World War II Organization and issue In the British and Commonwealth armies, the Bren was generally issued on a scale of one per rifle section. An infantry battalion also had a "carrier" platoon, equipped with
Universal Carriers, each of which carried a Bren gun. Parachute battalions from 1944 had an extra Bren in the Anti-tank platoon. The 66-man "Assault Troop" of
British Commandos had a nominal establishment of four Bren guns. Realising the need for additional section-level firepower, the British Army endeavoured to issue the Bren in great numbers, with a stated goal of one Bren to every four private soldiers. The Bren was operated by a two-man crew, sometimes commanded by a
Lance Corporal as an infantry section's "gun group", the remainder of the section forming the "rifle group". The gunner or "Number 1" carried and fired the Bren, and a loader or "Number 2" carried extra magazines, a spare barrel and a tool kit. Number 2 helped reload the gun and replace the barrel when it overheated, and spotted targets for Number 1.
Firing positions and assault use The Bren was generally fired from the prone position using the attached bipod. On occasion, a Bren gunner would use his weapon on the move supported by a sling, much like an automatic rifle, and from standing or kneeling positions. Using the sling, Australian soldiers regularly fired the Bren from the hip, for instance in the
marching fire tactic, a form of
suppressive fire moving forward in assault. A
Victoria Cross was awarded to Private
Bruce Kingsbury for such use at
Isurava, New Guinea, in 1942, during the Australians' fighting retreat from Kokoda. Each British soldier's equipment normally included two magazines for his section's Bren gun. The large ammunition pouches on the
1937 pattern web equipment were designed around the Bren magazine. The Bren was regarded as the principal weapon of an infantry section, providing the majority of its firepower. As such, all ranks were expected to be "experts in its use".
Range, rate of fire, and fire discipline The Bren had an effective range of around when fired from a prone position with a
bipod. It could deliver a beaten ground of by at on the bipod. A 'rapid' fire rate of 120 rounds per minute (four magazines a minute) was sustainable with a barrel change after ten magazines (or reduction in fire rate) to limit wear but doctrine was to fire in 4-5 round bursts. Soldiers were instructed to fire single-shot in imitation of rifle fire to conceal the presence of an automatic weapon.
Weight, carry, and battlefield visibility For a light machine gun of the interwar and early World War II era, the Bren was about average in weight. On long marches in non-operational areas it was often partially disassembled and its parts were carried by two soldiers. The top-mounted magazine vibrated and moved during fire, making the weapon more visible in combat, and many Bren gunners used paint or improvised canvas covers to disguise the prominent magazine.
Magazine loading and ejection The 30-round magazine was in practice usually filled with 27 or 28 rounds to prevent jams and for magazines kept full for a long time 20 rounds to avoid wearing out the magazine spring. Care needed to be taken when loading the magazine to ensure that each round went ahead of the previous round, so that the .303 cartridge rims did not overlap the wrong way, which would cause a jam. The spent
cartridge cases were
ejected downwards, which was an improvement on the Lewis gun, which ejected sideways, since the glint of them flying through the air could compromise a concealed firing position.
Reliability and field reputation In general, the Bren was considered a reliable and effective light machine gun, though in
North Africa it was reported to jam regularly unless kept very clean and free of sand or dirt. It was popular with British troops, who respected its reliability and combat effectiveness. The quality of the materials used would generally ensure minimal jamming. When the gun did jam through fouling caused by prolonged firing, the operator could adjust the four-position gas regulator to feed more gas to the piston increasing the power to operate the mechanism. The barrel needed to be unlocked and slid forward slightly to allow the regulator to be turned. It was even said that all problems with the Bren could simply be cleared by hitting the gun, turning the regulator or doing both. It was "by general consent the finest light machine gun in the world of its period, and the most useful weapon provided to the (French) "maquis" ... accurate up to 1,000 meters, and (it) could withstand immense maltreatment and unskilled use. "Resistants" were constantly pleading for maximum drops of Brens".
