That is a nice rug

Mark it an 8

Dude....

@OggyAlso Dude, Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian American please...

Oh Daniel

Dakka dakka won the war.

*Bad Moon intensifies*

No such thing as to much dakka

Let Jerry feel the dakka-dakka!

Dakka dakka for the win boys. And girls maybe

Grendel, I fired a Bren from the shoulder on a walk through range in the late sixties and scored a good grouping and I only weighed under Ten stone in those days ,

@@terry9325 All Ten stone British Bulldog infantry man would be capable firing a GPMG from the shoulder but to get a good grouping you definitely need a Bren Gun - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pZ-bfJCSusDWlHk.html

Naw, that was just Jack

As late as the 1700s some 'scholars of the destructive arts' thought that the longbow should be issued to a part of the army.

There are yank videos far inferior to this that have ten million views. KZfaq is strange, sometimes. This one is pure gold for me. Exactly what I want to see from a practical military history video.

Nice play on 'encumbered'. :)

I think it might be a Terry P reference

Swear words are one of the few things the English can still manufacture better than anyone else.

Sigh...

@@beetooex may well be😂

Your very welcome in northern Australia as well.

Here here, the common wealth and the USA will always have a special place in my heart.

​@@jackduncan5311 The French and the British declared war on the same day in order to defend the independence of Poland. When French and British people fight alongside one another for other people's rights, you know its serious.

Royal marines will take heads off if prompted tho 😂

Yes we all witnesed how you two made a World a better place from korea,Vietnam,Iraq,Afganistan,Yugoslavia etc.What an WASP imperialist bullshit!

Timor uses Brens as Australia gave them ( I think around 20 000? I forget exact number could be half no idea but substantial stock) in 7.62. Often see them being used in patrols along the border

The Czechs still use a version of it as well. Makes a very strange noise

@@Ukraineaissance2014 because its czech gun!

I think it was a mistake to retire it, there was nothing wrong with it and then they had to introduce the SAW for Afghanistan which turned out to be inferior, lacking range and accuracy. What the Bren needed was a modern material upgrade.

@@SvenTviking Yes entirely agree. They could have mounted a scope on it for more accuracy too - i think the early mks had a bracket to mount a scope ( but never did) so it hsd potential there and was inherently accurate anyway. Opportunity lost i'd say.

"That's my boy."

to be sure british yes, but no good i think, we here in our germany are liking our better mg42/mg3

@@Sabrina-jn7ts wat

@@britishmilitaria2947 wat?

That's interesting both my great grandfather and great uncle also served in ww1 with the Gloucestershire regiment.

its worth noting that the USMC have introduced a weapon that is somewhat similar in concept, the M27 IAR, as a one for one replacement for one of the M249/FN Minimi in a fire team, for pretty much these reasons., The underlaying logic is still basically sound,

But-but weapons don't matter in warfare! It's all about the flag officers, haven't you ever read a history book!?!? Would General So-and-So beat General Smith? Now THAT'S a fascinating question. I used to be into military history until I realized that it was mostly flag officer-worshipping crap, as though they determine the outcome of battles/wars to the exclusion of absolutely everything else. Good weapons, good equipment, good tactics, the leadership/aptitude of junior officers, and frequent training in/with them wins wars, not some general pushing division markers around a map from his chatau command post. "Operational" success is nothing more than the aggregate success of "small", "insignificant" units.

@@xerxeskingofking yes and no. That was how they marketed it. In reality, they used it to replace their M4s and use the M27 IAR as the general issued rifle. Check out their latest squad organisation and equipment: 13 dudes, all have M27 IAR plus and one of then has a quad copter. Overall, the USMC now moved to long-range weapon platforms like rocket artillery, land-based anti-ship missiles instead of infantry and ground direct fire weapons. They even want to get rid of tube artillery and tanks.

@Alexander Challis that's not true. Lmg isn't for beaten zone, that's mmg. Lmg is for suppression which as testing has proven time and time again, it's best done by accurate fire. Which is exactly why the bren was so effective and despite the fearsome reputation of the mg 42 you had to have 8 guys constantly running ammo for it and only one for bren.

the forgotten 14th?

Daniel Marshall 2nd Welch , 19th Dagger Division, 14th Indian Army

@@sergentcolon1 Thank you, my farther served in Burma though he died in the mid eighties I was only in my early teens. He didn't say much about his time there beyond putting across it was far from enjoyable. Though I feel most people who've seen war are happy never to see it again, cheers however and all the best.

