My Granddad (I had 3 in WW2; one was killed in action and my Grandmother remarried) was a Bren gunner at Monte Cassino. He was covering the retreat of his company with a section of men and was firing bursts to suppress the German Paras. He emptied mag after mag until he was told that he had just received the last one. When it ran out, he jumped up with his mate and legged it back towards the carriers. He made a joke about the unpleasantness that rained down around him as he ran back and then decided that the gun was slowing him down. So he threw it into a ravine! He always maintained that he was the last one away from the position and the first one into a driving seat of a carrier! His Company Commander jumped aboard and yelled; "Go, go Private!". My Granddad spoke to the officer later and said, "I'm a Corporal sir." The officer replied, "You were until you threw that f*****g Bren away!"

I suspect I'm not the only child that went to school in the 70's and 80's with a surplus 37 pattern haversack for a school bag , wish I still had it now .

"A Bren, its a Czechoslovakian design!" "A Checkeslo what??!"

Although the BEF was mechanised, unlike today, very few soldiers could drive. After returning via Dunkirk, my Dad and his unit went on driving courses......no synchromesh !! In fact in the 70's when I loaned him my Morris Minor, he still insisted on double de clutching ...which fortunately my gearbox survived. He last drove Ambulances in Italy !! Alongside the US troops in Italy ( 5th Army ) tins of bully beef were swapped for K rations , and our woollen shirts swapped for the US cotton shirts.

BritishMuzzleLoader you deserve a much wider audience. Subscribed. Kind regards from Australia.

That image at 0:58 is pretty poignant. That’s a company role call of Australians after a battle. The company started out with ~200 men. Those were the only ones that came through not killed or wounded. Can’t remember the battalion, battle or year, but I think it’s from 1918.

Wonderfully informative fellows. I learned a lot. Who would have imagined that the P08 rig would have a such a superior wireless mic fit?

‘It’s all online now’ hahahahahaha :)

Eye roll when the Bloke talks about Bren magazines. Hehehe... It's all online now!!!

A terrific discussion that makes a solid point (albeit in passing) about the sophistication of British infantry thinking coming out of the Great War and into the Second World War. The infantry section in the Biritsh Army from just after the Somme through to the end of the war was very different in how it was equipped and how it fought from the old sweats who had galloped and run in the retreat in late 1914 until the front stabilized before Christmas that year. The WW2 army was another order of magnitude different again, despite all the interwar penny-pinching. Great video, as usual from both of you.

Absolutely fascinating. As a former reenactor I still find myself quite interested in the details of kit and how food, water and ammo were carried. We get so focused on the firearms that we overlook the fact that every soldier had to live in the field and had to carry his essentials with him. Keep up the great work. Thanks and Merry Christmas.

I joined the British Army in 1987 - we were trained on SLR, Browning HP Pistol, SMG and LMG(Bren) during Basic Training - the LMG was a lot of fun to shoot

Smashing as always chaps, I believe (if I recall correctly) that during late WWI everyone in the Lewis Gun section was trained to operate the Lewis - just as their ancestors with the Bren were at the platoon level. - Matt

I use a couple of Bren pouches on US military webbing for my "falling" belt to carry my gas bottles (I work cutting trees on my woodlot).....damned handy!....and this channel does great vids....compliments from the BC Interior....

Great video, glad to be of help! Hope to see you both here at the Wirksworth Gunroom some day!

Another very informative video guys. It helped me identify some bits of kit I have laying around. Also very timely, we have a WW1 and WW2 battlefield tour booked for may. Keep up the good work Rick

Thank you again for another great video Rob! These collaborative videos you did with Mike are in depth and very interesting. Can we expect any more?

37 pattern was also modular for compass, binocular pouches and pistol holsters

Ending was hilarious. Good work, fellas.

Excellent content gentlemen. Very informative, and also very interesting. Thank you.

Nice chat chaps.....

Awesome stuff. You guys alone created a much more interesting, informative and engaging program than just about anything produced for TV these days. I'd watch a series about the history of soldiering equipment with you two any day!

