how to strip it clean it and reassemble it, the piston and gas plug would get black when it was fired. It also had a tendency to edge forward, so I can see that rear handle being useful, but ours just had a simple stock nothing fancy like that.
@@denistardif6650 The whole point of a general purpose machinegun is that it can be used as a light machinegun: ditch the tripod, load an assault drum and you are good to go.
@@denistardif6650 _and this is usually done with the method of walking fire_ Walking fire was thing for a brief period during WWI and was quickly abandoned after that (for good reasons). _unlike the MG42 needing to be entrenched and stable_ You can shoot the 42 from the same position you would shoot almost any other light machine gun of the era. _you are not shooting a MG42 from the hip without being the biggest liability on your team lol_ See _Heeresdienstvorscrhift 130/2a_ it is the official field manual for the infantry, and contains the proper procedure as to how to correctly employ light machineguns like the 34 and 42 in the assault role, firing from the hip. It was still taught in the Bundeswehr until very recently. You can also fire it from the shoulder, as the following video demonstrates: youtu. be/nFuv5BQ8w5Y?si=8jyX3Ug8Y8cbLGNC&t=67 As for the rest, we are running in circles: by definition, a general purpose machinegun has to be able to be employed in the light machinegun role to be considered as such.
@@denistardif6650 _would love to see the sorry sucker who as to fire and carry the ammo gun alone is 25 pounds one belt is 22 pounds fired in less than a minute poor man who will be lugging all that ammo and gun lol_ Everyone did it? All the men in the German infantry squad were supposed to carry ammunition for the machinegun. And it was not a German thing, the Britis did it too, and so the Japanese, etc.
My father used to work on the oil rigs in the Libyan desert in the 70’s , he brought back in his hand luggage a battle damaged Bren gun barrel with Sand included , can only imagine what it and soldier went through.Interesting to see what the complete gun looks like 👍.
Excellent video! I love this machine gun. In Rio de Janeiro,police utilized the Madsen until 2019. Since you mentioned the weapon. I say this because,for me,weapons of the past were fantastically manufactured. Thank you.
I trained and used this in the Irish army reserves in the early nineties, I never saw any malfunction, but then its was designed by BRNO, I have a BRNO shotgun, that's never malfunctioned either
As far as I'm aware the last Brens were only taken off the FCA in the 2010s, i also heard that some of them were giving out because they wanted them back
I trained on the Bren as an army cadet back in the eighties and loved it. A few things I can recall, our instructor (CSM Vincent) had nick-names for some of the components. The Recoil spring extension rod was called "the Rat tail" and the bolt was called "The airplane" as it took off when it was moving back and forth on the bolt carrier.
I know this is probably a movie quote (not sure which movie) but it seems like unless a LMG in general is a bad tool for the job (like if you need a concealed carry gun,) there aren't many weapons more practical than that.
@@bob_the_bomb4508 This clip cuts the ending “I used to work in the factory where they made these things...” as 51WCDodge says Bob Monkhouse did work at Enfield. ua-cam.com/video/-QIO_G9gs0A/v-deo.html
Possibly the truly iconic gun of modern British history. The strip-down and demonstration of the action had me dropping my jaw and shaking my head whilst smiling - I even said "no..." a few times. "Elegant" is definitely the word. Beautiful work, Brno team!
At some point (not too long in the future please) a WWII version of "Project Lightening" collaboration with Forgotten Weapons and C&Rrsenal with the Bren, and the other light machine guns of the period. I realize that such an endeavor is a time consuming and expensive production, but would be greatly appreciated!.
My Dad who is 86 was trained to use the Bren gun when he did his National Service in the RAF. He said the instructors who had fought in WWII raved about it. According to them the best thing about it was its inaccuracy, because by the time the rounds had hit their mark they had spread out and sprayed the whole area, not just the target. As a consequence enemy soldiers were taken out left, right and centre; here, there and everywhere; up, down and all around; all over the bleedin' show.
My Grandfather used this in the Korean War. They held a famous hill and kept the north from advancing on high points. He told me one late night they came under small arms and mortar fire. He was firing the bren at enemies to the point of changing a barrel out. Several minutes passed, one barrel change and 6 mags later they ran out of ammunition... he then ran down the backside of the hill stopping in bushes as north Korean fighters were sneaking by. Trying to take positions on them. He runs from one concealment to the next then runs to another fallback point trench he could hear more of them coming so he grabs two large ammo boxes and proceeds back up the hill in the same fashion as mortar barrage started again falling all around his approximate vicinity. After dodging hell on earth he reaches the top to find his brother's in arms and allies holding it down like hero's with grease guns and other infantry rifles. He jumps into the gunners nest opens the 1st ammo box with haste rocks a mag in and that night for what felt like an eternity was a successful half hour to 40 minute engagement. The morning rolled around and after the sun was high enough to illuminate the valley the aftermath of the enemy was devastating. The 100s of enemies kia was a surreal sight. Some of the North Koreans fell victim to friendly mortar fire and sustained lethal wounds from the large caliber that was fired from the bren. It was years later that the hill was documented in films as one of the most brutal theatre engagements among my Grandfathers regiment (CAD PPCLI) since WWII.
May God forever Bless the Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry! I had the opportunity to see them in action with the Canadian Brigade (2 Battalion) when I was stationed in the then West Germany in the US Army. Some tough suckers the PPCLI!
Thank you for the walk down memory lane Ian. I fired the Bren in .303 (School Cadets) and 7.62mm (Australian Army Reserve) and I agree that it was a great machine gun!
My uncle was a paratrooper in the war, and was always the first out the door, with the Bren. He was expected to be first on the ground to provide covering fire for his mates. He declined several offers of commission, because it would have separated him from the Bren, and the action.
Don't think he mentioned that we used the .303 round to adjust the gas regulator and shove through the body locking pin ,handy to manually empty the mag as well
Thank you Ian for this detailed explanation of the origins and workings of the BREN gun. This weapon was used to great effect during WWII by our Australian Soldiers. I fired a Bren Gun during my school cadets days in the early 70s. We had only 20 rounds in the magazine. It was a terrifying experience to have this massive piece of metal firing .303 bullets on semi-auto and automatic. The smell of a hot gun with the cordite smoke was enough to make you not want to be on the receiving end of the fire.
A British army squad was supposed to have 2 Bren guns to a squad, 1 per section for the rest of the squad to operate around (Instead of the German's 1 mg42 per squad.) which I think was a better idea. They rarely had enough though according to many veterans of that war.
@@godlovesyou1995 Certainly, it was good but not better, it had issues with bolt bounce and it was very dangerous if the bolt bounced and the cartridge discharges
Thats correct Jay, I've used the .303, the piston operation tends the push the gun forward rather than back, you have to pull it back into your shoulder.
Excelent thorough coverage of the Bren MK 1. My favourite weapon during my military service were the MK 1 & 2. Accuracy was amazing & was one of the factors in it's demise when spraying a target area, (rather than putting automatic fire in too concentrated an area), became the new norm. Stripping & reassembly blindfolded quickly & succesfully, was part of the training programs. 👍
@@timbirch4999 You ask me TWO YEARS later??? DUDE, seriously? I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. But yes well we still had Brens as reserve weapons when I did my national service and compared to belt fed guns........THEY SUCK. Do you need me to elaborate?
The sheer amount of Victoria Cross citations that start with "he picked up a Bren gun" is stupendous, like a WW2 cheat code.
Unlike the MG 42, which was a specialist weapon. The entire squad was able to use the Bren Gun. In dire situations, and in doctrine the last man standing was on the Bren Gun, hence "he picked up a Bren Gun" .
Or "he picked up a PIAT"
@@syhaidar7489 attempting to use that weapon in anger is pretty deserving of commendation.
I know of at least one VC winner who tried to halt a Tiger advance with a PIAT.
@@syhaidar7489 Or in the case of Major Cain "he picked up the 2in mortar"
@@syhaidar7489 makes sense. VCs were quite often earned when things went very wrong. And depending on what is in front of you when things go really sideways, you probably need a Bren or PIAT to keep it from going wronger.