Only when you're shooting. Unfortunately you spend a lot more time being 'embuggered' with the gun and the things that make it go bang, than you do shooting it. Not a lot of fun, when you are trudging through the countryside.

I'm sure mags were carried anywhere, like GPMG belts were put down front of combat jackets,not safest but in combat,what is.Cowboy's carried them Bandolier style,where they got dirty.Very frowned upon.

What we used to call "double tapping". we were supposed to fire 2 or 3 round bursts on our personal weapons tests with the LMG, I still often managed to fire single shot in full automatic. As a Sapper who had the LMG as my personal weapon when we were dismounted I would have a mag on and 5 mags in my ammo pouches (the weapon was not made ready though due to the risk of releasing the bolt accidentally). My number 2 (usually the section 2 i/c would carry the other 6 mags (or split them around the section a bit). When mounted or in a defensive position with our vehicles we had a steel box which held all 12 magazines.

I don't know,. I can think pretty fast.

In the Camerons, we were taught to use the phrase "son of a bitch"

@@markdesjardins3153 the exact phrase I was taught in the Australian army 😊

@@markdesjardins3153 Same here in the Canadian Army

Spot on great for fixed firing positions, muddy ditch def no.

Here here. Crawling through the Aussie bush with an F89 Minimi the belt would just draw grass and other crap right into the gun jamming it. Especially if you didn't have the magazine pouch.

@@HelloNurse678 At least there was nothing hanging from the other side of the gun, unlike in the vz.59 case that has non-disintegrating belt what makes it even worse. :-)

@@HelloNurse678 We always had 2x 100 and 2 x200 round drums. No loose belts

@@HelloNurse678 I can only speak of my experience with the C9A2 (Canadian Minimi) but our belts always came from the factory in plastic boxes that attached to the LMG held 200rds. There wasn't really any excuse to have a belt hanging loosely. The C6 (FN MAG) on the other hand didn't have that luxury so you had to be careful with the loose belts.

Thanks - yeah, that's a really good way to make sure the bipod is vertical and isn't tending in one direction or another.

I also trained on the old .303 Bren as an army cadet in the 1970’s. My most vivid recollection of firing it on the MOD ranges at Gravesend was absolute agony as the hot spent cases ejected out of the underside of the gun, then rolled down the earth embankment of the firing point and collected inside the sleeve of my combat jacket. Hurt like hell 🤣

Brilliant movie 😂

Yeah, that was pretty funny. What did the other guys have? A pellet gun? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/at-BmNyal6zHZGQ.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aayggpaQm5areqM.html .

"Couldn't you have used smokeless cartridges, Plank?"

I love that film

Matsimus is the stalker on youtube that you both love and hate XD

It really ties the room together

it does in most circumstances. The problem is .303 or equivalent is not introduced to teens anymore. Most 19 year old's are gun-shy..

@@CharlesvanDijk-ir6bl So true. I was introduced to .303 at the age of 16 as a cadet.. I used 5.25 for shooting sparrows in my back yard.

Aistralia gave a heap to Timore in 7.62, sadly. No bemoan8ng Timor having them. Bemoaning Australia finaly getting rid of them. Interesting about 4 mag limit for one guy to carry. Back when we had SLR stil the standard was 4 but at point of signing out of aurmory for excercises 4 were offered often followed by do you want more. Same with 20rd SLR, 4, but on average I'd say guys who were serious carried 6 to 8 of each. Personaly I'd take 6 30s 2x 20 as I owned personaly 6x30 for my privately owned SLR at the time

@@CharlesvanDijk-ir6bl In the uk, cadets can shoot 7.62 target rifles still, as well as the 5.56 GP rifle. Most of the guys I knew liked the bigger stuff

Probably have been a better weapon in Afghanistan than the Minimi.

As a Brit, I can appreciate the Garand, excellent rifle and would love to give one a go. But I can't for the life of me appreciate the WWII BAR. You had a great idea with the M1918, why couldn't you just simplify it? You had to give it a fast and slow automatic mode, what did you think it was, a car?

@@djwoody1649 In their defense, they were trying to solve some of the problems of the 1918 but went about it the wrong way. The bipod was a definite improvement even though it suck, but they screwed almost everything else up by trying to improve it. They should have basically just taken a Colt Monitor and try to figure out a to make the mags bigger like a half drum

@@shanesizemore3654 That would have been a good idea.