The philosophy continued into the 1958 Pattern webbing with the pouches used for LMG mags, 50 round GPMG belts, grenades or 2"/51mm mortar rounds. Still had the cloth bandoliers for 7.62 Nato to top up the SLR/LMG mags or link into belts. Used ones are too floppy to act like new ones which opened more easily. The webbing set would slip off the shoulders easily to give you a dry seat cushion. Despite later informal use for the KFS the little side pouch on the main LHS pouch was for the Energa Rifle Grenade launcher. Personally I also had a LHS shoulder lanyard made of a spare bootlace with a tin opener on the end in the top left pocket. 4 more SLR mags would go in the pockets and 2 more squeezed into the mess tins. With 1 mag on the rifle it gave 7 mags with 140 rounds. Don't always believe the official guides. One Colonel kept his pistol holster full of chocolate bars as he thought that if it came to using a pistol he had already failed so keeping up his efficiency was more useful. Then I decided if I moved to Int. then I could go to war on wheels with a tent and tea as a gentleman should. Left the donkey work to the young roughy toughie Rifle Companies. However, I am too far ahead of your WW1/2 period. Like the leather jerkin. Useful piece of kit.

Love the ending. You're always somewhat formal and proper during the actual presentations, but then you do these humorous intros and outros that reveal a nice sense of humour.

Delightful and informative as usual!

I have been recovering from an operation and just did not feel like watching anything. The last 3 days, actually. Until I saw this video. It was what I needed. Great, fun, and informative. Thank you for posting.

+1 for the end bit...

Nicely done! A good chat to listen to as usual. Interestingly there is a half-way house between the two sets of equipment, basically a version of the 1937 Pattern basic pouches but made to attach to the 1908 belt and braces. Ed: Sorry for the redundant information, commented before getting to Mike mentioning this! As said for the time 1937 Pattern was quite inovative but men were beginning to complain when still being issued it into the 1970s... Also Mike it's called a blouse because you fasten it tight at the waist and blouse it over your belt!

Umhum... Thanks for the content laddies. Signs of to the sound of Highland laddie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧🇨🇦.

Very well put together! Kudos to both, full of stuff I didn't know!

Great information. My Grandfather was originally rifleman but was severely wounded at Vimy and evacuated back too England. After he recovered he was trained on the Lewis gun and then sent back to his unit. At Amiens he was in a squad of seven men operating and supporting the Lewis gun. He wrote that the Germans targeted the gun and after the first few hours of the Battle the other six men had all been killed. His Platoon assigned men to carry ammo for him. He survived Amiens unscathed but was wounded for his fourth time at the D.Q. Line ( he had also been wounded twice at The Somme ). Deas Gu Cath

The intro alone is.... wow. Its comedy gold, with a bit of sarcasm regarding how stuff happened for real, way back when. People struggled for their ammo, and their trenchmate or combat buddy, was like "get a fooking grip man, we gon'ta be dead if you dont unfuck yerself lad!!!!" Thats amazing. Britishmuzzleloaders is what I watch everytime i am down, and have like zero drive to watch anything, I watch the channel, and instantly watch for hours.....

We in the Northern Ireland Army cadet force during the early 80s still used the 303 rifle and bren gun, plus used the ww2 webbing. Then I used the bren in 7.62 till the early 90s when we moved on to the SA80 rifle.So I went from 303 to 7.62 to 5.56 from when I was 13 to 16 then around 20 many years ago.

Nice work, guys. I hope Micheal enjoyed his trip to B.C.

Superb. Thanks Gents!

Lucky that the lower mainland in BC stays nice and green most of the year.

Hi Rob. Thank yopu once agin for an outstandingly informative and interesting video! stay safe and Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year all year long. ATB. Nigel

Great collaboration!

Not gonna lie, for a brief moment I thought this was gonna be a short film (which would have been even more awesome)

Very good presentation. I have always wondered about the pattern 37 pouches and what was carried in them. It now makes sense that it was all to support the Bren gun. I also think that, the equipment being universal, to some degree, that officers and NCOs would be less identifiable to snipers. Excellent show, Gentlemen.

Great job guys (as usual)

I enjoy how you (without personal blame on anyone else) point out, many Men suffered because of decisions made by the hierarchy. Decisions that labored the infantry and was the root cause of something dreadfully was wrong somewhere. Many engagements of campanes boiled up these infections and mistakes in thought and theory, only later to be recognized that steps and concerns that had a Very Low order of probability were emphasized. One can only hope that lessons learned in the personal kit issued gear are practical and in good order for today's modern fighting people on front lines throughout the globe. You have an interesting channel and thought is the byproduct of your reviews. whether it is Tactics from the field command base, terrane advantages or disadvantage, mechanized support, supply, weapons or the Naval assistance for the bombardment of hardened emplacements you seem to have good points and bad points to your discussions. Thank you for providing such an in-depth review of history. Dave.

