Bren LMG (.303)
Kim du Toit
December 21, 2002
1:00 AM CDT
Developed from the Czech ZB26, and introduced in 1937, the British BREN light machine-gun was possibly one of the best light machine guns ever made, and it’s something of a mystery to me why this fine squad machine gun was ever dropped by the British Army (other than the fact that the brass always get seduced by the newer toys, of course).
Maybe it’s because the Bren only fired from a 30-round magazine rather than a belt, or that the Bren was chambered for the ancient .303 cartridge rather than one of the new whizz-bang. Or maybe the Bren was just so 1940s, and therefore unfit for the New Army. [pause to puke]
Clearly, the actual users of the Bren were not consulted (when are they, ever?) and the Bren was duly replaced with something else. Aaaargh. Here’s a pic:
The Bren weighed about 22lbs, had a slow but reliable rate of fire (500 rpm), and was, for a light machine gun, hellishly accurate thanks in no small part to its 25" barrel. Best of all, the hot barrel could be replaced in seconds without any special gloves, because the carrying handle was also the lever used to remove the barrel.
The curved magazine was necessary to accommodate the rimmed .303 cartridge.
When the British Army changed over to NATO-standard calibers, the Bren was rechambered to 7.62mm NATO, and renamed the L4, in which guise it remained in service until the 1960s, when it was replaced by the rather inferior (and more expensive) FN General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), and more recently by the infinitely-inferior Light Support Weapon (LSW), which fires (of course) the varmint-caliber 5.56mm NATO. In this way, the squad support machine gun has had to sacrifice over 300 yards of effective range for the sake of being able to carry more ammo.
Sometimes, I think these decisions are made by a committee—from the opposing army.
If the Bren L4 could be modified to accept either a belt or a magazine (a simple engineering job), this legendary beauty would make a decent LMG today.
Incidentally, I saw the Bren featured on the "American Shooter" TV show last night (hence this article). It looked, and sounded, fantastic.
Gratuitous Gun Pics
