Today in my chemistry class my teacher complained about her husband “sitting there loudly watching videos of some guy with a ponytail talking about old guns and the entire history of them for half an hour” you’re getting more famous Ian!
You absolutely should've stood up, shaking your hands above your head, and shouted, "ALL HAIL GUN JESUS!!! ALL HAIL GUN JESUS!!!" Then just sat back down like nothing happened. I wouldn't have been able to stop my self if I'd been there. I'm not even kidding. Thanks for sharing that. It made my night.
Canada’s wartime poster-girl was “Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl”; a sultry brunette, munitions worker, smoking a cigarette and caressing a Bren. She was a real worker at Inglis’ Longbranch works. This was a couple of years before America came up with Rosie the Riveter.
ve explored the old factory grounds many times... shooting range is still intact... I also remember remember the large blue INGLIS billboard on the side of the Gardiner expressway
Brent 13377331 just north of the gardener, on the current grounds of “Liberty Village” condos... the old small arms factory in Longbranch made Sten and Lee Enfields and is located at Lakeshore + Dixie rd. The water tower still remains, dated 1942 if remember correctly
Longbranch was Small Arms Limited, not Inglis. SAL made Lee Enfields. SAL later became Canadian Arsenal Limited which made FN C1 A1 Rifles (FAL) during the 50s and 60s. Inglis was where Liberty Village is now. They made Brens, Stens and Hi Powers. Note the Canadian Army is now looking for replacement of the Inglis Hi Power which they are still using.
There definitely were some Bren guns in 7,92 dropped to resistance units in occupied Europe. Here in former Yugoslavia we have a few surviving examples that were used by Tito's partisans.
But also Germans were using the leftovers from Brno after they took over so they could've been those, then it depends on the sights, Germans would be using the original drum on the side. Partisans were mostly, not exclusively though, using captured weaponry, aside from what they had left from before the war.
@@420JackG I think you mean the SOE rather than SAS. SOE were working with resistance movements across Europe to sabotage the germans. While the SAS were destroying german and italian aircraft hands on in North Africa.
@@turczech In Yugoslavia you could find all sorts of ZB derived machine guns. Original ZB-26 were bought by Kingdom of Yugoslavia before WW2, ZB-30J (in Yugoslavia known as M37) that were made to Yugoslav specifications in Brno and domestically by VTZ (later Zastava). Germans used captured Czech ZBs and Bulgarians used ZB-39 in 8x56mmR. Bren guns (Mk I and Mk II) were supplied by the Allies first to Chetnicks and later to Tito's partisans in significant numbers. Most of them were regular .303 caliber guns, but a few were Canadian Inglis manufactured guns in 7,92x57mm. They can be identified in photos (they were painted with red stripes by the British to distinguish them from .303 Brens) and a few examples survive in museums, notably the Military musem in Belgrade.
Some of the Chinese marked guns stayed in Canada and were used by the Canadian Army. I worked with a chap who remarked on what good guns the Chinese made. He then explained that he had used Chinese made Brens when he was in the army. I had a hard time convincing him they were made in Canada FOR the Chinese.
@just a channel Are you from the US? Keep telling that to yourself while you import goods for another 500 000 000 000 USD every year. And it's not longer plastic buckets and toys. It's mobile phones, computers, all kinds of electronics, instruments, car parts, kitchen equipment and let's not forget Trumps promotional items.
Chinese manufacturers all build to a price. If you want cheap, they'll make you cheap. If you want quality, they'll make you quality, whatever quality and tolerances you're willing to pay for, just like anywhere else, gotta find the right company. Some will make a whole bunch of whozits and whatsits and just send you the ones that match your specs, selling the rest to whoever wants them. Others will tool up to only produce your exact specs. Obviously you're gonna pay the most and have to work the most with the latter.
chlebowg .303 Bren 'finest Light Machine gun in the world' as I was taught in the UK Army Cadet Force in 70s,already replaced in the regular army by GPMG.
Just have to mention the way we were taught to strip a bren here in Australia. Piston, barrel, lower, receiver then bipod. You slide back the lower then pull back the charge handle lift out the piston then undo the barrel slide off the lower then remove bipod from body of gun. The instructor taught us this little gem, piss on the barrel and butt the bloody bipod. Love your videos Ian.
Don't run for cover, you're absolutely correct. For the Second World War the BAR is a big ole' piece of shit. That said, it wasn't even a good automatic rifle by that time period. There were better alternatives. WWII was a numbers war and thus a good quality firearm isn't as good as a decent one that's still in stock and that factories are already tooled up to churn out. I mean the US pattern BAR, specifically, the other countries that adopted the BAR did much better with it.
@@kyleschafer6275 240B uses the BAR operational system flipped upside down, 249 uses a multilug rotating bolt while the Bren uses a ZB26 tilting bolt. If anything, the Bren shares more with the MP44 than the FN MAG/240B and FN Minimi/249
If anyone doubts the Bren Gun look up British Victoria Cross citations from world war two. They start with "[name] picked up a Bren Gun and..." almost always.