Great video. Well done, chaps.

How did the WW2 troops survive with just a large pack, but now were expected to carry a 100 litre Bergan full of stuff ?

Great info and entertaining. Thanks.

Very enjoyable video, Thank you.

Brilliant as usual!

The P37 pouches are very much similar to the pouches of the US Vietnam era M56 kit. The magazine pouch was called the Universal Small Arms Pouch/Case and fit all kinds of stuff. They had a different pouch specifically for the 20 rounds M16 magazines, but these are actually quite scarce.

This type of preservation programming needs charitable endowments. Certainly it is educational on the level of public television historic programs and documentaries, from years ago. The History Channel doesn't come anywhere close to the detail of your videos.

Fascinating.

Never knew the details of use of those huge ammunition pouches. Thanks!

Great vid l didn't know this about the ammo and it would have been difficult operating this way

Great vid. I love you man. You too Blokey.

I have some pieces of the 1937 web gear. Its great stuff. I have the 08 Large pack, the 37 small pack/Haversack. Two Bren gun magazine pouches and one set of L straps that are a tad too short. Oh and I have a Mark 7 Gas mask bag, a real one.

As a US Marine who has been in Combat ..I can say the load bearing gear has to carry a lot of weight! It doesn't talk many miles of walking to find out the best and worst gear you have! My dad was a WW 2 GI and myself Vietnam!. Great video!

I learned a lot from this video. I thought that the soldiers carried 300 rounds in WW1.Thanks Rob and Mike!!!

Time has changed a bit,mate .... epic . hang on to him

Bloody marvellous.

Seen plenty of photos of German soldiers carrying machinegun belts around their necks.

Also... the photo at 19:20 has been promulgated online as an original period image. It's not, I know because I was there when it was taken! The subject is a friend of mine who appears in some of my videos. I know you don't cite it as a period image but just thought I'd point this out.

Thanks for that. Very interesting discussion. I have wondered how rifle ammunition was carried in 37 pattern webbing and now I know.

Fantastic. Thanks

The Brits should have put 10 or 15 round pockets on the sides of the Pattern '37 pouches. 5 or 6 on each pouch. That way they could carry up to 150-180 rounds easier to get to than having to dig them out of a flopping bandolier. Maybe put a ready grenade pocket on the pouch too. The pouches could still carry BREN GUN mags and or packets of loose rounds for reloading the mags. Like the way the French Model 35/37 haversack carried 2 FM24/29 mags in one cargo pocket and 5 x 15 round packets in the other. The ease that Rob was getting his chargers out as compared to The Bloke shows why that would be desirable!

The way they shared the load amongst the section reminds me of a very long slog through Ft. Lewis 20 some years ago during my QL3 Infantry, where we had more ammo than we knew what to do with it and most of us were walking around like the staypuffed marshmallow man loaded down with boxes of ammo for the C9, I swear I had like 7 or 8 of them stuffed into various nooks and crannies. Great work Rob and Mike, I really enjoyed this series, as I do all of your videos. Thank you, keep it up.

Great video

It was VERY INTERESTING! :)

That stinger...boooooooooo I love it.

And those cloth bandoliers they're still used by the US Army today I picked up one it was used for blanks Fort Lewis and 85-86 year

Watched because of Bloke, will keep watching because of Rob.

Ah 2018. We had it so good back in those days.

that ending Im dying XD

I think the basic battle tactic with the rifle/lmg squads was alternating supporting fire. The rifles would open fire from the initial position while the machine gun set up. Then once the machine gun opened up the riflemen would reposition. The process continued back and forth, until they gain advantageous firing position on the target. At least that's the way an old manual described it... I always wondered if it ever really worked out in practice...

Excellent

Is there a best mustache award for KZfaqrs because I think you'd win it.

That was a good video, but I had a hard time reading some of the white subtitles over the white ground in the lower left corner of the screen.

I was issued 38 pattern webbing when I joined the Junior Leaders Regt RA in 1974. When I joined my regular regt (1st RHA) in 1975 I was then issued with 58 Pattern webbing, of which I still have some.