In Indonesia, "bren" is synonimous to machine gun itself, because it's availibility and popularity, especially our 60's war movies
Interesting, kind of like how in the US many people will call virtually any explosive launcher a "Bazooka"
That is fascinating! Is it strictly army jargon or is it actually an accepted loanword in Bahasa Indonesia?
@@nolanolivier6791 i think it's because bren is the one we had the most at that time, because most of the armament indonesian army had at indepence struggles were mainly salvaged from either dutch, british, or japanese army.
(Sorry for my bad english)
@@OMalleyTheMaggot Or Panzerfaust in germany. We often times call them bazooka aswell, cuz english is hip. 👌
Incluso en México Bazuca es sinónimo de lanzacohetes.
"This Czech gun did great at tests!"
it ticked all Czechboxes
Underrated comment 😂
..........Yep ,not bad ,not bad ...................
Sigh
You better bloody leave! 🤣
Ahhhhh... this hurts.
Nah, its good fam, just kidding :D
I rather enjoyed the anecdote of opening the thing up and "Oh. The spring broke. Interesting. Didn't notice when we were shooting it."
If the thing still operates with a broken spring, and a broken lower receiver, it's just about as soldier-proof as it's possible to be.
Ask most soldiers what they want most from a gun and it's reliability. The Bren looks like it's built like a tank and very easy to service and maintain. I love the idea that there are no small parts to lose when you disassemble it.
@@jrd33
That's coz people keep breaking their guns in the weirdest ways possible
@@kennydoggins1712 It was a good mentality for weapon design particularly in the age of mass conscription.
But is it fizzy drink proof? Can it match the Galil?
I had that happen to me on my CMP M1 at a rifle match. The spring fell apart when I went to clean it.
I remember learning about the Australian solider and Victoria Cross recipient Bruce Kingsbury in school when I was about 10 years old. He died in combat on the Kokoda Track. His VC citation referenced the Bren gun, so I asked my teacher what a Bren gun was, but unfortunately she didn't know. I'm now a primary (elementary) school teacher, and thanks to Forgotten Weapons, I will know when my students ask me!
That's cool
When I was in grade 5 my teacher gave me specifically a book on WW2 firearms just because I showed some extra interest in them. He was a swell old guy!
Another VC associated with the Bren - it reads like an over-the-top Hollywood script (shooting the bren whilst standing and then firing a mortar from the hip) but my cousin, Ken Trevor was CO in the battle and attested to it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Arthur_Knowland
@@73North265 awesome. massive respect to him
@@73North265 I just read the Wikipedia page that you linked, and feel truly humble as a result: what a man, and as a Brit (who is very proud to have been trained on both the Bren and the SMLE No4 Mk1 in my youth) I feel very strongly that this is exactly the type of history that should be taught in schools today (rather than hushed-up/ignored by the education "professionals" as "Offensive Colonialist/Racist/anti-LGBT+/Jingoistic Rhetoric", as I'm deeply ashamed/disgusted to report that it is...) to hopefully inspire some of the utterly pathetic current generation of Special Little Snowflakes that our Once-Great Nation is spewing-out these days before heroism like this is lost from our history and culture forever...
My father, now dead, reckoned he owed his life to a spring in the Bren gun.
The story goes like this: He joined the Royal Norfolk Regiment on 14 January 1940 and during a lecture on the Bren gun he disputed the number of springs in the gun with the sergeant which lead to his being put on a charge for insubordination.
In front of the Commanding Officer my father was asked about the number of springs in the gun. He pointed out the sergeant had forgotten the spring in the safety catch, the sergeant admitted my father was correct, the charge was wiped and the sergeant reprimanded for wasting the CO's time.
A short while later he was given his first stripe and then selected for officer training. The other recruits in his squad were sent France where 97 of them were massacred in the barn at Duries Farm. If not for the spring in the Bren's safety-catch he'd have been there too.
Clearly he was meant for something.
That’s a great story!
May allah bless the soul of your father and his dead comrades
Thank you for this post, it sent me down a rabbit hole of researching the Le Paradis massacre and various other Nazi war crimes, which - while not a particuraly pleasant subject - is important, and I'm glad I did it.
Bet he was yt
Ian- “ this video is getting a little long already”
Everyone else- “so what!”
What if we pledged one bottle of Lagavin per hour of video, Ian's choice?
@@haroldellis9721 “I’m easterriot and I support this message”
Shut up and take my time! ^-^
But seriously, a Cadillac of machine guns. Would have been better with a belt feed, but nobody really knew how bad a machine gun relying on box magazines would be. Lessons learned.
@@jeromethiel4323 bad ?
@@dave_h_8742 Nien!
Believe it or not, a MK1 Bren was found stashed in a hedge close to Bushmills in County Antrim, Northern Ireland a couple of years ago. It was found with several mags and about 1000 rounds of .303 ammo. It had been well serviced and was in perfectly usable condition. Wish to God I'd found it, that's only about 20 miles from my place. Ever since that made the local news I've stared at hedges like a madman any time I'm out driving 🤣
Wow was that a last ditch stash from WW2 in case the Germans invaded? Need to go off combing the country side for forgotten WW2 stashes if this is the case.
Geostashing before the term was invented, I wonder how many "Just in Case" weapons and supply caches are out there all forgotten about.
@@yugster78
Hahaha on the north coast of Northern Ireland and being relatively recently serviced?
No, that's not been put there for Germans.
Some kind of Ballymena-ist in chat here
@@yugster78 No that was an IRA or Ulster Defence stash mate ......
I used the later 7.62mmNATO British Army version. It was extremely accurate even though you could sit it on its butt plate, hold it by the flash hider, shake it back and forth and feel and hear the barrel rattling loosely.
Legend had it that this was deliberately designed in to enable the bullets to spread over a wider area. Judging from the groups you could achieve with controlled bursts...it didn’t work.
Dad always said that (the wartime ones) were too accurate for a machine gun. They taught him to demolish buildings with the Bren by shooting off the corners!
My Dad ,eight army, said they were too accurate at times and you had to wobble the to spread fire.
The same for me in Malaysia 67/68.
Having the magazine over the barrel makes it more balanced when firing, if you don't do this they will tend to climb up under recoil.
@@briantate7296 Trained and patrolled there in the early 1980's with 1RNZIR ,for 2 years.We also used the Bren in 7.62mm.1RNZIR served there from 1959 to 1989.
Legend has it... You can almost "see mustaches twitching from the trials reports."
Its now scripture because gun Jesus said so!
@@yugster78 When gun Jesus rose from the dead armed with a BREN gun, the man's facial hair twitched with fear.
@@yesthecrumbs5806 ."...and thus did many a trial did the Bren undertake.....not one round not 2 rounds but 10000 rounds did the Bren endure!.....and god showed the British yes this is divine! the holy spirit then flowed into many British moustaches in a revelation of twitching!."
@@yugster78 May all of man's mustaches twitch when the Holy BREN Gun privails
I can visualise General Melchett's 'stache twitching at the thought of a BREN ... well it would have had they had BREN guns in WW1.
What many people don't realize is just how important the Czechoslovakian arms industry was prior to WW2. Once the Germans captured that industrial might, the stage was set for a prolonged fight.
I think the Czech are still very important in small arms development today. However, they had been overshadowed by the giant arms industry of Germany
@@muhammadnursyahmi9440 The real blow was the decision of our then-president Havel right after the revolution that overthrew the communist government, to greatly diminish our arms industry. I kid you not, in one of his speeches, he said let´s make love, not guns. Well, plenty of our steel industry was supplying our arms industry. The demand for steel greatly diminished, which made steel companies go bankrupt, which also led to a lot of coal mines closing, and so on, and on, and on. It was one of the major contributors to why the 90s were really bad in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both our small-arms and general military industry was top of the line, and a hippie messed it all up.
@@PavelKahun You should track back who financed him. İt probably was not a random coincidence.
@@muratbalkan3430 Nobody financed him, he lead anti communist revolution. It was just stupid and naive call. He was an actor, not a statesman or economist, or some such.