@@duncanbrown1864 The PIAT gets a lot of unfair criticism. It was heavy sure, but cheap. It actually fired a far more powerful HEAT round than the Bazooka, could fire 3 inch mortar shells either in direct fire or in mortar config. It's effective range was also similar to the Bazooka which couldn't hit much beyond 100 yards. Add in it could be fired inside a confined space and a fast reload and rate of fire (if held correctly) then it wasn't half as bad as people think. The Panzerschreck stood out from the pack because of its 88mm round, but the 2.75 inch Bazooka and PIAT both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Certainly better than a Faustpatrone or Panzerfaust...
Not only did Inglis make 7,92 Brens and HP35s for China, they made Boys AT rifles, and Sten MkII as well. For once, the Boys were a Match for Japanese Tanks ( 1930s KMT still used T18 Mausers against Japanese Armoured Cars!). The No4 rifles came from LongBranch. The Stens were converted to 7,62x25 after the Revolution.. The other big production was Browning .303 Aircraft Guns for Commonwealth countries. They certainly a massive enterprise during WWII. Doc AV
I had a great-Aunt who worked in the Inglis plant in Toronto. She made Bren guns during WW2. She always downplayed her contributions saying it was “ just a job”. I beg to differ, she did her bit to make sure we can enjoy the freedoms we take for granted today. All those third wave feminists pale in comparison to the work she did. Well done Aunt Frances, RIP.
My Great-Grandmother actually worked at Inglis during WWII. I’m not 100% sure on what she did but I know that it had something to do with the sights for Bren guns.
We were still using the 7.62mm Bren guns in Australia in some non front line combat units into the late 1980's. I carried and fired them myself, really nice gun to fire.
Not mentioned, there was "sterile" Canadian-produced 8X57 ammunition available cheaply in the US back in the 60s of 70s. I still have a few rounds of it somewhere.
The correct procedure for gas regulation is to set it on the smallest hole until it stops ( about 2 mags) then turn to the next largest hole until it stops then the next until it stops + the next until it stops then change the barrel. With ref to your other (303) vid. In the UK the 'bolt' is referred to as the breech block, the parts are referred to as groups, piston group barrel group, Bipod + body groups the butt is part of the piston group.
Greece and Cyprus had some Brens too. Not sure if they were resistance models or simply surplus from the British empire. There's a picture of my father, handling a Bren in the 70s, mounted on a tall tripod.
FYI "This light machine gun in the Czechoslovak army was marked as the LK vz. 26 ("LK" means "lehký kulomet", light machine gun; "vz." stands for "vzor", Model in Czech). ZB vz. 26 is incorrect marking because "ZB-26" is a factory designation (Československá zbrojovka v Brně), while "vzor 26" or "vz. 26" is an army designation."
Ian has (used to have?) a Bren modified to use the AK magazines. There is a video of him on a shoot where it failed a couple of times (I don't remember what the issue was).
My father had a bit of training with the Bren gun (99% sure it was .303, 90% sure it was an Inglis), and was very impressed with it. I remember him saying something like "a good shooter could cause *some damage* with that gun...".
John Inglis and Company (now Whirlpool Canada) "Inglis" is now a brand of household appliances from Whirlpool marketed primarily in Canada. In the United States, Inglis appliances are sold at Best Buy stores.
I just found some live rounds for this model in a box of random rounds I had from an auction. I was so confused by the head stamps and bullet dimensions. Its really cool to see what It goes too.
Solid gun! That and the Enfield did something at least to equal the playing field against the Germans. The Sten albeit fugly wasn't as bad as it looked either. One gun I dream of firing. Must save some bucks n go visit a cousin in Arizona. He says he is ten mins from the range.
Now I know the significance of the Inglis sign (now torn down) next to Exhibition Place in Toronto (I was only aware of Inglis as manufacturing kitchen appliances and their famous dishwasher). The gun manufacturing district (aka the Liberty district) was across the tracks from Exhibition, which is next to the Fort York Armoury (where the guns were stored before being shipped to Europe).
In 1970-71 I was stationed at Fort Hood Texas. I was friends with the assistant curator of the 2nd Armored Division Museum. They had a Chinese 8mm Bren captured in Korea. Excellent condition and after the museum was "closed" he would pull items like the Bren out of the case so the two of us "gun nuts" could check them out.
Inglis made home appliances in the same factory up until the 1980's before they finally closed. During my Canadian army service I saw pistols that had Chinese characters on the slide, as we were using Chinese contract parts to maintain them.
@@hauptmanndosman Almost every arms company goes back to making civilian consumables and appliances after wars. Remember, a big chunk of M1 Carbines were made in a lamp factory.
My dad used a Hi-Power during his mandatory military service in the 80s. That being said he was a ROCN reserve officer, so he wouldn't have gotten the latest and greatest... they were still using M1 carbines in his time, rather than the newly-developed T65 or even the M14. Active front line troops probably had much more modern equipment.
The BREN machine gun is one of those timeless designs. If it wasn't for the missing polymer parts, these guns would still hold up against modern designs in army trials today.
Some such Bren guns were converted to use 7.62 Soviet and feed from AK magazines, you say with a smile? That'd be a sight I imagine. How cool it would be to even possibly own one, eh?! ;-)
Good video on the 8mm! The Communist 7.62x39 conversion is very interesting. A fellow told me about coming across a Bren that took AK mags in Vietnam. I figured it was either a VC conversion or he had misidentified it in the heat of the fighting. Take Care!