A wonderful video. For a moment there In the beginning, thought you two were going to stop shooting and get into a discussion on the Lewis vs. Bren guns. Back then, shooting slow and steady, with those bolt actions, was the way to go, so 150 rounds was a good combat load. Need any more, then that runner better be swift footed as Mercury. As for WW2, that load seems a bit too light, in my opinion. Should have had a dedicated squad, just for the machine gun and ammo alone.

id like too add something to this as a gpmg gunner served in N.I. for 12months we started off carrying 50 round belts on the gun ready to go which turned out disastrous as we were patroling through hedgerows and climbing fences you would loose about 40 rounds being ripped off most of the time without notice"footnote you would loose a months pay for every round lost". So carrying belts around your body would not work well. later on we adopted drum mags which just made the gpmg cumbersum. in the end we just settled with 5 rounds on the gun and ready with 200 round belts. another note we still carried bandaliers for the 5.56 rounds even tho we had mags rounds were on clips to load the mags.

Very interesting article! Everything actually stems from the battle of Isomebuwla (excuse spelling) Ammunition the carrying and supply had always been a big headache, we had the heavy calibre of the Martini then the lighter .303 round to the 7.62 better ballistically but still heavy and rates of Fire have increased exponentially putting undue weight of this section carrying ammunition hence the move to the new size of the smaller round now the argument still goes on because of the stopping power. Our problem with winning the firefight to dominant over the enemy so basically you have got to win with a heavier rate than he does to allow you to get your men into an assaulting position.

5:13 LAW AND ORDER

I want one of those British helmets

Nice video huzzah

The Swedish army use to have the 2 bagsystem to, did use it in 99.

I trained on '37 webbing in the 70's. The story we were told was that it won the procurement competition because it had more brass in it than the alternatives, so it was more able to be 'polished in a soldier-like fashion'. It also had to be regularly cleaned with 'Blanco'. One of the big advantages of '58 webbing was that the Army dropped the Blanco requirement!

I miss the zany antics with clips and magazines.

Rob & Mike I'm sure both of you are aware of Othias' and Mae's channel C&Rsenal. They sure are a deep well of information about historic military firearms.

Doing the lord's work, sirs!

Interesting, and quite a good crack.

Recently watched a PBS documentary about Canada and ww1 best bit of film I've seen for a long time pretty sure you seen it already would dearly like to know if you have any thoughts on it ? Oh sorry it was called far from home

BR (Bruno) EN (Enfield) Bren, yet another interesting video,

In Afghanistan, American troops came up with a mod for the SAW that allowed then to carry an entire backpack! of belt-fed ammo. Literally a walking machine gun nest. The idea quickly spread to other auto or semi-auto weapons. The design and manufacture was done by a specific part of the unit that was there for the purpose of implementing soldiers' ideas such as this one. Only in the US, eh?

Great video, thanks. Question: were army rookies armed with new SMLEs or used ones....I'm assuming new ones were assigned to the old sweats but as with a lot things withe British Army could be strictly 'randomcentric' 🤔 ....would an issued rifle stay with the 'owner' for the duration or until broken, lost etc?

Great video, any chance for a video comparing British, French, German and Russian webbing for both periods? The best i can think of is the video by the BBC on the uniforms used by the British and only touches on German and French kit.

Dear lord is the PNW background beautiful. I'll never move away.

Could either of you please make an instructional video on how to properly zero a No1 Mk3*. I know how to do that on a No 4. For instance, do you have to remove the nose cap to make windage adjustments...How the heck can I adjust it for elevation so that it properly shoots the correct height at 100 yds with the 200 yds sight (like 3" group at 100)?

I have heard several different unrelated people who served back then say this line or a very similar line "The Germans feared the Bren gun.".

Britishmuzzleloader: *talks for more than 4 seconds* Bloke: "Mhm"

Do you know if Tommy Atkins took more ammunition for his rifle than was stated on paper? The WW2 loadout seems a bit light on rifle ammo for even brief engagements, much less sustained contact with the enemy. For context, I was struck by the increased ammunition load carried by US infantrymen in Korea carried on average 192 rounds of rifle ammo when the textbook load was 48. I wondered if the British Army saw similar developments. As an aside, Use of Infantry Weapons and Equipment in Korea is interesting, and although draws questionable conclusions at times, does illustrate the fact that at least in that context even the squad composition was highly to adapt to situations on the ground. And on the BAR, the average squad had two, not one, for more firepower, and most apparently discarded the bipod. One squad even had every man with a BAR!

YES

So what you're saying is the P08 is individualistic and rightwing and the P37 is cooperative and leftwing.