@@djwoody1649 To my knowledge (mainly Forgotten Weapons and C&Rsenal, including Project Lightening): The bipod was better than no bipod, the full auto was too fast but semi isn't quite right, the sights were an attempt to make it more accurate, and the "wings" were an attempt make reloading a bit better. They were good reasons but not executed well.

@@djwoody1649 The Americans would have done well to listen to their Southern neighbours, and take a leaf out of the Mexicans' book. The Mendoza LMG was basically a BAR turned upside-down to feed from the top, like a Bren, with a proper bipod and a removable barrel. That could have given the Americans a gun in the ZB-26/Bren/V-B/Type 96 class in .30-06 with little trouble.

Interesting. What was your opinion of the L86?

@@erica3456 I first got my hands on the L86 when I was attached to the RS as Sapper support in 1985 (they were pretty much the first to get the SA80). As a direct comparison I liked LSW - more accurate than the LMG (tend to think of it more as what is now called the DMR, able to hit accurately out to a longer range than the rifle), much lighter (I could fire it standing from the shoulder), as a Sapper I also got a SUSAT sight while the rifles just had iron sights. It had that shiney new toy factor as well. By the time I got mine the initial bad faults had been fixed (at least the ones the RS told us about - no magazine release catch guard, plastic buttons breaking). For us is was a one for one swap for our LMG's, we kept our GPMG's on our Spartans, we never got a mount for our FV 432's or Sultans though for the L86. Us and the Infantry did not agree with replacing the GPMG in infantry dismounted sections with two L86 though (they kept the GPMG in their L37 turrets on the 432's, while others with Warrior had the Rarden and chaingun mounted).

We didn't get ours replaced until 1993 in my regiment, ubique ☺

@@andrewjohnston4127 I got issued SLR and LMG in Berlin 93 to 94 when I was there as a Sapper in the Military Works Force. The old gat's hung around for quite a while

I drove an FV432 in the Gulf War, 1991. We still had an L4A1 LMG mounted on the commander's cupola, although we also got a GPMG for use dismounted (we never had them beforehand). The LMG we had was originally manufactured in 1944 as a BREN, with that designation struck out (====) and the 7.62mm L4A1 details etched/stamped/engraved below. We deployed with SLR too. Up until about 1993/1994 the guardroom at Brompton Barracks had a mixed "fleet" of L85A1s (for those on courses from units with them) and SLRs for those who had yet to swap over. Mainly because the RSME didn't have time during trade courses to teach a whole new weapon system just to post Sappers on the guard shift for a week or two out of nine months or so. When I was posted out to 3 Field Squadron from 1RSME my SSM was horrified on my first APWT when I told him I had never even held an "SA80" before and I was hurriedly taken aside and put through a crash course on a range at Bulford while everyone else was put through their paces. No pressure when you're last up and everyone else just wants to pack up and get weapons cleaned and back into the armoury...

The real question is who would have the better butt shots. Bloke or Ian.

Even R.L. Ermey said the Bren was better than the BAR.

@@truckerallikatuk As an LMG yes, of course it's better. The BAR was not designed as an LMG; it's an automatic rifle. The comparison between Bren and BAR as LMGs is apples and oranges. Ian covered this with Othias and Mae in Project Lightening.

I think Lewis gun will be better. It's just sooo smooth and shoots like a laser

@@mannys9130 ...yes, we know; the whole 'walking fire' thing turned out to be every bit as optimistically dumb as it sounds, so they had to make up another reason to justify keeping these expensive ass, heavy, mediocre long guns...

16:43 oh yes please just like that brawd in Lock stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

In addition the top loading means you can stay much closer to the ground, even with a larger magazine.

Which company? Some massive division doesn't tell me much

@@reidparker1848 B Coy. 2/5 Lancashire Fusiliers, 197 Brigade

Definitely - it makes a massive difference. Future video idea, thanks!

Those were Bren mags. Nicking them to use on your SLR, while immensely cool, was frowned upon.

Yeah literally got my arse kicked for that...Good old days....

Speaking of personal kit, The combined service museum in Maldon has a very good collection ofAustralian jungle fighting knives , mostly custom made , mean looking weapons!

It's also in the pamphlets ;)

I'm so rare to find in the UK since I'm not in the UK...

