THE BREN GUN NEIL GRANT © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com THE BREN GUN NEIL GRANT Series Editor Martin Pegler © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 4 DEVELOPMENT 7 How a Czech gun became a British icon USE 28 The backbone of the infantry section IMPACT 67 Towards a GPMG CONCLUSION 77 BIBLIOGRAPHY 79 INDEX 80 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com INTRODUCTION The machine gun first appeared in the last decades of the 19th century, but it was during World War I that it came of age. The few guns initially issued to each battalion multiplied as they proved their value; a typical British Army infantry battalion began the war with two machine guns in 1914, but would field 36 machine guns by the time it ended in 1918, with further guns in the separate dedicated battalions of the Machine Gun Corps. Indeed, the battlefields of World War I were shaped both physically and tactically by artillery and the machine gun, which forced troops underground in order to survive, while assaults were preceded by massive bombardments intended to suppress enemy machine guns. They were often unsuccessful in doing so, and machine-gun teams emerged from their deep dugouts immediately the barrages lifted to put down killing fire on the lines of infantry struggling forward. Infantrymen joked grimly that it was no longer ‘the bullet with your name on it’ that would get you, but one of the tens of thousands marked ‘To whom it may concern’. World War I saw machine guns diversify in type as well as increase in number. While the British Vickers was probably the best and most sophisticated design, several of the combatant nations had started the war with very similar guns – essentially slightly different versions of the heavy, water-cooled Maxim. These guns were ideal for defence, and sophisticated tactics evolved which even allowed their highly trained crews to use them for indirect fire, like artillery. However, these guns were essentially immobile, and there was an increasing need for a lighter weapon that could go forward with the advancing infantry and provide mobile supporting fire. Some attempts to produce such guns were more successful than others. The German MG 08/15 was simply a lightened version of their standard water-cooled Maxim gun, for example; it was awkward to carry and unbalanced to use, 4 and at 24.3kg (53lb 9oz) including a full water jacket and ammunition © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com belt, much too heavy. The French Chauchat CSRG was chronically unreliable, particularly the .30-06 calibre version produced for US troops. The Lewis gun used by the British and Americans was probably the best of the World War I light guns – it was so good that the Germans actually set up a production line to re-chamber captured examples to fire German ammunition, and trained their machine-gunners in their use – but even so, it was still complex, bulky and prone to stoppages. After the war ended, the large stock of existing weapons and cuts in funding caused by the Great Depression meant that there was little chance for the British Army to develop new designs until well into the 1930s. When work began seriously on a new weapon, however, the specification was extremely ambitious. The new gun should be light and portable enough to do the job of the Lewis gun, but still able to fulfil the sustained- fire role of the heavier Vickers. In fact, the weapon that was finally adopted – the Bren gun, a derivative of the Czech Zb 26 – fulfilled the specification brilliantly. It went through four separate versions during World War II, as it was adapted to increase production or meet changing tactical needs. While it never completely replaced the Vickers, it did serve as the primary support weapon for British and Commonwealth troops through both World War II and Korea, and set British small-unit infantry tactics on a path that they would follow until the 1980s. An Australian Bren gunner on patrol in northern New Guinea, June 1944. (Australian War Memorial 017342) 5 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com It was not a perfect weapon, particularly as a vehicle and anti-aircraft gun, and it was perhaps fortunate for its users that circumstances minimized the effects of these shortcomings. On the other hand, it offered probably a better compromise solution than any other Allied machine gun of the period. Re-chambered for a new cartridge after the Korean War, it served briefly alongside the L1A1 SLR (Self-Loading Rifle), the British version of the Belgian FN FAL rifle, before being replaced by a version of the excellent Belgian FN MAG General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG). Even then, the Bren remained in service as a second-line weapon for decades, seeing use in the Falklands and other small wars before finally being phased out after the 1st Gulf War, a total of more than 60 years of service. As well as for British and Commonwealth armies, the Bren was used to arm an amazingly wide array of other forces, from the French Resistance to the Nationalist Chinese, while captured examples were used by the Germans and a substantial number of postwar insurgents. The Bren was extremely popular with the men who had to carry it into battle, or even during peacetime. Almost all regarded it as a reliable and effective weapon, and it was striking that when discussing the Bren with veterans who had used it, their first response was almost always the same – a nostalgic smile, and the words ‘It was a great gun, the old Bren...’ or something similar. This is in stark contrast to soldiers’ reminiscences about the other major British automatic weapon of the