The Chinese nationalist on Taiwan also made them in 30/06 they were known as the m41,I don't know if they used Canadian-made parts or if they made it all in house . Ironically the suggestion that the US manufacturer this gun inww2 was vetoed as it didn't use the standard cartridge! One of the great what ifs,US marines with brens?But we all know about US ordanace.
Am I the only one who, when Ian starts to punch a pin, thinks "is it captive? IS IT CAPTIVE?!" and when it turns out to be captive audibly yells out "YES!!" ?
I wonder if Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl (Canada's version of Rosie the Riveter) helped make this one. She was a real factory worker at the John Inglis factory.
It's not Canada's "version" of Rosie the Riveter, but it's the equivalent to Rosie in popular images of "Women War Workers" It predates Rosie, as the series of Ronnie the Bren gun girl photos were taken in early May 1941.
Jordan Williams Yup, but most people don’t know any of that, but do know about Rosie the Riveter. Hence, it made a convenient shorthand for the idea I was expressing. Cheers.
From an 8x57IS into a 7,62x51 sounds logical.. The two otherwise very different cartridges in size and shape share the same case head just like a .30-06, 7x57, 6,5x55.. A very educating video this one since pretty much everybody who's into WWII has seen pics of Chinese troops armed with these Brens but how they got them has been at least for me a mystery even though I knew the 8x57 was the Chinese service caliber.
For which resistance movements did Inglis made weapons? I know that 303 Bren where sent to the French, Belgian and Dutch resistance. Do you have any idea why the Brits or the Nazis never manufactured 30 round or 25 round magazines for the 8 mm Bren or ZB-30/26 guns?
Bren is the portmanteau of the first two letters of Brno and Enfield. Brno being in the Czech Republic and Enfield, the home of the Royal Small Arms Factory.
I have heard it said that post war 7.92mm Brens in the UK were intended for the armoured regiments. They carried Brens in the tanks for use dismounted on piquets and they used 7.92mm for their tank mounted BESA machine guns so 7.92mm Brens could use the same ammunition as the tank mounted guns thus simplifying ammunition supply. 7.92mm Brens dropped to the French resistance were sometimes intercepted by the Germans and they were passed to the Vichy Milice (militia) to use as the Germans could supply 7.92mm ammunition to suit. The French Milice using them to counter the French Resistance.
It's unlikely that the British would have acquired 7.92mm Brens for the tank regiments post war. They were already phasing out the Besa and 7.92x57mm in favour of Brownings in 30-06.
I would be super interested in seeing a machinegun / cannon working with the Gast principle (wwI invented now in use by some Russian airplane cannons). Its an alternative to a Gatling and very interesting mechanically. Maybe you can get your hands on of those at some point?
The Nationalist China bought huge amount of them, and like every other firearm owned by the Nationalist, they ended up in the PLA's hand. Some of the most famous picture about PLA in the civil war included a 8mm Bren gun. And also, they are called 七九勃然 in China
"What the fuck is that? It's me Bren gun" It's up there with with Spaz 12 scene in Snatch "what is that?" "This is a shotgun Sol" "it's a fucking anti aircraft gun Vincent" And now I have to go watch Lock Stock for the seventy third time cheers.
@@jimelliot4904 It's even more amusing because the guy who played Tommy (Stephen Graham) was in Band Of Brothers straight after Snatch if Im not mistaken he was killed by a german mid way throught the series.
I find most ads annoying at least it is something related to firearms, and not the Are you the guy with the gun. I also do not skip ads while watching. I do mute. I know that You tube pays content creators more if we watch the whole ad rather than skipping.
That's an urban legend, eh? We actually mounted them on moose, because the antlers made a more stable mounting platform, eh? My dad was a Bren gunner in the Royal Saskatchewan Mounted Moosemen after the war. (My dad actually was a Bren gunner in the reserves after the war, but no moose were involved).
I think some of them got captured by the Communist and they were used in the Korean War, but being replaced by Type-56 LMG (which is an RPD copy, not the Type-56 'SMG' which is an AK47 copy) in the 50s.
I really like how you used the flag of the time for the thumbnail. It's the flag my grandfather and great uncles served under. Grandpa wanted to be a pilot but scored too high on the tests, and was assigned to be a navigator instead because of his talent for math, but it didn't really matter because the war ended when he was almost done training. My great uncle was an engineer, and would help construct bridges for allied vehicles. He was awarded a medal for running out into the middle of a bridge during an attack, carrying back a wounded soldier.
well the disassembly on this is so efficient that IF this gun locks for no reason, disassembling it on the spot is probably an option! changing a mag in a controlled environment like a range is kind of slow but getting faster is not out of the question, but those faster people ARE slower like any one else when you do it under life or death pressure, disassembling the gun is almost as simple as a mag change! think about it! (normal person changing a mag: 15 sec, normal person changing a mag under fire: 5 minutes, trained people: 5 sec normal, 15 sec under fire. disassembling the gun and putting it back under fire: 1 min! that is a 10 minute job with a lot of guns not under fire!)