@@PavelKahun Ok, but it is easier for manipulators to cooperate this kind of figures. İ still give a chance to the probability that he was the chosen one by the X.
Anyway, actually i know little about your country except that i have luckily been to prag several days.
In the Army cadets at school in the 1970's I fired Lee Enfield .303's and Brens on many occasions. The rifle had a pretty hefty kick for a puny 15/16 year-old to manage - the Bren was like magic. Its gas powered re-cocking took all the energy from the recoil and meant that the gun actually hopped forward slightly on firing rather than trying its best to bust your shoulder. It was a joy to shoot, and, for a 'machine gun', it was amazingly accurate. I could regularly hit a target at 300 yards in single shot mode. Wish I had one today!
Yes, I think if you needed a 'weapon' to defend yourself/family, short of an 'Avenger Auto Cannon' you couldn't go very far wrong with the Bren Gun or a Lee Enfield .303" rifle.
My Grandad was able to shoot out a light bulb/lamp in the Charing Cross Hotel from the 'South Bank' during the 'blackout' in WWII with an .303 rifle, that's no mean feat.
@@defender1006 grandad’s a badass 💪🏻
@@richthofen0005 Thank you, he was a brave man, but so kind too. In WWI he served in the 'Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery' .
Move to the US, submit your identity papers to the ATF's Form 4, wait for approval. Spend $5-10k and now you can cuddle with your Bren every night. Or you can get collector/museums/dealers license and buy the really cool stuff- but you have to register every item. Crazy system but I've never heard of a $10k gun used in a heinous crime. It's almost😊 always stolen handguns/rifles and shotguns.
Me too as the converted lmg. Kings own yorkshire light infantry army cadet force
"Huh, the recoil spring broke"
"Is that why you stopped shooting?"
"I never said that."
this is what we call foreshadowing
"Huh, the RECEIVER broke, and it is still firing?"
"Reinforce that spot and keep going soldier! Abuse testing will continue until failures increase."
@@TheOriginalFaxon *until even the failures start failing, then it :might: stop firing
Every Brit knows that to fix a split Bren receiver, simply piss on your cardigan and bind it tightly around the weapon
It doesn't help it keep firing, it never stopped firing- but the War stories it produces increase Britishness by orders of magnitude and make victory inevitable
My father was a Bren gunner in Burma in the last months of the war. He called the Bren 22lbs. of awkwardness. when asked why he said no matter how you carried it there was some part of it which stuck into you.
That's the fate of every mg soldier in the world. At least he has also the fun, the gunner 2 has to carry all the other heavy shit and can't even go BRRR.
I don't mean to contradict your father, but to be fair to the gun, anything and everything becomes an unspeakable awkwardness to lug around in the jungle. And if I *had* to lug a machine gun around a jungle, it'd probably be the Bren. American gunners who had to haul the M60 and fumble around with 100 round belts in Vietnam can attest.
Having had the "honour" of lugging a Bren (plus 6x30-round magazines of .303 and all my other kit) 25 miles across Salisbury Plain in a day more times than I'd care to remember I empathise deeply with your Father, and am extremely grateful that I didn't have to do that in the intense heat, humidity and mud of Burma while dreading the thought that enemy contact could erupt at any time, and I salute your Father for his Service with enormous gratitude...
Miytch
My uncles squad(rce) would take turns packing it. Too heavy to pack thru the cold mud of Holland and Germany every day .
"This weapon did have optics designed for it, but that's a little beyond the *scope* of this video"
Oh gun Jesus, that's cheeky
Yo, Ian. Just watched the original posting of this video. Wow. How far has this channel come? Being enthusiastic without being political. +1. Focusing on engineering and tooling. +1. Historical context and relevance. +1.
If your retirement has not been taken care of by UA-cam, boo. You are a National Treasure.
Agreed this channel does what it does and its the best at that
I had the chance to talk with a Canadian WWII veteran years ago, who as it happened operated a Bren during his service, he told me the magazines were some what awkward to carry around and while the gun's rate of fire wasn't the fastest it worked well with modest ammo count before a reload was needed. He really couldn't stress enough to me just how comforting it was to have a reliable weapon like the Bren, it does wonders for the morale on the front, things could be hell but at least your Bren wouldn't let you down.
That was fascinating.
I'm not really into guns, but my father drove a Bren gun carrier in WWII, and one of my childhood memories of him (he died while I was still young) was hearing him rave about the merits of the Bren gun.
I've associated the name with him ever since, so it was nice to learn more about it.
Thanks.
Me: Ooh, Bren gun *smashes like button*
Ian “welcome to the first in a series of videos on the Bren”
Me: hell yes!
why did you write your comment like this? if you like the content just say so, no need to write a blog about it
@@mikael7084 why are you such a downer
I'm super keen to see a video on the 7.62 NATO L4A2 Bren. I've always been curious as to what changes were necessary to convert the Bren from the rimmed .303 case to 7.62. Also worth noting that the L4A2 Brens were made to accept 30 round L1A1 SLR magazines instead of the traditional curved Bren magazine.
@@mikael7084 Well, I suppose it’s partly “comments for the algorithm”, trying to drive up engagement to help the channel.
On a more fundamental level of course, the drive to communicate is arguably what makes us human, and has give us the technology with which to enjoy Ian’s pedagogy.
Whilst UA-cam comment section is hardly the exemplar of the Socratic method, and Plato believed oral communication more powerful than written language, I think there is always something to be learned from discourse with a fellow human.
There is also the question of why you would use your undoubtedly valuable time in responding to what is, if I’m honest, a fairly inane comment of mine. No matter, I am sure we will cross paths again in more congenial circumstances.
@@dentonw6ir0qf15 absolutely! I believe the ease of conversion was possibly due to the work already put into export versions (which fired more modern rimless cartridges) and the original design being in 8mm Mauser. I’m really looking forward to the next few videos!
(Edited to change “8nm to 8mm)
‘You can almost see moustaches twitching in excitement’ - I always enjoy your characterisations of the British military. Your piece on the Sten, when you describe the upper lip unstiffening urgency with which the Army realise they really do need an SMG, also had me laughing. Love your work.
As a left-hander, and veteran British soldier, I found it easy to shoot the Bren, (actually the later LMG 7.62 version) right-handed. It was so forgiving and extremely accurate I didn't find it a problem to shoot with my "wrong hand".
How did that work with the sights offset to the left of the weapon? Curious as a lefty myself as I would have guessed it to be extra awkward to use compared to using sights mounted directly on top of the barrel.
ww2 veteran?
too accurate for suppression. And Type 99 can be modified to fire 7.62×51mm NATO ammunition with a barrel replacement (easy twist off) near identical to Bren.
@@markiobook8639 'too accurate for suppression' nonsense statement
@@tomdip2094 he fired it right handed !
I love these videos, the reason I started watching this awesome channel because I wanted to know about the weapons my Dad used in WW2. He was a mortar man in the British Army, 2/7 Queens Royal Regiment. He told me he was trained on all the guns of the time, the Bren gun, Enfield Mk 4 No 1, even a Boys Anti Tank rifle (which he hated.) He ended up with the Enfield. For a time in Italy during the Anzio landings he was equipped with a Thompson the 'Chicago Typewriter' varient. He said he like the Thompson a lot. Bren gun carriers rattled his teeth because they were fast and everything bounced around over the slightest bump. He ended up a POW after a terrible battle during the Anzio campaign where his unit was overrun by a German panzer brigade. Lost most of his unit in 2 days of fighting. He's been gone for 20 years. Proud of the man.
"This Czech gun did well, much to everyone's surprise" has been said so many times that people should stop be being surprised by now. The Czech people tend to hit nothing but home runs when they make guns.
Remember Skoda and Semtex too.............Bless..................
Try the CZ-100 and come back to talk about nothing but homeruns. :D But yeah, our engineers were and still are among the best.
Agree. Heck, I think they perfected the CZ75 when they made the P-09/07, which is a 75 design but with a polymer lower frame. My p-09 is a sweet shooting 21+1 handgun that weighs less than a 1911
@@calebnation6155 The CZ 125 got me to work every day.
and pretty much anything else.
