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About The Bren Light Machinegun

Britain's military decided to replace the venerable Lewis gun by 1938 and developed the Bren LMG based upon the Czechoslovakian ZB26. This machinegun was designed to fire either in full-auto or in single-fires modes, with a noticeably longer trigger pull for single-fire. The Bren was designed to be used by 2-man teams who could keep the machinegun firing under battle conditions. Standard issue was a spare parts kit (combination tool, small parts, cleaning kit, extra barrel) and 25 magazines in two steel boxes of twelve each with one in the gun case. Magazine capacity is 30 rounds, but filling them up all the way caused malfunctions in the field and the magazines were loaded to only 28 rounds. Since the .303 cartridges used in the Bren are rimmed the loading of magazines had to be carefully done in order to avoid stoppages.

During WWII the Bren quickly gained a reputation as a reliable and accurate machinegun, light enough to be carried and even fired from the shoulder. The Bren has a slow cyclic rate but this also allows a longer period of sustained fire before having to change the barrel. The change mechanism allow for a very quick exchange of barrel. The Bren fires from an open bolt and this keeps rounds from "cooking off" when the gun is hot.

Enfield produced Bren guns exclusively at the beginning of the war, but by the end of the conflict most Brens were produced in Canada. The Bren was used long after the end of WWII and the last models produced were rechambered for the 7.62x51mm NATO round. The model nomenclature went from L4A1 through L4A6 and the newer NATO-chambered machineguns can be recognized by their lack of cone-shaped flash hider and by straight magazines (since the 7.62x51mm round is not rimmed).
Additional reading on the web can be found on the following pages:

• Bren LMG used in Korea by the Australians
• Bren LMG description by Canadian Armed forces