I wish a notable history youtuber would make a video about the Canadians at war. I.E 1812, Boer war, verdun, vimy, Hong Kong Juno beach, that time Croatia attacked us unprovoked. Etc. Most people don't realise how import Canada was and is in international conflicts
Look up Norm Christie he has done plenty of Canadian War series that aired on TVO and such for lots stuff on WW1, WW2, Korea. In some he visits actual battle fields and brings Canadian veterans of the battle with him. (Spanish civil war, WW2 and Korea)
Canada has always punched well above her weight, despite having a military that is perennially under-equipped and undermanned. If you consider that Canada supplied 1,000,000 troops during the Second World War out of a total national population of 11,000,000, that is an absolutely huge accomplishment for such a small country to pull off. The performance of the Canadian Army during the First World War and particularly at Vimy Ridge was so good that it earned Canada a seat during the surrender proceedings at Versailles - Canada was one of the signatory parties of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War. Again, this too is a huge accomplishment for a small country.
The Chines Nationalist (ChiNat)manufactured some .30 Cal US (.30-'06) Bren once they got set up on Formosa (Taiwan) Some of them ended up as part of the SOG Teams arsenal when going into Laos, north Vietnam or the PRC
20 rounds magazines for a machine gun seem kind of small... I'm guessing the logic behind it was that anything larger would be too heavy to shoot effectively from a shoulder or hipfire position, especially if the weight of the magazine is on top of the gun. Machine gun crews in the German army consisted of two people; one gunner and another guy responsible for carrying around the ammunition, helping with reloads, switching out the barrel etc. I don't know if American and British machine-gunners also had someone helping them out since the BREN and BAR are capable of filling a combat role similar to an Assault Rifle as well as suppressive fire, but it would definitely be useful.
British Commonwealth troops routinely Brens with 30 round magazines from the hip. The ZB 26 was widely used in China and it was convenient for the 7.92mm Bren to use the same magazines.
I think this "x" after "I" on the bolt should be considered as asterisk. Adding asterisk after mark number was common practice to distinguish a minor alteration in design.
Today in my chemistry class my teacher complained about her husband “sitting there loudly watching videos of some guy with a ponytail talking about old guns and the entire history of them for half an hour” you’re getting more famous Ian!
Blessings upon your chem teacher's hubby.
Hahahahahahah
You absolutely should've stood up, shaking your hands above your head, and shouted,
"ALL HAIL GUN JESUS!!! ALL HAIL GUN JESUS!!!"
Then just sat back down like nothing happened. I wouldn't have been able to stop my self if I'd been there. I'm not even kidding.
Thanks for sharing that. It made my night.
God forbid her husband enjoy something for a half an hour...
@just a channel and you're defending an anecdote from a woman you've never known or met. Thats some master level white knighting.
Canada’s wartime poster-girl was “Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl”; a sultry brunette, munitions worker, smoking a cigarette and caressing a Bren. She was a real worker at Inglis’ Longbranch works. This was a couple of years before America came up with Rosie the Riveter.
It was the original sonic oc
ve explored the old factory grounds many times... shooting range is still intact... I also remember remember the large blue INGLIS billboard on the side of the Gardiner expressway
E. Smyth oh damn, where on the gardener?
Brent 13377331 just north of the gardener, on the current grounds of “Liberty Village” condos... the old small arms factory in Longbranch made Sten and Lee Enfields and is located at Lakeshore + Dixie rd. The water tower still remains, dated 1942 if remember correctly
Longbranch was Small Arms Limited, not Inglis. SAL made Lee Enfields. SAL later became Canadian Arsenal Limited which made FN C1 A1 Rifles (FAL) during the 50s and 60s. Inglis was where Liberty Village is now. They made Brens, Stens and Hi Powers. Note the Canadian Army is now looking for replacement of the Inglis Hi Power which they are still using.
Poor gun, it won't be able to have children anymore.
It is truly a sad day when a firearm cannot bring it's own offspring into the world.
You mean... it's shooting blanks?
I think Ian may have been referring to cleanliness - like if you washed the weapon with anti bacterial soap.
It should be pretty "clean" in theory
"Son of a gun!"
There definitely were some Bren guns in 7,92 dropped to resistance units in occupied Europe. Here in former Yugoslavia we have a few surviving examples that were used by Tito's partisans.
But also Germans were using the leftovers from Brno after they took over so they could've been those, then it depends on the sights, Germans would be using the original drum on the side. Partisans were mostly, not exclusively though, using captured weaponry, aside from what they had left from before the war.
Maybe you could find one of each and take some pictures of them?
The OSS was modifying all sorts of weapons to drop to partisans and resistance fighters, I'm sure the SAS was too.
@@420JackG I think you mean the SOE rather than SAS. SOE were working with resistance movements across Europe to sabotage the germans. While the SAS were destroying german and italian aircraft hands on in North Africa.
@@turczech In Yugoslavia you could find all sorts of ZB derived machine guns. Original ZB-26 were bought by Kingdom of Yugoslavia before WW2, ZB-30J (in Yugoslavia known as M37) that were made to Yugoslav specifications in Brno and domestically by VTZ (later Zastava). Germans used captured Czech ZBs and Bulgarians used ZB-39 in 8x56mmR. Bren guns (Mk I and Mk II) were supplied by the Allies first to Chetnicks and later to Tito's partisans in significant numbers. Most of them were regular .303 caliber guns, but a few were Canadian Inglis manufactured guns in 7,92x57mm. They can be identified in photos (they were painted with red stripes by the British to distinguish them from .303 Brens) and a few examples survive in museums, notably the Military musem in Belgrade.
Some of the Chinese marked guns stayed in Canada and were used by the Canadian Army. I worked with a chap who remarked on what good guns the Chinese made. He then explained that he had used Chinese made Brens when he was in the army. I had a hard time convincing him they were made in Canada FOR the Chinese.