My dad loved the Bren, he used it in the 50's during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya & Rhodesia....Saved his bacon more than once
One story he told me, early on in his military career he was on the range with the Bren, fired 5 rounds into a target at 200 yards i believe.
He was appalled when they gave him just two hits and three misses...
He couldn't believe it so asked for a re-check...
Sure enough, a closer examination showed 5 hits...but just two holes...three rounds went through the two holes....iron sights too!
Yeah. I had that happen when qualifying with the 1911A1. I was shooting expert so they just gave it to me. There was one round I knew I'd bucked - but I could see where it was. If the rest of my rounds weren't right - that might not have happened but I was shooting so well - they just assumed that I'd put a second one through a previous hole.
If you're shooting multiple rounds from an accurate weapons at the same bulls eye - you are _trying_ to put them al in the same place - so it's not surprising that that happens.
I think we marked every round for the rifles but we didn't have people pulling butts for the pistol range so we'd fire a set number of rounds - then walk over and take the targets down. I don't remember how many rounds we fired at a time ... maybe five? [shrug}
.
Ian: “They try to test the Darne, but they aren’t able to get one in time.”
Me: “Darn.”
Old guns just have that Darnest names don’t they?
Knew someone would get there first...
...darn!
😂😂
...Dad?
Those darned doofuses at darne didn't deliver the discussed machinegun.
There is a great scene in the movie Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels with a Bren gun, I think you would like it
Literally a couch commando. Yeah that was a great scene, from a great film.
Edit: I’m not calling Tommy a couch commando. See the movie and you’ll understand.
It gets fired on-screen twice (the third time it gets used we only hear it and see the aftermath :P) and both scenes are hilarious.
*Raiding a small house
"What the fuck's that?"
"It's me BREN gun!"
"Couldn't you have brought something a little bit more practical?!"
@@Hysteria98 the enthusiastic and proud way he says “It’s me BREN gun” gets me every time!
@@killdizzle "Yeah, well I wanna raise some pulses, don't I?!"
"What the f*ck was that?"
"Well that was the Bren Gun!"
😄
mans fucking disrespecting the bren gun
@@sam8742 it's a quote from lockstock and two smoking barrels
@@Number12lookslikejoe
ah
"Don't you think you could've brought something a little bit more practical?"
Will everyone stop getting shot?
I used this as a cadet, fantastic to shoot, very accurate and had more of a pull forward than a recoil which is surprising in .303. I also used it in the blank firing format, there was a "masher" on the end of the barrel that broke up the projectiles which were made of wood! Painted blue as I recall for identification.
Yes.
Yeah same
First machine gun I fired. 200 yard run down at Pirbright. Sad moment when you empty the magazine.
Yep fired this in the ACF in the 80's - brilliant stuff
If held correctly, the Bren would scarcely move or maybe walk forward slightly.
Me: Sir, my BREN's broken
Colour Sergeant: No it isn't
Colour Sergeant: Change magazine and keep shootin no matter what...!
This takes me back over 60 years to my school cadet "service". Thank you for the memories. I really liked the Bren but my great love was the Vickers MMG. On weekend manoeuvres I had to carry the tripod because I was a tall bugger. Damn it was heavy.
Love the Bren Gun. My Great grandfather was a Bren Gun operator on the Universal Carrier. He claimed to have shot down a BF 110 in North Africa with one.
Not beyond belief. The BF110 was no race horse, and the Bren had a specific drum magazine and feed for AA use. The tripod would swing up for AA use , and specfic twin mounts were available for AA use. .
@@51WCDodge Some of the British Army unit's produced locally made Quad mounted Brens for LAA. As you correctly state there was a 100 round drum magazine for them. My late Grandfather claims that the ones on his unit shot down a Me-110 with them in 1941.
@@richardvernon317 One up to him then :-) He must have a good man to know.
Love or loathe guns, you can't help but lovingly appreciate the engineering that goes into producing them.
Agree. From a moral stand point i dislike guns but fuck me the brilliance that goes into the engineering and indeed comes from it (like the micrometer) cannot be overstated.
Guns are tools and like all tools they serve to manipulate the world, guns just so happen to specialize in ranged destructive manipulation (and are by extension tools of threat). Hands are required operate guns, and if there's something to loathe it's the kind of hands that get ahold of a gun. You can't loathe the guns themselves unless you think there shouldn't be a tool that empowers someone to kill, but then you'd have to loathe many more things like cars because they can mow people down, hammers because they can bash people's heads in when wielded and even will/premeditation of the kind that allows to kill with or without weapon by deceit (and to loathe that there is the question of if people should kill one another for any end, even not strictly, but still kind of loosely personal ones such as for an administration). One that tries to loathe guns while thinking that people should kill one another for any end including personal and public safety must understand that weapons can also be used purposes that don't involve hurting people such as to hunt for sport or for food (hunting is a whole other can of worms) or for defense against deadly animals and that weapons meant for those uses are of course still going to kill a person if fired at them, war existed before the invention of firearms and that firearms are only used because they are the most efficient means to wage war, with swords and maces preceding the invention and adoption of firearms. Murdering a person can be as simple as bashing their noggin hard enough with a rock, It's true that pulling a trigger is easier on the body and probably also the mind, due to distance from target and the act of pulling a trigger being faster and probably feeling less personal that swinging an object toward someone with ill intent and the distance between attacker and target makes defense harder, but this swings both ways and someone with a firearm can defend themselves or someone in danger with far more ease compared to someone wielding a cold weapon. This of course comes back to the weapon being a tool and requiring hand and will to wield and the will being what ultimately decides if the weapon will cause harm against the harmless or cause harm against the aforementioned wielder to defend the defenseless. This whole tangent of course assumes that the person judging and potentially loathing isn't a notionist who bases their decisions on "barrel shroud/muzzle compensator/box magazine/forward grip/fully automatic/any other weapon characteristic is scary!!" of course I don't mean that there aren't weapons that shouldn't be used but causing unnecessary suffering along with causing harm necessary to act as a weapon is a whole other thing, without forgetting that a weapon can and often is very efficient while causing plenty suffering and even a knife can cause unnecessary suffering if you make some hundred shallow cuts on the victim and wait for their body to ever so slowly give in or, with a gun, shoot arms and legs of the victim, shoot holes in their ears, feet and hands and wait for them to bleed out. Of course these examples wouldn't be the slightest bit efficient at anything but pleasing a sadist or masochist, a better example of an efficient weapon causing copious suffering would be mustard gas killing everyone who inhales it through 3 days straight of hellish blistering illness certainly was, as seen is WW1.
Watch UA-cam delete the comment I spent all this time writing, which I think likely.
You should be loathing the people that use guns in ways you dislike, not the guns themselves. Many people owe their lives to guns in more ways than one. Our family grew up as poor as you could be, but we survived off supplemental wild game my father was able to provide by hunting. You sound like every other elitist in our society today who has had it too damn easy.
@@drcornelius8275 I kinda figured everybody in this comment section would be MAGA. Jesus Christ you're all the same.
@@adamnouiguer3430 Hammers weren't invented to murder people. That's why those comparisons don't work.
What an excellent run through of the Bren Gun (otherwise known as the LMG) - the memories of handling and firing this weapon come rushing back after some 40 years !!
This is a real cool weapon to fire! I fired this several times in the early 1970's. It had a very close bullet spread when fired at a target. I remember the Army training to strip this weapon was in this order - Piston, Barrel, Butt, Body, Bipod. Procedure reversed for assembly. When firing laying on the ground using the Bipod, your left hand would clasp the Butt, just behind the Rear site, and you would pull the Butt into your shoulder and hold it while firing. We were told this keeps it more stable and it did! When fired the Bren had a tendency to "pull" forward because of the Bipod.
In the cadets at boarding school in England I learned to shoot the Bren in 1984. It weighed almost as much as me back then (or seemed to when I had to carry it around) but there was something amazing and magical about it. At 200 yards I nailed the target with three round bursts on full auto. I was only 15 at the time. It was flipping awesome. Ours didn’t have “the thing that goes up” 🤣 on the butt stock or the stabilizing handle. R Lee Ermey (RIP) did a bit on the Bren and liked it. Nuff said!
