Bren gun too accurate - myth ?

[MrD]

Many....(very many actually) moons ago when I was in the ACF, I remember asking my dad about this. His opinion, from his personal experience in N Africa was that the beaten zone of the Bren was a fair bit narrower than that of the MG34. That doesn't mean it was too accurate to be effective though.

As for the 'special' ammo, this would surely have needed different head-stamps to identify it, and as others said become a logistical nightmare. I have seen no reference to this in any of the WW2-era Small Arms Training pamphlets.
Pre-war, the philosophy was that the infantry section was built around the Bren, with each member carrying Bren mags (hence the larger Patt. 37 pouches) and it was envisioned that the riflemen would support the Bren, rather than vice-versa. In action, the mags would be passed to the No2, with the empties being refilled if possible from the riflemen's own supply to keep the Bren in action.

Donald

[snayperskaya]

My farther used to say they used to bang their hand on the side of the gun wile it was firing to spread things about a bit,
he also told of cutting trees down with them, He also said they had brackets on their 25 Pounders that they fitted a bren to
for 25 pounder practice.

he's probably thinking about the Vickers HMG and similar, when mounted on tripods it was common to traverse them by knocking them sideways a bit at a time as 2mins in on this video, note how tight the spread is on this MG (I know the range is short, but even so)

Wouldn't the Vickers be classed as a medium machine gun as it is chambered for a standard rifle cartridge?.

I think of heavy machines having a larger calibre, such as the .50 Cal Browning M2 or the 12.7x108mm DShk.

[BamBam]

Vickers was more accurate than the Bren, if you watch that YT video I posted earlier it is all explained by Gun Jesus and Bloke on the Range.

[kennyc]

interesting article

[Alan D]

It was mentioned by Peter Laidler over on the Milsurps forum a while back.

[kennyc]

Vickers was more accurate than the Bren, if you watch that YT video I posted earlier it is all explained by Gun Jesus and Bloke on the Range.

the Bloke has a full auto Bren, Ian has or had a Vickers, between them I think they know what they are talking about, although by the end of that vid they were slightly the worse for wear

[BamBam]

Quite long but enjoyable viewing none the less.

Has anybody ever heard of Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl?



She was the poster girl for Canadian war production and worked at the Inglis factory I believe.

[snayperskaya]

Quite long but enjoyable viewing none the less.

Has anybody ever heard of Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl?



She was the poster girl for Canadian war production and worked at the Inglis factory I believe.

Veronica Foster, she did indeed work at John Inglis Co. Ltd in Toronto.

[kennyc]

at this point I would love to show the Bren gun scene in Carry on Sergeant, where Bob Monkhouse assembles one from parts in an admirably short time.....unfortunately some bugger has had it pulled because of copywrite

[Andy632]

Yup fond memories of doing all that shiete.