@@williamkeith8944I'm surprised they're not making and exporting them still tbh.
@just a channel SERIOUSLY????A country that can send satellites to the moon does not have the capacity????
@just a channel Are you from the US? Keep telling that to yourself while you import goods for another 500 000 000 000 USD every year. And it's not longer plastic buckets and toys. It's mobile phones, computers, all kinds of electronics, instruments, car parts, kitchen equipment and let's not forget Trumps promotional items.
Chinese manufacturers all build to a price. If you want cheap, they'll make you cheap. If you want quality, they'll make you quality, whatever quality and tolerances you're willing to pay for, just like anywhere else, gotta find the right company. Some will make a whole bunch of whozits and whatsits and just send you the ones that match your specs, selling the rest to whoever wants them. Others will tool up to only produce your exact specs. Obviously you're gonna pay the most and have to work the most with the latter.
What ever does that have to do with with my comment? @@brianargo4595
7:04 One of the Chinese contract Brens (with Chinese characters on the side) is on display at the Canadian War museum.
Thanks Ian, found a vz26 in Iraq back in 08' and had a .303 Bren MkII here in Astan 3 months ago. Solid and reliable machine guns.
Too bad you couldnt bring those back. Damn laws.
chlebowg .303 Bren 'finest Light Machine gun in the world' as I was taught in the UK Army Cadet Force in 70s,already replaced in the regular army by GPMG.
Dude, that's a pretty cool one to come across.
@@dankdark974 it's called "Don't ask, don't tell"
You should pump out videos of that stuff
A "sterile" Bren? You mean it was specifically designed to fire blanks?!😂🤣
Just have to mention the way we were taught to strip a bren here in Australia. Piston, barrel, lower, receiver then bipod. You slide back the lower then pull back the charge handle lift out the piston then undo the barrel slide off the lower then remove bipod from body of gun. The instructor taught us this little gem, piss on the barrel and butt the bloody bipod. Love your videos Ian.
Well its already exceeded the estimate "Current Bid: $42,500.00"
the kansas italian guess I need to sell my wife and kids
"An excellent firearms auction."
Joke's on you, this gun can't have kids.
Sure, Canadian.
Better weapon than the BAR.
.....runs for cover.
As an LMG, absolutely. As an automatic rifle? I'd take the BAR.
@@Doinkus98 The BAR was never meant to be an LMG anyways.
The Bren was built for that purpose
Don't run for cover, you're absolutely correct. For the Second World War the BAR is a big ole' piece of shit. That said, it wasn't even a good automatic rifle by that time period. There were better alternatives. WWII was a numbers war and thus a good quality firearm isn't as good as a decent one that's still in stock and that factories are already tooled up to churn out. I mean the US pattern BAR, specifically, the other countries that adopted the BAR did much better with it.
I mean the bren's internals are the basis of the 249 and 240B, both of which are still going in the armies of Nato members.
@@kyleschafer6275 240B uses the BAR operational system flipped upside down, 249 uses a multilug rotating bolt while the Bren uses a ZB26 tilting bolt. If anything, the Bren shares more with the MP44 than the FN MAG/240B and FN Minimi/249
If anyone doubts the Bren Gun look up British Victoria Cross citations from world war two. They start with
"[name] picked up a Bren Gun and..."
almost always.
Or "(insert name) pickup up a PIAT"
@@hauptmanndosman Oh boy...the PIAT..... :(
Thomas Dosman One or two VCs were won at Arnhem with the Piat.
@@meurigdavies8080 italy too... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Smith
@@duncanbrown1864 The PIAT gets a lot of unfair criticism. It was heavy sure, but cheap. It actually fired a far more powerful HEAT round than the Bazooka, could fire 3 inch mortar shells either in direct fire or in mortar config. It's effective range was also similar to the Bazooka which couldn't hit much beyond 100 yards. Add in it could be fired inside a confined space and a fast reload and rate of fire (if held correctly) then it wasn't half as bad as people think.
The Panzerschreck stood out from the pack because of its 88mm round, but the 2.75 inch Bazooka and PIAT both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Certainly better than a Faustpatrone or Panzerfaust...
Goddamn Ian, an early upload and a Canadian one at that! Made my day and it ain’t even 10:30am for me, cheers!
Not only did Inglis make 7,92 Brens and HP35s for China, they made Boys AT rifles, and Sten MkII as well.
For once, the Boys were a Match for Japanese Tanks ( 1930s KMT still used T18 Mausers against Japanese Armoured Cars!).
The No4 rifles came from LongBranch.
The Stens were converted to 7,62x25 after the Revolution..
The other big production was Browning .303 Aircraft Guns for Commonwealth countries.
They certainly a massive enterprise during WWII.
Doc AV
I had a great-Aunt who worked in the Inglis plant in Toronto. She made Bren guns during WW2. She always downplayed her contributions saying it was “ just a job”. I beg to differ, she did her bit to make sure we can enjoy the freedoms we take for granted today. All those third wave feminists pale in comparison to the work she did. Well done Aunt Frances, RIP.
My Great-Grandmother actually worked at Inglis during WWII. I’m not 100% sure on what she did but I know that it had something to do with the sights for Bren guns.
tinfoilhat38 thats wild
Keep your family history alive.