According to Ian, the Bren is "feature rich." What a perfect way to describe it. I love "feature rich" guns, especially when the features are actually useful and practical (like adjustable gas, adjustable carry handles, dust covers, and built-in modularity). I always wanted a Bren, but after this video, I REALLY want one.
Australian Army Cadet Corps, 1955-1958. Speaking of "adjustable gas". The gun stops firing - First Immediate Action: magazine out, replace it, charger handle, continue firing. Stops again. Second Immediate Action: crawl up along side the gun, use the nose of a cartridge to rotate the gas block to the next larger hole. Continue firing.
You could do without the awkward top magazine tho
Nearly ten years later and Ian is still doing videos on the bren, and yet the quality of the content only improves and I still learned something new. This is why I watch your videos 👍
This is the only machine gun I've ever fired. Our school cadet force had three of them, along with a stack of Lee Enfield Mk 4 rifles. Very enjoyable on the range at Pakefield in Suffolk. :)
Visited Pakefield range for practice with 188 ATC squadron several times.
@@615SU We were camped out in leaky tents there over a weekend, and it was throwing it down. Didn't seem to bother us as teenagers ;) I see the range is slipping into the sea now, with coastal erosion.
Same here the recoil dragged you forward or it felt that way.
@@deanrichardson4712 You didn’t have advance on to the enemy, the Bren dragged you there! 😎
The hook that goes over your shoulder and the handle you pull down on with your left hand was useful.
They even added the same feature to the L86 light support weapon.
The hook prevents you pulling the weapon too far down and keeps it perfectly sat in your shoulder when firing.
especially when prone. You just have to maintain pressure with your left hand.
Its remarkably stable.
In the cadets in 1992 we had both a Bren (7.62 NATO) and a brand new L86 and I got to fire both.
I fired a heavy barrel R1, which was the South African version of the FN FAL. It also had a plate on the butt that folded out to rest on the top of your shoulder, and it really helped a lot to stabilise the weapon.
Me dad tells me that Bren training was the best part of his service in the early 50s.
Can't see me ever doubting him
Not much has changed, my training day on the fn minimi was one of the top days of my military time.
In training I consistently won the field strip and assembly comps. Whatever ... but firing the BREN many times was sure fun. 🇭🇲
Hey Ian... a comment from Britain; your videos are SO good. You are very well-informed, really articulate, and an engaging speaker with no recourse to stupid slang or sensation. I'm by no means knowledgeable about firearms, but your presentations are a careful explanation that anyone intelligent and enquiring can understand. Tremendous work.
I used the last version of the BREN in the 80's, it was then called the LMG, but it was basically a BREN. It was a beautiful weapon. He stripped it wrong, much easier to remove butt assembly and bolt carrier first, then the barrel and bipod. God, we use to practice doing it blind folded again and again and again. You could literally field strip and reassemble it in seconds.
As a 13 year old army cadet (in Derry in the 1970s - bad times) I was trained to field strip a Bren in the dark. Apart from moral issues of training kids to use automatic weapons in an active war zone, it was a fascinating experience. The Bren was easy to use and very accurate on exercise.
Australian Army Cadet Corps, 1955-1958. Field strip, blind-folded. Sequence: piston, barrel, butt, body, bipod. Got to fire two magazines worth in camp, with a regular army instructor. "Hang on to it, it's going to try to walk forward on you." And it did. Surprised the heck out of me even after being warned.
Carried one on a field exercise where our patrol was to be ambushed. I was issued 10 blanks. NO way! Cleaning a Bren barrel - a three man operation with a double ended pull through. I wasn't about to dirty that barrel. The rest of the story?
I was behind a Cadet Under-Officer, patrol leader. When the patrol ahead of us was hit, we went flat. The ambushers would hit a patrol then walk back to a vehicle on a dirt track that paralleled our compass course through the bush, drive about 100 yards, then walk in for the next patrol. Quick conference, "Let's ambush the ambushers." We went too far ahead and missed being hit.
"You will return to camp on the road. You will be ambushed. Do not leave the road." They did it right. A gully with a plank wood bridge, thick scrub. They waited till I, with the 'heavy fire power', was in the middle of the bridge before opening up. A very instructional exercise. (60+ years later I still correspond with that Cadet Under-Officer.)
Salesman: *Slaps top of Bren* This bad boy can fit so many features in it.
British army: Shut up and take my money!
Then systematically removes all those features.
@@yugster78 Options are optional.
Great weapon. Carried and used it as a .303 and a 7.62mm weapon. Very easy to clean. Used to grip the stock with the left hand and rest the cheek on your hand. Would jump slightly forward. Properly sandbagger you could put two rounds through the same hole.
Tacticool Bren
As an early teen, in 1973, I was in the Australian Army Cadet Corpse at my high school. After training and under the supervision of Army NCOs at military firing ranges we fired Bren guns and did strip and assemble drills with them too. The strip/assemble drill used the mnemonic "You can piss on the barrel but not on the bloody bi-pod" which translated to piston, barrel, butt, body & bi-pod.
"The British were using cordite because they just had to be a little different" yes that sounds about right.
"Oi bruv, a bit schewpid to use a powdah as propellant innit? We ought to use somfin diffrint ye?"
When people say, “had to be a bit different”, I always think of the french...
I like to think British do things differently when there is a good reason to, but the French do it because they want t be a bit different.... perhaps we’re actually just more similar that I give credit.
Mini Jutlands all around
@@BusbyBiscuits No, in no way are we similar to the French.
@@allenwilliams1306 Other than the fact the Normans conquered England
Note to Ian, all Bren tripod catches are tight. The Tripod is a work of art in itself, also capable of AA deployment, extra bits stored inside the legs. .There was also a twin AAmount and a drum magazine feed for AA use.
When I was a kid, we used to strip and reassemble the Bren while blindfolded, as part of our school cadet training. They also had SMLE in .22 LR, to train us in marksmanship on the cheap and without to much recoil for 12 year olds.
Best. School. Ever.
Same with the bren, but we had .303 Lee Enfield rifles for skill at arms and target shooting. Softy .22s for indoor winter shooting. 🤠
I’ve never shot .303 British, but maybe it’s due to American tradition but at 12 I could handle 12 gauge high brass or .308 fine… but I can definitely see the cost thing. .22lr bricks are the same price as 20 .308 😂
In India, we used SMLE until 1960's and Bren LMG into 1990's. I heard that they trained college students with these 2 in the mid to late 60's in case of a war with PRC/Pakistan.
@@Zeunknown1234 hi Arush, one of my ambitions is to get a 7.62 Bren, I’d also love a Mk 1, as a curio, but the 7.62 as a gun to shoot. I think the 7.62 is still used in India, at least for Reserve Units. I did my time in the Army, by then the Bren had been phased out, but we had some in the Regimental Museum, I worked over the Christmas break one year, only about 40 men in the whole base. One of those remaining had a range officer certification. So we would go to the range daily, one day we took one of the 7.62 Berns, I loved it, at that time my only comparison was the Pig M60. We must have put about 20,000 rounds down range over that Christmas. I know that it improved my weapon handling and accuracy immensely. A few years later I went on my Corp promotion course and the 100 students on the course had a shooting competition, in which I outscored the nearest to me by 300%, so it did some good. I’d like to see how it would stack up tactically with a Negev 7.
A lot of these guns were made at Inglis in Toronto, a household appliance company whose factory was still working 30 ish years ago. The whole place is now gone and redeveloped as condos.
What a shame😢
RIP
The Enfield Small Arms factory has also gone and is now houses and flats.
Watching this video, has brought back some memories, from the late 70's & early 80's. At the time I was in the British T.A. & I was a section mg gunner & this was my weapon. Albeit, it was the 7.62 version, with leaf sight. It was still an awkward mg to carry, as something was all ways sticking in your body. Very accurate then.
Can it be used as a rifle to snipe? TIA....................