period, the Sten ‘machine carbine’ (submachine gun), which was generally despised for its poor build quality and unpleasant habit of going off on full-automatic if dropped. A slightly fuller analysis of the Bren’s strengths and weaknesses comes from the writer George MacDonald Fraser, who served in an infantry section of 9th Border Regiment in the Burma campaign during World War II: It was a good gun, but needed intelligent handling, for when held firm it was accurate enough to punch a hole in a brick wall with a single magazine, and to get a good spread the gunner had to fan it about judiciously. It could also be fired from the hip, given a firm stance, for without one it would put you on your back. (Fraser 1993: 32) With its distinctive curved, top-mounted magazine, it was extremely recognizable even for civilians, and attracted a certain amount of fame – Noel Coward even produced a hit song called ‘Could You Please Oblige Us with a Bren Gun?’, which must have been the only popular record to name-check a specific automatic weapon until the advent of rap music. 6 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com DEVELOPMENT How a Czech gun became a British icon BEFORE THE BREN Great Britain ended World War I with two primary machine guns, intended for very different tactical roles. The Vickers medium machine gun (MMG) was a relatively heavy Maxim-derived weapon. Water-cooled and belt-fed, it was a supremely reliable weapon which could lay down a solid curtain of fire as long as it had ammunition and cooling water. On one occasion in August 1916, ten Vickers guns carried out a continuous suppressing barrage for 12 hours, firing nearly a million rounds between them, without a single serious stoppage. The Lewis light machine gun was adopted during World War I, and was intended to be light enough to be carried forward to provide the advancing troops with fire support. It had an air-cooled barrel, enclosed in a tubular cooling shroud, and fired from a 47-round pan magazine mounted on top of the weapon. Both weapons were probably the best designs in their respective classes, and clearly better than (for example) their German equivalents, the MG 08 and MG 08/15. However, both had disadvantages. The Vickers was a complex weapon requiring a specially trained crew, and the weight of the gun and its prodigious demand for water and ammunition meant that it was essentially restricted to a static defensive role, rather than the more mobile warfare anticipated for future conflicts. Meanwhile, the lighter Lewis was still relatively bulky, complicated, suffered from a relatively high rate of stoppages and its fixed barrel meant that it could not conduct real sustained fire without overheating to the point where it simply stopped working. The British Army therefore wanted to replace the Lewis at the very least, and ideally both guns, with a single weapon. In 1922 the Small 7 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com AArrmmss CCoommmittee (SAC) rreeccoommmmeennddeed adopting a vveerrssiioonn ooff the American BBrroowwnniinngg AAutomatic Rifle ((BBAARR)),, ttoo bbe called the BBrroowwnniinngg LLiigghht Machine Gun, aappppaarreennttllyy oonn ggrrounds of better ppoorrttaabbiilliittyy aanndd rreelliiability than the LLeewwiiss gguunn.. HHoowweevveerr,, tthhiis plan was never ppuutt iinnttoo aaccttiioonn,, pprreesumably either bbeeccaauussee ooff rreelluuctance to spend mmoorree mmoonneeyy on weapons so ssoooon after World WWar I, or because tthhe Army realized tthhat the fixed bbaarrel and 20- rroouunnd magazine of tthhee BBAARR wwould limit its eeffffeeccttiivveenneessss iinn sustained fire. SSiinnccee tthhee AArrmmy already had aaddeeqquuaattee wweeaappons in place – aallbbeeiitt ssoommeewwhhaatt aageing and often hhaarrdd uusseedd – tthhee sseeaarrcchh ffor a replacement machine gun does not seem to have been The Vickers gun – dating from pursued with any particular urgency. Five weapons (the BAR, Lewis, World War I, it was an excellent Beardmore-Farquhar, Hotchkiss and Madsen) were tested in December sustained-fire weapon, but not 1922, but although the BAR was preferred, nothing further happened. designed to provide fire support Over the next few years, a number of weapons were tested as they on the move. (Author) became available; a revised version of the Beardmore-Farquhar in 1924, the French Chatellerault M1924 in 1925, the Swiss Furrer and the A Lewis gun. Although probably the best of the World War I light Australian McCrudden in 1926, the Norwegian Eriksen in 1927, the machine guns, the Lewis was still Madsen (again) in 1928 and a revised version of the BAR re-chambered heavy, bulky and only somewhat for the British .303in round in 1929. Nothing came of any of these tests, reliable. It fired the same .303 and they seem to have been conducted more to keep abreast of new round as the Bren, from a 47- round pan magazine. (Author) developments than as part of a serious procurement programme. 