Clearly, your great-gran did a fine job.
Hey dude, just because we use a lighter cartridge dont mean we're sterile, its how you use it that matters
We were still using the 7.62mm Bren guns in Australia in some non front line combat units into the late 1980's. I carried and fired them myself, really nice gun to fire.
bren guns are still used today, that just show how amazing the design of this gun is
Probably a good opportunity to sit down with Binh Sinh again and discuss ww2 support weapons used by chinese!
Not mentioned, there was "sterile" Canadian-produced 8X57 ammunition available cheaply in the US back in the 60s of 70s. I still have a few rounds of it somewhere.
The correct procedure for gas regulation is to set it on the smallest hole until it stops ( about 2 mags) then turn to the next largest hole until it stops then the next until it stops + the next until it stops then change the barrel. With ref to your other (303) vid. In the UK the 'bolt' is referred to as the breech block, the parts are referred to as groups, piston group barrel group, Bipod + body groups the butt is part of the piston group.
my grandfather was part of a bren gun carrier crew so its very possible he was using this gun, very cool!
More likely he would have been using the 303 caliber version (Unless he fought with the Chinese).
Greece and Cyprus had some Brens too. Not sure if they were resistance models or simply surplus from the British empire.
There's a picture of my father, handling a Bren in the 70s, mounted on a tall tripod.
FYI "This light machine gun in the Czechoslovak army was marked as the LK vz. 26 ("LK" means "lehký kulomet", light machine gun; "vz." stands for "vzor", Model in Czech). ZB vz. 26 is incorrect marking because "ZB-26" is a factory designation (Československá zbrojovka v Brně), while "vzor 26" or "vz. 26" is an army designation."
After watching project lightening I want to see this in action compared to the other bren.
@@TheRealColBosch Chatellerault 24/28, I should imagine.
Ian has (used to have?) a Bren modified to use the AK magazines. There is a video of him on a shoot where it failed a couple of times (I don't remember what the issue was).
My father had a bit of training with the Bren gun (99% sure it was .303, 90% sure it was an Inglis), and was very impressed with it. I remember him saying something like "a good shooter could cause *some damage* with that gun...".
Ian, getting me through the work day with a smile
And lo, gun jesus did lay his hands upon the bren and it was no longer sterile, praise be to gun jesus
John Inglis and Company (now Whirlpool Canada) "Inglis" is now a brand of household appliances from Whirlpool marketed primarily in Canada. In the United States, Inglis appliances are sold at Best Buy stores.
Inglis used to be the supplier of appliances to Eatons under the Viking brand, way before Whirlpool.
I just found some live rounds for this model in a box of random rounds I had from an auction. I was so confused by the head stamps and bullet dimensions. Its really cool to see what It goes too.
Solid gun! That and the Enfield did something at least to equal the playing field against the Germans. The Sten albeit fugly wasn't as bad as it looked either.
One gun I dream of firing. Must save some bucks n go visit a cousin in Arizona. He says he is ten mins from the range.
if you happen to be in Ohio, towersarmory.com
Thanks Ian. It is in stories like this that your extensive knowledge of firearms history comes into play. Nicely done.
Thank you GunJesus, very cool
Ian likes to get mornings started early.
A-yup, coffee and Forgotten Weapons is my morning ritual. Has been for years now.
Now I know the significance of the Inglis sign (now torn down) next to Exhibition Place in Toronto (I was only aware of Inglis as manufacturing kitchen appliances and their famous dishwasher). The gun manufacturing district (aka the Liberty district) was across the tracks from Exhibition, which is next to the Fort York Armoury (where the guns were stored before being shipped to Europe).
Brens are the coolest.
British and Czech design+German cartridge+Canadian Steel= Inglis Bren gun.
+ made for the Chinese
I have a friend here in Switzerland who has 2 copies of the 7.62x39 version with Chinese characters. Great firearm.
A very interesting addition to the Bren family. Thanks for the video!
10:23 Isn't it 7.92 I*? Star was quite commonly used in the British marking system of the day.
In 1970-71 I was stationed at Fort Hood Texas. I was friends with the assistant curator of the 2nd Armored Division Museum. They had a Chinese 8mm Bren captured in Korea. Excellent condition and after the museum was "closed" he would pull items like the Bren out of the case so the two of us "gun nuts" could check them out.
Inglis made home appliances in the same factory up until the 1980's before they finally closed. During my Canadian army service I saw pistols that had Chinese characters on the slide, as we were using Chinese contract parts to maintain them.
Minute Man what? Replacement parts? Pffft! The 9mm Browning pistols are only 75 years old! Barely broken in!
They are still around but got bought out by Whirlpool Canada.
Yup. My washing machine (mid 2000's) is an Inglis.
My how the mighty have fallen.
@@hauptmanndosman Almost every arms company goes back to making civilian consumables and appliances after wars. Remember, a big chunk of M1 Carbines were made in a lamp factory.
My dad used a Hi-Power during his mandatory military service in the 80s. That being said he was a ROCN reserve officer, so he wouldn't have gotten the latest and greatest... they were still using M1 carbines in his time, rather than the newly-developed T65 or even the M14. Active front line troops probably had much more modern equipment.
The BREN machine gun is one of those timeless designs. If it wasn't for the missing polymer parts, these guns would still hold up against modern designs in army trials today.
Long Branch represent.