Bloke on the Range Canada 🇨🇦?

That is not german...

It's a form of German ;)

A very strange form, i´m from southern germany, and i had problems understanding those people... (even in face to face conversation)

There are different German dialects. Who would have thunk?

Barrel changes is a whole topic all on its own, and we didn't have a second barrel. Patience! (It was after 10 mags in continuous fire btw.)

We're going to do a look at reloading 28rd mags vs 48rd belts (cos that's really the comparison in the light role - German belts often ended up downloaded by 2 rounds due to lost or damaged starter tabs). I suspect that mags might end up being faster overall in practice - basically more frequent but quicker reloads, being able to keep the gun up.

@@BlokeontheRange Eh ... I would not exclude those 250 rd. cans of ammo from the test. You couldn't hook them onto the side of something like you could if it was mounted on a tripod but you really had some sustained fire power there and the A-Gunner would only have to load it once unless you moved. Might be worth including in the evaluation just to see how it worked out. Of course - to be a fair evaluation - you are actually going to have to train yourselves to a level of real competence. That's why most of these alleged "tests" on the web are bull shit. Someone in the military who is trained to operate a specific weapon is in fact a Trained Professional - and can be really good at what he does, something very hard to include in an amateur test. Of course ... IRL ... you start running into money problems actually firing machine guns if you're not in the military and have to pay for that ammo yourself ... I don't know what a 250 rd. can of ammo would cost. .

A fair number :D

Sam Coupland for a magazine it takes c. 2 Patreons @ .50BMG to purchase 1, empty.....

Is it possible to legally buy a full auto Bren in Switzerland?

@@Legitpenguins99 In general fully automatic weapons are illegal in Switzerland. However, with a special permit from your state (and not all states issue such permits) you can own fullauto weapons. There are quite a few requirements you have to fullfil that you are granted such a special permit plus of course strict rules for use and storage apply.

@@Legitpenguins99 yes, but owning full-auto weapons isn't really the issue - shooting them, or anything else, is. one thing I always envy the Americans is their ability to seemingly go out into the woods and shoot their heart out. if I did that here I'd be arrested or possibly even shot. AFAIK, there is only one range in Switzerland that allows full-auto weapons, and it's in the middle of nowhere in the German side.

Hill 112?

Hill 112 sounds very plausible, although I'm unable to find any supporting evidence. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if perhaps I'm remembering an episode from a TV documentary series about great tank battles.Whatever, I'm sure it was near Caen and sure that surviving troops (according to theor wn account) scoured the battlefield for discarded and abandoned Bren guns, equipping themselves with one Bren per soldier. Research suggests that perhaps it was Churchills against Tigers, rather than Shermans against Panthers...?

Each Bren was issued with two barrels, to be switched as the one in use became too hot. Many years ago, I knew someone who had served as a Bren gunner in the Korean War. He and his No. 2 had acquired (or to be more honest, stolen) a third barrel. They cursed the extra weight while lugging it around, but that third barrel saved their lives on a number of occasions, because the Chinese troops they often faced knew that a Bren had two barrels and they used tactics intended to cause the Bren team to fire until both barrels were too hot. The third barrel gave them an unpleasant surprise.

You can't get cook-offs on an open-bolt gun since a round is only in the chamber for a tiny fraction of a second before it is fired. Unless it jams, of course, which is a different matter.

@@BlokeontheRange Thanks.

@@Kevin-mx1vi Thanks. Great story.

Sorry, but practically everything you've said there is wrong...

"too accurate for suppession" is such a dumb trope, particularly as the full auto spread on a BREN is wider than on a Vickers according to the pam anyway...

@@BlokeontheRange May well be but it's what was going around at the time when I was in the Army. I only ever fired the LMG on 3 -5 burst auto at Figure 11's and found it extremely accurate and a joy to fire so cannot really say through personal experience as to it's effectivity at suppressive fire. Plenty of interesting articles in the wild, some of which may be conjecture - www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-the-British-Army-Bren-gun-was-too-accurate-to-be-effective-as-a-light-machine-gun www.historynet.com/the-bloody-accurate-bren.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ABren_light_machine_gun

@@BlokeontheRange This will be my last post on this channel. Bloke on the Range obviously doesn't like criticism and his replies don't invite friendly discussion, so goodbye and good luck with your channel and any chance of me supporting you on Patreon!