8 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com The Czech connection The state of Czechoslovakia emerged from the wreckage of the Austro- The Czech Zb 30. Note the ribbed Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I. The new nation immediately barrel, straight 20-round magazine and the location of the gas plug, found itself surrounded by other new states, some of them with competing much closer to the muzzle than territorial claims, and with a wildly mismatched national arsenal. on the Bren. (Author) In addition to Steyr-Mannlicher rifles and Schwarzlose machine guns left over from the old Austro-Hungarian Army, the new state had substantial stocks of captured Italian and Russian weapons, plus purchased war- surplus German Mausers and large amounts of equipment brought back by the various ‘Czech Legions’ that formed the core of the new army. These had been raised from Czech prisoners of war, most notably by the Russians, but also by the French and Italians, who each created and armed their own legions to fight for them in return for promises of Czech independence. To make matters worse, the Czech Legion raised by the Russians had been equipped largely with captured Japanese weapons, and brought back so many 6.5mm Arisaka rifles that the Czechs thought it was worthwhile to set up a production line to make ammunition for them. Amid this logistic nightmare, the Czechs began to build a new army. It was heavily influenced by Czechoslovakia’s main ally, France, to the extent that the French Military Attaché, General Eugène Mittelhauser, The Czech arms industry Czech military innovations in this period were not confined to (known as the PzKpfw 35(t) and PzKpfw 38(t), respectively, small-arms production; their LT 35 and LT 38 light tanks were in German service) formed a significant part of the German significantly better armed than their German counterparts tank force during the invasions of Poland and France, and the (the PzKpfw I and PzKpfw II, respectively), and in the case latter vehicle continued to serve until the end of World War II of the LT 38, quickly acquired a reputation for reliability. as the base chassis for the Marder III and Hetzer tank Unfortunately, this excellent equipment proved to be of little destroyers. The Germans kept the Czech arms industry in full use in defending Czechoslovakia; when the British and French production throughout the war, and afterwards it was able failed to back the Czechs during the Munich Crisis of 1938, to re-establish itself as one of the key arms-manufacturing the territorial concessions the Czechs were forced to give up to countries of the Warsaw Pact. Then, the excellence of Germany (including its painstakingly prepared frontier defences Czech design was again demonstrated by the fact that and key industrial areas) left them unable to resist complete Czechoslovakia was the only Pact country whose troops were dismemberment by the Germans early in the following year. not armed with the Soviet-designed AK-series assault rifles, This gave the German forces a treasure trove of instead using the locally designed Vz 58 – visually similar, captured high-quality equipment; LT 35 and LT 38 tanks but significantly different internally. 9 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com actually served as Chief of the Czech General Staff. It was unsurprising, therefore, that Czech tactical organization was based on the French model, with 13-man squads grouped around a light machine gun, and equally unsurprising that Mittelhauser championed the French Darne design over other available weapons such as the Danish Madsen, despite issues of reliability. Local arms producers were not idle, however, including the three Holek brothers who produced a series of innovative designs, including the ZH-29 semi-automatic rifle. With limited resources, and with their factory on the verge of bankruptcy, they produced a series of air-cooled light machine guns. The first prototypes were belt-fed, but evolved into lighter, magazine-fed weapons, ultimately becoming the Zb 26. The Zb 26 (and the improved Zb 30) were adopted by the Czech Army, and were widely exported; in fact, more were sold to foreign purchasers than to the Czech Army, and the latter complained that its deliveries were being delayed by commercial sales. The 1930 trials and the Zb 26 Following the inconclusive tests of the late 1920s, in 1930 Britain’s SAC was formally directed to find ‘a light machine gun which is capable of combining the functions of the present Vickers .303-inch machine gun and those of the present [i.e. Lewis] light automatic’ (War Office 1930). A trial was quickly scheduled, to re-test the .303in conversion of the BAR and two different versions of the Madsen, along with several new weapons, including the British-made Vickers-Berthier, the French Darne, the Swiss Kiralyi-Ende, and the Zb 26 produced by the Czech Brno firm. All were relatively light air-cooled, magazine-fed weapons. The last two weapons were chambered for 7.92mm Mauser, the commonest European rifle cartridge, while the remainder were chambered for the British .303in round. A Lewis gun of the current pattern was put through the same tests, to act as a ‘control weapon’. The Bren’s rival – the Vickerss--BBeeerrrtthhhiiieerr While the British Army adopted the Brenn,, tthhee IInnddiiaann AArrmmyy chose to adopt the weapon that ultimately came second in the trials, the Vickers-Berthier. It was acknowledged later that the Bren was thhee bbeetttteerr wweeaaappoonn,, being lighter, more reliable and easier too cccaaarrrrryy,, bbuutt tthhee VVBB wwaaass simpler, easier to manufacture, and availlaabbllee sssooooonneerr.. The two weapons looked relatively ssiiimmiilllaaarrr vviissuuaallllyy,, aanndd VB guns are commonly misidentified as BBrreennss iinn pphhooottooggrraapphhss.. The VB saw extensive service with the Innnddiiaann AArrmmmyy aaggaaiinnsstt tthhee Japanese. The design was ultimately mooddiiffiiieeedd iinnttoo tthhee VViicckkeerrss Gas Operated (also known as the Vickers K), which saw service ABOVE The Vickers-Berthier Model A. As with the Bren, as a flexible-mounted aircraft gun, in the desert (notably with the design of the Vickers-Berthier evolved during the trials, the Long Range Desert Group) and with some Commando units. and later guns were slightly different. (© Royal Armouries) 10 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com