Regularly fired this during my time in the Irish army reserves ( 2004 to 2009) . Absolutely loved it. My favourite weapon
Love the competition between the Bren and the BAR done by R Lee Emery. Bren won hands down.
Yep....he had gritted teeth when he accepted defeat...God Rest his Soul.!
Sadly I can take any "documentary" type work done by that man seriously, after the whole katana vs longsword nonsense.
It was killing him to admit the bren was better than his beloved BAR ! I miss the old Gunny what a great character ! RIP
@@SoWhat1221 I saw where he did a comparison between the 1860 Henry and the Spencer and tried to say the Henry was a better battlefield weapon. He's allowed to have his wrong opinion of course, but it made me dubious about his tests.
@@jfcard0055 You dont think that the Henry is better than the Spencer? Ian and Karl did a whole series of video about it and certainly believe thats the case.
In about 1966, I was sent to near Nadzab (near Lae, New Guinea) as a School Cadet instructor. I was also tasked with uncrating a brand-new Bren. The wooden box was marked with 1942. This gun was a little harder to assemble than the well-worn guns I had used with school cadets in Charters Towers and Mt Isa (Queensland, Australia). My platoon was then tasked with setting an ambush against an "enemy" patrol consisting of SAS specialists. One of the boys in my platoon was carrying the Bren, and asked if he could try it on "Auto". I said "yes, but set the gas port on 4" (the biggest port - one would usually start with the smallest -1). In this ambush, this Bren fired at least 5 rounds in Auto before "running out of puff". The SAS fellows began screaming out (well this is the polite version) "Abort, abort, this was not supposed to be a live exercise."
I use to carry the LMG in the British Army in the 80’s. The LMG is a Bren, but converted to 7.62 NATO.
We had to disassemble and reassemble blindfolded.
that's common in Arab armies with the ak47 too.
I'm positively certain that most modern militaries have their soldiers learn how to field strip their weapons blindfolded during basic training
"The British were using cordite because they just had to be a little different" - We are not even remotely sorry. Also - Ian, mate, please, and I do believe that I am talking for the majority, take all the time you like. There is no such thing as a 'too long already' Video on this channel!
About 1960 or a year or so each way,: Hendon Air Show in North-West London. My Dad gave me a either sixpence or a shilling (just a few cents) and for that I fired ten rounds on a Bren set up in a prone position firing range. I can't really remember much of the experience but I was thrilled to bits. Incidentally, I believe the Air Show featured the first public showing of the English Electric P1, which became the Lightning. What I remember most was it flying along the length of the runway very fast at ground level. All great stufffor a ten or so year old!
I had to carry a Mark 1 around on an exercise with the ATC in England in about 1966, being fifteen and quite small at the time it was a bugger. I did get to fire a .303 Mark 1 down at Shoeburyness ranges the same year, it was wonderful to fire and easy to field strip.... Pete.
I was a Weapons Instructor back in the day and of all the weapons I ever fired the LMG was by far the all time best. Accurate as hell and a good LMG gun team was a grand thing to see in action. Far superior to anything in operation, even in the 1980s and it was a sad day when the LSW replaced it. I fired the RPK and various other foreign weapons and nothing came close to the reliability, fire power and ease of operation of the LMG in 7.62 Nato. In its support fire role, on tripod with proper sight it could be laid quickly and delivery a beaten zone of fire at long range. The immediate action drills were simple and had the gun back in action. In all its roles I doubt we will see a better Light machine gun anytime soon. I remember the Royal Marines hung onto their for a long time and had to be driven weeping to the Armoury to hand them in.
I remember this scene from a movie where a Irish soldier used a Bren gun as a sniper rifle
In the mid 70s I was in REME, one of the worst shots with the SMG and SLR. The LMG was good to me as it allowed me to shot with accuracy, to the surprise of the instructors and my mates. Every unit I was posted to I would end up as the LMG No1, thankfully.
My unit used the LMG upto at least 1989-90. Of all the weapons in our armoury, I always chose it. Lovely to fire, easy drills and cleaning, only ever had 1 stoppage on the range due to crap ammo. The mag slso fitted on the SLR ... illegally 😁
Weapons of choice in order:
LMG
Browning HP(9mm)
Sterling SMG (swung like club rather than fired)
Nothing
FN SLR.
Achieved Marksman on the first 3, couldn't hit a barn door with the last.
@@philklinkenberg1130 The SLR was the most accurate of the lot , I could get a five inch group at 300 yds no problem :)
@@PhilipKerry only way I'd have got a grouping was by throwing the $#!%%&$ thing down the Range. 🤣
May have had something to do with the fact that about a month before I left, during an armourers inspection, most of the SLR barrels were found to be warped. It was also discovered that some of them were "first edition" weapons 😂 The Army didn't class us as high priority, or even secondary for that matter...
I am tickled pink to see this series. I think the Bren is grossly underrated and often misunderstood. I myself was pretty ho-hum about it until 15 or so years ago when I watched a demonstration of the Bren at the Hiram Maxim shoot by a couple of fellows that clearly knew what they were doing. Very impressive gun. Far more capable than most people realize.
Thank you for an excellent summary of the function and use of this superbly designed machine known affectionately as the Bren. In my younger days, I used this machine in shooting competitions between counties at Bisley in England, and over a thousand yards had to fire ten rounds every hundred yards at targets which were ten inches diameter, with a backpack filled with housebricks to slow me down, running on loose pebbles, adjusting the sights for range , and by the end of the competition, out of breath, it was one of many competitions which included Le Enfield .303, and 38 calibre pistols. Watching the disassembly of this fine gun was nostalgic, and fascinating. Brilliant eloquence in the script, and great to hear this short lecture from an informed and enthusiastic professional.
Around the UK on the old training areas used during the war you can find Bren positions by finding the spent cases with a square fired primer strike.
Elbonian Board of Ordnance: There was a WWII? Anyway, we did not partake, so our troops do not need this.
You mean "We will take it and build it in Elbonian inches"?
Isn't virtually all of Elbonia's small arms WWII surplus, or at least from that era? Anyway, everybody knows that Elbonia actually adopted the Johnson LMG re-chambered in 7.35×51mm Carcano.
@@bmstylee "No barrel shroud", you beat me to it
@@jic1 Shhhht! They do not know.
A war Elbonia is not fighting in can't be called World War.
Doing a 150,000 round endurance test on a gun with a 30 round magazine sounds like it would be incredibly fun for the first twenty minutes and then incredibly miserable for the rest of the dozens of hours.
‘WHAT’? I can’t hear what you’ve written!
Canada’s version of Rosie the Riveter is The Bren Gun Girl
Veronica Foster!
Ah yes Bren Gun Betty. The badass bombshell hanging over a Bren with a smoke in her hand.
I now have my next screensaver
SAF Lithgow built an entire "modern" factory building just to make the Bren in the 1930's. My practical experience with the species is concentrated on the L4 series. They stayed in Australian service for a long time, but were eventually wrenched from the hands of their users to be replaced by the "cantankerous" and somewhat more fragile (but much lighter) F-89 (Minimi) / M-249).
Those of us in units still driving Brens into the early 1990's loved them. They were standard issue kit for the big wrecker trucks operated by the Recovery Mechanics. . All "recovery tasks" deploy a "security team" and do so in war (MG and friends) and peace ("traffic controllers"). The L4 was perfect as, in its transit case, it fitted neatly in the cab of the truck and if it had to be deployed on exercise, there were no ammo belts to drag in the mud. (If your exercise area in not a muddy swamp, then it is likely to be a wind-swept "dust-bowl"-not many training areas could be described as "sylvan glades". If a team has to run any distance with a Bren, the gunner grabs the wrist of the butt and the No.2 grabs the flash-hider and they carry it like a short stretcher. If for some reason the flash-hider is excessively warm, the No.2 can grasp the nice wooden handle on the barrel, but this can be a bit clumsy.
There is also a perverse legend that the Bren was "too accurate". This is classic BS spread by people with absolutely no idea of MG deployment and capability. Accuracy is good, Precision is better. If, on "Repetition", it can shoot like an F-class rifle, then you know EXACTLY what it will do on "A". Randomly ventilating the scenery with "spray and pray" ain't where it's at!