I really like the ZB 26 family of LMGs
Got to shoot one in 7.65 while in the army and was my favorite gun after the SIG 510-4
Some such Bren guns were converted to use 7.62 Soviet and feed from AK magazines, you say with a smile?
That'd be a sight I imagine. How cool it would be to even possibly own one, eh?! ;-)
Ian had one (I don't know if he still owns it)
You have a profound respect for the weapons and also knowledge.. keep up the great work.
Just traveled to Taiwan and saw one of these 8mm Bren in the small arms collection of Military History Museum in Taipei !
Good video on the 8mm! The Communist 7.62x39 conversion is very interesting. A fellow told me about coming across a Bren that took AK mags in Vietnam. I figured it was either a VC conversion or he had misidentified it in the heat of the fighting. Take Care!
The Chinese nationalist on Taiwan also made them in 30/06 they were known as the m41,I don't know if they used Canadian-made parts or if they made it all in house . Ironically the suggestion that the US manufacturer this gun inww2 was vetoed as it didn't use the standard cartridge! One of the great what ifs,US marines with brens?But we all know about US ordanace.
I enjoyed your video but when I checked the Morphy's page I got sad...Keep up the great work!
1x is probably 1 star, and reflects a design improvement.
Am I the only one who, when Ian starts to punch a pin, thinks "is it captive? IS IT CAPTIVE?!" and when it turns out to be captive audibly yells out "YES!!" ?
you are far from alone …. :-)
I salivate when I see a captive pin
I wonder if Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl (Canada's version of Rosie the Riveter) helped make this one. She was a real factory worker at the John Inglis factory.
It's not Canada's "version" of Rosie the Riveter, but it's the equivalent to Rosie in popular images of "Women War Workers"
It predates Rosie, as the series of Ronnie the Bren gun girl photos were taken in early May 1941.
Jordan Williams Yup, but most people don’t know any of that, but do know about Rosie the Riveter. Hence, it made a convenient shorthand for the idea I was expressing. Cheers.
So it's a Chen Bren.
Chen gun.
From an 8x57IS into a 7,62x51 sounds logical.. The two otherwise very different cartridges in size and shape share the same case head just like a .30-06, 7x57, 6,5x55.. A very educating video this one since pretty much everybody who's into WWII has seen pics of Chinese troops armed with these Brens but how they got them has been at least for me a mystery even though I knew the 8x57 was the Chinese service caliber.
Bren gun? With a clandestine history? Yes please!
For which resistance movements did Inglis made weapons? I know that 303 Bren where sent to the French, Belgian and Dutch resistance. Do you have any idea why the Brits or the Nazis never manufactured 30 round or 25 round magazines for the 8 mm Bren or ZB-30/26 guns?
Thanks for that Ian. It is interesting to see how the flow of weapons and weapons technology matches the flow of nations and empires.
Love that Canadian ensing
No.1🩸.
Bren is the portmanteau of the first two letters of Brno and Enfield. Brno being in the Czech Republic and Enfield, the home of the Royal Small Arms Factory.
A sterile Bren gun... So it will only fire blanks?
I have heard it said that post war 7.92mm Brens in the UK were intended for the armoured regiments. They carried Brens in the tanks for use dismounted on piquets and they used 7.92mm for their tank mounted BESA machine guns so 7.92mm Brens could use the same ammunition as the tank mounted guns thus simplifying ammunition supply.
7.92mm Brens dropped to the French resistance were sometimes intercepted by the Germans and they were passed to the Vichy Milice (militia) to use as the Germans could supply 7.92mm ammunition to suit. The French Milice using them to counter the French Resistance.
It's unlikely that the British would have acquired 7.92mm Brens for the tank regiments post war. They were already phasing out the Besa and 7.92x57mm in favour of Brownings in 30-06.
Ian M: one of the few people in the world that seems to know what the pre-1965 Canadian Flag looked like (in the thumbnail pic).
Very cool
I would be super interested in seeing a machinegun / cannon working with the Gast principle (wwI invented now in use by some Russian airplane cannons). Its an alternative to a Gatling and very interesting mechanically. Maybe you can get your hands on of those at some point?
The Nationalist China bought huge amount of them, and like every other firearm owned by the Nationalist, they ended up in the PLA's hand. Some of the most famous picture about PLA in the civil war included a 8mm Bren gun. And also, they are called 七九勃然 in China
who remembers this from "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"?
"What the fuck is that? It's me Bren gun"
It's up there with with Spaz 12 scene in Snatch "what is that?" "This is a shotgun Sol" "it's a fucking anti aircraft gun Vincent" And now I have to go watch Lock Stock for the seventy third time cheers.
“Protection from wot? Zee Germans?”
And that she hits no body with it haha
@@jimelliot4904 It's even more amusing because the guy who played Tommy (Stephen Graham) was in Band Of Brothers straight after Snatch if Im not mistaken he was killed by a german mid way throught the series.
jackisme 1993 I think so yeah. I loved his role as Al Capone in boardwalk empire too
Anyone else find the I target pro ad extremely annoying?
I find most ads annoying at least it is something related to firearms, and not the Are you the guy with the gun.
I also do not skip ads while watching. I do mute.
I know that You tube pays content creators more if we watch the whole ad rather than skipping.
