The Definative Light Machine Gun - Updated
"The Bren Gun is spoken of with affection by every British soldier who ever used one, & with good reason. Beyond any doubt it was . . . the finest light machine gun ever adopted in quantity by any army. It was reliable, robust, simple & accurate, and beyond that no one has a right to ask."
(Ian V Hogg, Infantry Weapons of World War II, 1977)
Call it a Bren Gun or in its later guise, the LMG, as a platoon level light support machine gun, it is my somewhat biased opinion that this weapon sets the gold standard. Introduced just before WWII, it served in the British Army until the late 1980s. In fact, I strongly suspect that there are a few kicking around that still haven’t been retired.
Originally, the Bren, in its L1 form was chambered in .303 calibre, it had the classic curved magazine to account for the rim around the base of the Mk. 7 cartridge. With NATO standardisation, it was rechambered to take the 7.62mm round and redesignated LMG L4. Whilst replaced in front line service by the GPMG, it continued to serve in many support units.
What makes it so good? It is comparatively light, especially when compared to the GPMG. It is simple & robust, with very few working parts to much to go wrong. As far as reliability goes
It was popular with British troops who respected the Bren for its reliability & combat effectiveness; few would have swapped it for anything else. Many considered it the best light machine gun ever made. The quality of the materials used would often ensure minimal jamming. When the gun did jam or had some foreign object stuck in it, the operator could adjust the four-position gas regulator to feed more gas to the piston increasing the power to operate the mechanism. It was even said that all problems with the Bren could simply be cleared by hitting the gun, turning the gauge, or doing both.
As for your humble correspondent, I regret to saw that I am old enough to have used one. Now I know that many of you out there have a much broader expirence of military firarms than me, but for my money, it is the finest weapon that I have ever carried & I just wonder how many Toms, currently in Afghanistan or Iraq, wouldn’t prefer one to their LSWs … or the old 303 cartridge come to that.
Comments
Mmm...machine gun...
Posted by: Mr. Bruce | November 18, 2003 6:28 AM
These were in service in the Australian Army well into the mid 80's prior to the adoption of the 5.56mm ammunition as a standard round.
I rate the the L4 Bren as the finest light machine gun ever made, and I have used plenty, of all nationalities.
Accurate enough to be used as a rifle, and a rate of fire that enables even a rookie gunner to have complete control at ranges out to 600 metres.
The one downside is it's susceptibilty to stoppages in muddy conditions- not always avoidable in action.
A work of art in its construction and build standards.
Posted by: Pedro the Ignorant | November 24, 2003 3:16 PM
Sound like a fun weapon to fire, but my favorite LMG still has to be the M-60. Sure it's a heavy bastard and a pain to clean, but with the weapon zeroed properly and a good assistant gunner I could pop single man sized targets at 1200 meters with iron sights with ease. Just had to fire a few Kentucky windage shots first.
Plus nothing was more fun than opening up with a full belt of all-ball ammo and tracers with a starlight scope at 0200 hrs. Talk about some fireworks, it was frickin beautiful to watch the tracers ricochette all over your lane of fire!!
Posted by: Trackersmurf | November 29, 2003 5:12 AM
When I was in the service cross-training with some of your chaps I got to take the Bren Gun for a spin. It was very nice to shoot. Your own chaps complained about the accuracy a bit since the idea of the machine gun was all about area suppression and this nice bugger put all its rounds in one spot out at 800 yards instead of covering a nice area...
I personally did not care for the casings coming out the bottom and burning my arm...
I also got to spend some time with the Bull Pup in its non fixed version and really enjoyed firing that puppy...
K
Posted by: Kirk | January 20, 2004 11:34 PM
I regret never getting to fire a Bren during my service as both my uncle and my grandfather had used it. Both of them mentioned its,(high level of,)accuracy as a negative point but agreed it was a grand weapon.
Posted by: Brithnoth | May 18, 2006 12:44 AM
I probably dare not ask what happened to all the retired ones... the answer would probably ruin my entire day.
Posted by: Legman688 | December 16, 2006 4:55 PM
I carried the L4 in Omagh and Armagh and was gutted when it was withdrawn and replaced with the GPMG. Night shoots were its home and with the IWS and IR torch it was unbeatable!
Posted by: Tim Castle | December 16, 2006 6:46 PM
And coming up next week, Mr FM's favourite parachute design. As it looks like that's the next thing to get "dropped".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/17/nparas17.xml
Posted by: nbc | December 17, 2006 11:05 AM
NBC - dont get me started .... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Posted by: Mr Free Market | December 17, 2006 12:22 PM
I want a Bren so badly I can taste it. I'll even take a semi-auto, in either .308 or .303 -- preferably .303, because a.) it's the cartridge with a wonderful heritage, having been used to kill Huns and assorted other fuzzies for nearly a century, and b.) I have about 1,000 rounds thereof lying around.
If you want to see my head explode with indecision, ask me to decide between a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) and a Bren... actually, the Bren still wins because of b.) above.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | December 17, 2006 5:25 PM
What a splendid unit!!
Posted by: DirtCrashr | December 18, 2006 4:24 PM
I remember these from the Aust High School Cadets circa 1974?. We learnt to disassemble and reassemble them with our eyes shut. We did get to shoot one on a camp somewhere, I never shot one in anger thankfully. I had an exploded view poster of it on my bedroom wall, much to my Mother's annoyance.
Posted by: Forester | December 19, 2006 3:10 AM
I fired the Bren at high school, in the school Cadets (1960's). They had long gone from the Australian Army when I did National Service in 1972.
My son saw some in East Timor in 1999, used by Kenyans, I think.
Imagine the commotion if school students were taught to fire machine guns today, yet society was less violent back then, and we learned safety and discipline along with the weapons training.
Posted by: Paul Williams | December 19, 2006 3:29 AM
Fraser High School Cadet unit, 1994 to 1998, learn to fire, strip, maintain and othwerwise use Steyr AUGs, including in full auto fire. had a grand time, and from a shy kid become a leader of men :D
last huigh school based cadet unit leftn in NZ and it was a good learning experience :D
Posted by: Rhys | December 20, 2006 12:34 PM
No love for the M-60 here ... you can put parts in it backwards ....
It is not as good an MMG as a vickers or an MG-1 ( MG-42 ), and it is not as good an LMG as either a Bren or a BAR.
If you want a GPMG, an FN-MAG ( basically an upside-down BAR with belt-feed ) is better.
Posted by: Kristopher | February 11, 2008 4:03 PM
its nice.
Posted by: MITU | May 25, 2008 9:32 AM
When abandoned old Brens Come here to New Zealand to retire - we've got large numbers , plus boxes of mags and spare barrels.Makes up for the NZ Army only having Crap steyrs - When the Indonesians come , they can see what freed them of the japs 60 years ago.
Posted by: Peter Vickers | July 15, 2008 7:44 PM
i have recently bought a ww1 mark1bren gun in original casewith six rounds how much is it worth
Posted by: fogden | July 29, 2008 8:43 PM
Great reading.
I have fond memories of the BREN / LMG.
I served in the Bermuda militia Artillery in 1962-65,Bermuda Regiment 65-75. The BREN was our standard section LMG,I got to fire both the .303, and NATO
7.62 versions. We later on recieved the General Purpose Machine Gun ( GPMG).
Posted by: Peter Wilson | February 15, 2009 1:48 AM
I am at present instructing on the Bren Lmg MK IV it is being fired for the last time by the Reserve Defence forces by my students here in Ireland i will really miss this class piece of engineering it is being fired on the 13th june 09 to use up remaining .303 ammo
Posted by: francie | June 8, 2009 11:42 PM