I can't see one of these and not think of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
This thing was actually still in service in Ireland until fairly recently, trained on it in the reserves in the late 2000's (ish) As hilariously outdated as it was, I have a lot of great memories of it, was a joy to fire, crazy accurate for a (light) machine gun.
Was used in the British Army until c 1990 so not that hilarious!
How was it to carry during exercises? Or did you have to carry it or just had a pleasure to shoot with it?
@@ninaakari5181 it was big and heavy (lighter than its replacement the GPMG though), you got 12 mags in a steel box which the no 2 could carry or could be split between a couple of the section.
But it was a great weapon, the slings we had helped a lot to spread the weight (sling over my shoulder, weapon on my magazine pouches across my body)
I used them in 0.303" and in 7.62mm
@@paddyhickey1135 To be honest it would have been great it we'd had it in Afghanistan, lighter than GPMG and exceptionally accurate suppressive 7.62 fire out to 1000 metres would have been very useful, far more so than the Minimi...
There's a couple of pics of Brens in use by British reservists in the first Gulf War.
My friend that served in the RN also used them up to the end of the eighties.
Brens were also useful for anti-sniper work. A British officer in the Border Regiment, named Cooper I think, was involved in a clash with the Japanese in Burma. His unit was taking sniper or sharpshooter fire. He saw a muzzle flash in a distant tree so he picked up a Bren, lined up the sights on the tree and fired off a whole magazine. His sergeant said he had got him and the Japanese was swinging at the end of the rope he had tied around his own waist.
Just in case anyone was wondering about the value of the licence fee:
"If you want to compare the value of a £3 0s 0d Commodity in 1937 there are four choices. In 2019 the relative:
real price of that commodity is £195.00
labour value of that commodity is £528.60
income value of that commodity is £889.10
economic share of that commodity is £1,257.00"
1£=1,41$=1,16€
The question is - did Chamberlain in Munich save Enfield from paying that license fee? I don't expect they'd pay it to Waffenfabrik Brün...
I am a simple man, so i cannot understand what this voodoo witchcraft is. I only know that I appreciate it and that you took the time to share
Oww, my brains 💥 ~dies
The sheer amount of machine work that had to go into this thing is astounding. Even with CNC, I can't imagine how much it would cost to make one today.
im a former royal marines commando and used both the gpmg and the bren or as we called it the lmg, the geeps was great as it had a spread pattern of fire, the bren however was considerably more accurate which really was its demise as a light maching gun, i used the bren in norway ski ing as it was easier to use, i also carried the gpmg which was heavy and awkward when ski ing down a mountain. i did however prefer the lmg when patrolling in northern ireland. fyi the mod tried to make the bren a spread pattern weapon by using cartridges with different powder loads but it wasnt effective.
Its demise as a machinegun was its outdated design. Nobody is gonna complain about a gun being "too accurate" That is nonsense
I have searched Internet for the term "Enfield Inch" with limited luck. A complete discussion of this excursion in Metrology would be appreciated.
I've seen at least one video* touch on the differences between British and American inches, though googling the "Enfield Inch" gives me the impression that was another separate issue, but I'm not sure.
*( ua-cam.com/video/gNRnrn5DE58/v-deo.html is the bit with the differences between Imperial and American inches, mostly as a result of the US basing their inch on the meter and getting a shiny new meter artefact from france and the British yard artefact being very old and changing shape )
(I also found a newsletter from a metrication uh, group? that talks about it metricationmatters.com/mm-newsletter-2011-03.html )
I think that in order to simplify the conversion from the BRNO metric drawings they made their Enfield inches 25mm and produced special guages and micrometers to read 'apparent' inches but were in actual fact 0.984" and each 'thou' was .000984". Micrometers would have been specially produced for the factories with thread pitches of 0.625mm and all other guages made to the same standard. As long as they were only used in the factory the machinists and fitters would have just accepted them. All graduated feedscrews and barrels on machine tools would have to be similarly modified.
@@philipsutcliffe6014 gawd what a MESS!
@@pilgrimm23 I think that would be a pretty good description. It actually went further than that. Due to delays in the contract and set up at the factory, the brits decided to order from Brno a batch of brens for the Irish Army. ( Badley equiped and we had worries of the germans comming round the flank through Ireland.) However the guns delivered were to the last ZGB pattern and not full Brit pattern. So the irish got a hybrid weapon and due to the inch defect brit mags wont work and its not "very" interchangeable. A batch of them came out of ireland and i got one for my collection.
Dear Ian, this is one of your most interesting videos ever made... Thanks for this a lot, cheers from CZ!
My Dad was in the Home guard during the war. He had a Bren gun mounted above the fireplace in the house on Kits Coty waiting for the German parachutists to turn up in the big fields and South Downs surrounding them there. The Homeguard used the big Chalkpit for target practice. The Germans bombed it several times. I used to pick up used rounds down there as a child. On the Coty there is a big crater in the woods where a shotdown Dornier bomber crashed.
That generation was rock hard.
When your calculations are wrong, just invent your own measurement standard to fix it!
Fun fact. The British choice of .303 inch seems odd. Why the extra 3 thousanths? Why not go .30 like the yanks?. Reason is that .303 is Imperial speak for 7.7 mm. Yep the Enfield bores have been metric since the 1880s. When Brno had to change to .303, they were actually going from 8 mm to 7.7 mm. They stayed metric. The real challenge was switching from rimless to rimmed. Then the design had to be adjusted so that it could be manufactured on British machine tools.
That's a fairly good description of the British industrial revolution!
Britain still uses a mixture of imperial and metric and even stone for weight, like what the hell make up your mind
@@sneakysnake7695 Where's the fun in that? We like confusing people, including ourselves :)
@@sneakysnake7695 I think I speak for everyone in Britain when I say: NEVER!!
As others have said, picking up the Bren seems to be the surest way to the Victoria Cross.
I'm afraid many of them were awarded posthumously.
Bonnie Crickle quite true, unfortunately.
In WW2 every British and Commonwealth infantryman was a trained Bren gunner. They each carried 3 full Bren mags, when they setup a defense, they would drop 2 mags to Bren gunner and keep 1 for themselves. The concept was that the last man standing would have a Bren gun with a full mag. Thus the posthumous VCs.
A trip down memory lane. I used the 7.62 LMG version in the 70s. Was taught how to strip it clean it and reassemble it, the piston and gas plug would get black when it was fired. It also had a tendency to edge forward, so I can see that rear handle being useful, but ours just had a simple stock nothing fancy like that.
Ian: The Best Light Machine Gun of World War Two
Lindybeige: *heavy breathing*
This comment was enjoyed greatly
Well the topic doesn’t qualify it but he did in the video. Only compared to other magazine fed bipod light machineguns,
@@denistardif6650 The whole point of a general purpose machinegun is that it can be used as a light machinegun: ditch the tripod, load an assault drum and you are good to go.
@@denistardif6650 _and this is usually done with the method of walking fire_
Walking fire was thing for a brief period during WWI and was quickly abandoned after that (for good reasons).
_unlike the MG42 needing to be entrenched and stable_
You can shoot the 42 from the same position you would shoot almost any other light machine gun of the era.
_you are not shooting a MG42 from the hip without being the biggest liability on your team lol_
See _Heeresdienstvorscrhift 130/2a_ it is the official field manual for the infantry, and contains the proper procedure as to how to correctly employ light machineguns like the 34 and 42 in the assault role, firing from the hip.
It was still taught in the Bundeswehr until very recently.
You can also fire it from the shoulder, as the following video demonstrates: youtu. be/nFuv5BQ8w5Y?si=8jyX3Ug8Y8cbLGNC&t=67
As for the rest, we are running in circles: by definition, a general purpose machinegun has to be able to be employed in the light machinegun role to be considered as such.
@@denistardif6650 _would love to see the sorry sucker who as to fire and carry the ammo gun alone is 25 pounds one belt is 22 pounds fired in less than a minute poor man who will be lugging all that ammo and gun lol_
Everyone did it? All the men in the German infantry squad were supposed to carry ammunition for the machinegun.