Traditionally mounted on shoulders of polar bears
That's an urban legend, eh? We actually mounted them on moose, because the antlers made a more stable mounting platform, eh? My dad was a Bren gunner in the Royal Saskatchewan Mounted Moosemen after the war.
(My dad actually was a Bren gunner in the reserves after the war, but no moose were involved).
@@calamusgladiofortior2814 Any pictures available???(or was this Canadas secret mode of mass destruction)LOL
The only bear-based Bren Gun carrier I ever saw was designed for use on Grizzlies.
I don't know if it would be possible to acquire one, but would a video on the Japanese Howa Type-81 Rifle be something in the future?
I think some of them got captured by the Communist and they were used in the Korean War, but being replaced by Type-56 LMG (which is an RPD copy, not the Type-56 'SMG' which is an AK47 copy) in the 50s.
Used Berns in Australian cadets - pleasure to shoot & remarkably accurate.
I love the auction links. It's always a treat to try and guess the price before looking. This one? I was waaay off😀
I really like how you used the flag of the time for the thumbnail. It's the flag my grandfather and great uncles served under. Grandpa wanted to be a pilot but scored too high on the tests, and was assigned to be a navigator instead because of his talent for math, but it didn't really matter because the war ended when he was almost done training. My great uncle was an engineer, and would help construct bridges for allied vehicles. He was awarded a medal for running out into the middle of a bridge during an attack, carrying back a wounded soldier.
Another informative video; thank you.
Not just any Bren Gun "It's me Bren Gun" total missed opportunity :D
I have an Inglis....refrigerator
well the disassembly on this is so efficient that IF this gun locks for no reason, disassembling it on the spot is probably an option! changing a mag in a controlled environment like a range is kind of slow but getting faster is not out of the question, but those faster people ARE slower like any one else when you do it under life or death pressure, disassembling the gun is almost as simple as a mag change! think about it! (normal person changing a mag: 15 sec, normal person changing a mag under fire: 5 minutes, trained people: 5 sec normal, 15 sec under fire. disassembling the gun and putting it back under fire: 1 min! that is a 10 minute job with a lot of guns not under fire!)
I wish a notable history youtuber would make a video about the Canadians at war. I.E 1812, Boer war, verdun, vimy, Hong Kong Juno beach, that time Croatia attacked us unprovoked. Etc. Most people don't realise how import Canada was and is in international conflicts
Look up Norm Christie he has done plenty of Canadian War series that aired on TVO and such for lots stuff on WW1, WW2, Korea. In some he visits actual battle fields and brings Canadian veterans of the battle with him. (Spanish civil war, WW2 and Korea)
Canada has always punched well above her weight, despite having a military that is perennially under-equipped and undermanned.
If you consider that Canada supplied 1,000,000 troops during the Second World War out of a total national population of 11,000,000, that is an absolutely huge accomplishment for such a small country to pull off.
The performance of the Canadian Army during the First World War and particularly at Vimy Ridge was so good that it earned Canada a seat during the surrender proceedings at Versailles - Canada was one of the signatory parties of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War. Again, this too is a huge accomplishment for a small country.
A very nice history class today!
The Chines Nationalist (ChiNat)manufactured some .30 Cal US (.30-'06) Bren once they got set up on Formosa (Taiwan) Some of them ended up as part of the SOG Teams arsenal when going into Laos, north Vietnam or the PRC
Ian, will we get a project lightening 2.0 for WW2?
Don't you have one of the Chinese rebarreled guns?
Rebuilt in semiauto, yes.
@@ForgottenWeapons neat
That's one clean gun for its age. I bet it goes for a pretty penny.
Of course it's clean, it's sterile.
Indian army still produces and uses it and it's production is done from government ordinance factory in Gujarat
What does it mean for a weapon to be "sterile?" Does it refer to the removal of marking to make gun harder to trace?
If only our laws would allow collectors to bring this back to Canada, but "Ooh, it's scary!" rules the day in the North.
20 rounds magazines for a machine gun seem kind of small... I'm guessing the logic behind it was that anything larger would be too heavy to shoot effectively from a shoulder or hipfire position, especially if the weight of the magazine is on top of the gun. Machine gun crews in the German army consisted of two people; one gunner and another guy responsible for carrying around the ammunition, helping with reloads, switching out the barrel etc. I don't know if American and British machine-gunners also had someone helping them out since the BREN and BAR are capable of filling a combat role similar to an Assault Rifle as well as suppressive fire, but it would definitely be useful.
British Commonwealth troops routinely Brens with 30 round magazines from the hip.
The ZB 26 was widely used in China and it was convenient for the 7.92mm Bren to use the same magazines.
YT is screwing with your channel again. I didn’t get a notification for today’s video!
Have seen an 8mm Zb.26/30 franken gun from the Dutch East Indies, used to be a Japanese Army gun during ww2.
Very nice indeed.
Anyone else sick of hearing that guy talk about "I-TOOKA PRO"
Idk if it's the same company, but inglis makes household appliances now
Does the Sterile Bren gun fire blanks then
there is something weird with the intro logo, bad resolution and its there for longer than usual
And where is the fancy music...
On the barrel is it an X letter... or actually a stylised star?
I think this "x" after "I" on the bolt should be considered as asterisk. Adding asterisk after mark number was common practice to distinguish a minor alteration in design.
Weren't they used in South America? They also used a lot of 8mm Mauser ammunition.