And it was not a German thing, the Britis did it too, and so the Japanese, etc.
My father used to work on the oil rigs in the Libyan desert in the 70’s , he brought back in his hand luggage a battle damaged Bren gun barrel with Sand included , can only imagine what it and soldier went through.Interesting to see what the complete gun looks like 👍.
Excellent video! I love this machine gun.
In Rio de Janeiro,police utilized the Madsen until 2019. Since you mentioned the weapon. I say this because,for me,weapons of the past were fantastically manufactured. Thank you.
I trained and used this in the Irish army reserves in the early nineties, I never saw any malfunction, but then its was designed by BRNO, I have a BRNO shotgun, that's never malfunctioned either
As far as I'm aware the last Brens were only taken off the FCA in the 2010s, i also heard that some of them were giving out because they wanted them back
I trained on the Bren as an army cadet back in the eighties and loved it. A few things I can recall, our instructor (CSM Vincent) had nick-names for some of the components. The Recoil spring extension rod was called "the Rat tail" and the bolt was called "The airplane" as it took off when it was moving back and forth on the bolt carrier.
Yes. We had them at our high-school for Cadets.
Your videos are never too long, mate. ‘Just’ informative, comprehensive and authoritative.
"It's me Bren gun!"
"Don't you fink you could av' brought somefin' more practical?"
“Charles....get the rifle”
I know this is probably a movie quote (not sure which movie) but it seems like unless a LMG in general is a bad tool for the job (like if you need a concealed carry gun,) there aren't many weapons more practical than that.
@@t4nkychannel921 Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. 😉. Also, the person is using it in a cramped building, which is why he gets called out
@@t4nkychannel921 ua-cam.com/video/4yQeyi2Fc40/v-deo.html
@@jcmaxie4758 “we’re being fucked!”
Please watch the Carry on Sergeant film when a love struck Bob Monkhouse does a brilliant disembly of the gun.
“I used to work in the factory where they made these things...”
He did actually work at Enfeild at one point, so he did know how the gun wen't together.
@@bob_the_bomb4508 This clip cuts the ending “I used to work in the factory where they made these things...” as 51WCDodge says Bob Monkhouse did work at Enfield. ua-cam.com/video/-QIO_G9gs0A/v-deo.html
Possibly the truly iconic gun of modern British history.
The strip-down and demonstration of the action had me dropping my jaw and shaking my head whilst smiling - I even said "no..." a few times. "Elegant" is definitely the word.
Beautiful work, Brno team!
What's crazy is I was searching for "Forgotten Weapons Bren" about an hour before this was uploaded.
At some point (not too long in the future please) a WWII version of "Project Lightening" collaboration with Forgotten Weapons and C&Rrsenal with the Bren, and the other light machine guns of the period. I realize that such an endeavor is a time consuming and expensive production, but would be greatly appreciated!.
This.
My Dad who is 86 was trained to use the Bren gun when he did his National Service in the RAF. He said the instructors who had fought in WWII raved about it. According to them the best thing about it was its inaccuracy, because by the time the rounds had hit their mark they had spread out and sprayed the whole area, not just the target. As a consequence enemy soldiers were taken out left, right and centre; here, there and everywhere; up, down and all around; all over the bleedin' show.
I bet bloke on the ranges laptop is having a bad day
My Grandfather used this in the Korean War. They held a famous hill and kept the north from advancing on high points. He told me one late night they came under small arms and mortar fire. He was firing the bren at enemies to the point of changing a barrel out. Several minutes passed, one barrel change and 6 mags later they ran out of ammunition... he then ran down the backside of the hill stopping in bushes as north Korean fighters were sneaking by. Trying to take positions on them. He runs from one concealment to the next then runs to another fallback point trench he could hear more of them coming so he grabs two large ammo boxes and proceeds back up the hill in the same fashion as mortar barrage started again falling all around his approximate vicinity. After dodging hell on earth he reaches the top to find his brother's in arms and allies holding it down like hero's with grease guns and other infantry rifles. He jumps into the gunners nest opens the 1st ammo box with haste rocks a mag in and that night for what felt like an eternity was a successful half hour to 40 minute engagement. The morning rolled around and after the sun was high enough to illuminate the valley the aftermath of the enemy was devastating. The 100s of enemies kia was a surreal sight. Some of the North Koreans fell victim to friendly mortar fire and sustained lethal wounds from the large caliber that was fired from the bren. It was years later that the hill was documented in films as one of the most brutal theatre engagements among my Grandfathers regiment (CAD PPCLI) since WWII.
May God forever Bless the Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry! I had the opportunity to see them in action with the Canadian Brigade (2 Battalion) when I was stationed in the then West Germany in the US Army. Some tough suckers the PPCLI!
@GeorgeKovacs-re2qo wow that's so cool Sir! Thanks for being a badass yourself ❤️🔥
My Farther was a Bren Gunner on a Bren Carrier with the 1st Regiment of the Welsh Guards during the 2nd WW.. Thank you from the run down on the gun
No, your dad was in the 1st BATTALION Welsh Guards.
"The indirect sight is beyond the scope of this video." Well played, sir!
Piston, Barrell, Butt, Body, Bipod! Wow, that takes me back! I had the record in my unit for field stripping one. 7 seconds! 52 years ago!
LOL. yep I remember being told " Piss down the barrel but not down the legs" as the order of stripping the Bren.
That was exactly the thought that was going through my mind watching this video
Thank you for the walk down memory lane Ian. I fired the Bren in .303 (School Cadets) and 7.62mm (Australian Army Reserve) and I agree that it was a great machine gun!
My uncle was a paratrooper in the war, and was always the first out the door, with the Bren. He was expected to be first on the ground to provide covering fire for his mates. He declined several offers of commission, because it would have separated him from the Bren, and the action.
Don't think he mentioned that we used the .303 round to adjust the gas regulator and shove through the body locking pin ,handy to manually empty the mag as well
Thank you Ian for this detailed explanation of the origins and workings of the BREN gun. This weapon was used to great effect during WWII by our Australian Soldiers. I fired a Bren Gun during my school cadets days in the early 70s. We had only 20 rounds in the magazine. It was a terrifying experience to have this massive piece of metal firing .303 bullets on semi-auto and automatic. The smell of a hot gun with the cordite smoke was enough to make you not want to be on the receiving end of the fire.
before someone types in "but the mg42 is a better light machine gun" the mg42 was a gpmg
Also it wasnt better
@@godlovesyou1995 comparing apple and oranges both are better and worse at different things
@@godlovesyou1995 that's arguable.
A British army squad was supposed to have 2 Bren guns to a squad, 1 per section for the rest of the squad to operate around (Instead of the German's 1 mg42 per squad.) which I think was a better idea. They rarely had enough though according to many veterans of that war.
@@godlovesyou1995 Certainly, it was good but not better, it had issues with bolt bounce and it was very dangerous if the bolt bounced and the cartridge discharges
Having fired the 7.62mm a few times as a teenager my most vivid memory of the bren was it felt like I was being pulled forward when firing it.
Thats correct Jay, I've used the .303, the piston operation tends the push the gun forward rather than back, you have to pull it back into your shoulder.
Excelent thorough coverage of the Bren MK 1. My favourite weapon during my military service were the MK 1 & 2. Accuracy was amazing & was one of the factors in it's demise when spraying a target area, (rather than putting automatic fire in too concentrated an area), became the new norm. Stripping & reassembly blindfolded quickly & succesfully, was part of the training programs. 👍
Like Ian has already explained, no its not accuracy that was its demise. The outdated design was
The UK kept the magazine fed LMG concept right up until the 2010's with The L86 LSW. We Brits tend to like an idea and keep it
Overly complicated
@@normanberg9940Explain your concept of "overly" please... 😂
@@timbirch4999 You ask me TWO YEARS later??? DUDE, seriously? I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.
But yes well we still had Brens as reserve weapons when I did my national service and compared to belt fed guns........THEY SUCK. Do you need me to elaborate?