Cost, losses, and wartime simplification . With the magazine fitted, the original sights cannot be used. Although they were generally well-liked, the high cost of £40 each gun was an issue for the British Army leadership. This became a greater issue when it was discovered that only 2,300 of the 30,000 Bren guns issued to the
British Expeditionary Force came back to the United Kingdom after the defeat of France. As the result, cost savings and increased rate of production became two main goals for subsequent variant designs. The Bren Mk II design simplified production by replacing the drum rear sight with a ladder design, making the bipod legs non-adjustable, simplifying the gun butt, reducing the use of
stainless steel, among other steps that reduced the cost by 20% to 25%; Mk II was approved in September 1940 and entered production in 1941. While the Bren Mk III design also aimed at reducing cost, it also had the concurrent goal of being lightened for jungle warfare; the final product weighed , 3 pounds lighter than the original Bren Mk I design; it was standardised in July 1944 and saw a production of 57,600. Also standardised in July 1944 was the Bren Mk IV, which was further lightened to ; however, it did not enter production until July 1945, and only 250 were built before the end of the war. While Enfield was able to produce only 400 Bren Mk I guns each month, with the various simplification efforts production numbers rose to 1,000 guns per week by 1943. Later designs of production Bren guns featured chrome-lined barrels that offered less resistance, preventing overheating and reducing the need for quick changes of barrels.
Commonwealth production Bren guns were produced outside of the United Kingdom as well. In Canada, the
John Inglis plant in Toronto began tooling its facilities for production in 1938; the first of 186,000 examples was completed in March 1940. Some of the Inglis-built Bren guns were chambered for the 7.92-mm Mauser ammunition; these were destined for export to
Nationalist Chinese forces rather than for British and Commonwealth forces. In Australia, the
Lithgow Small Arms Factory in New South Wales began building Bren guns in 1940; a total of 17,249 were built. In India, the
factory at Ishapore began building Bren guns in 1942 (it had produced Vickers-Berthier machine guns prior to this time), and would continue producing them for decades long after the end of World War II. Many of the Bren guns produced at Ishapore went to Indian troops, who had lost a great number of automatic weapons during the disastrous campaigns against the Japanese in Malaya and Burma;
17th Indian Infantry Division, for example, found itself with only 56 Bren guns after
fleeing out of Burma in 1942. The Bren could not be used as a co-axial weapon on tanks, as the magazine restricted its depression and was awkward to handle in confined spaces, and it was therefore used on a
pintle mount only. (The belt fed
Vickers or
Besa, the latter being another Czechoslovak machine gun design adopted by the British, were instead used as co-axial weapons.) An unfortunate problem occurred when the Bren was fired from the
Dingo Scout Car; the hot cartridge cases tended to be ejected down the neck of the driver, whose position was next to the pintle. A canvas bag was designed to catch the cartridges and overcome the problem, but it seems to have been rarely issued.
Anti-aircraft role troops man a Bren gun on an anti-aircraft tripod,
Western Desert April 1941 The Bren was also employed in the
anti-aircraft role with the tripod reconfigured for high angle fire. There were also several designs of less-portable mountings, including the
Gallows and
Mottley mounts. A 100-round
pan magazine was available for the Bren for use in the anti-aircraft role.
Related weapons and international service The Bren's direct ancestor, the Czechoslovak ZB vz. 26, was also used in World War II by German and Romanian forces, including units of the
Waffen SS. Many
7.92 mm ZB light machine guns were shipped to China, where they were employed first against the Japanese in World War II, and later against UN forces in Korea, including British and Commonwealth units. Some ex-Chinese Czech ZB weapons were also in use in the early stages of the
Vietnam War. Production of a 7.92 mm round model for the Far East was carried out by Inglis of Canada. The Bren was also delivered to the
Soviet Union as part of the
lend-lease program.
Post-war The British Army, and the armies of various countries of the
Commonwealth, used the Bren in the
Korean War, the
Malayan Emergency, the
Mau Mau Uprising and the
Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation, where it was preferred to its replacement, the belt-fed
L7 GPMG, on account of its lighter weight. In the
conflict in Northern Ireland (1969–1998), a British Army section typically carried the L4A4 version of the Bren as the squad automatic weapon in the 1970s. During the
Falklands War in 1982,
40 Commando Royal Marines carried one L4A4 per section alongside the L7 GPMG. The Bren's final operational deployment with the British Army, on a limited scale, was in the
First Gulf War in 1991. When the British Army adopted the
7.62 mm NATO cartridge, the Bren was re-designed to 7.62 mm calibre, fitted with a new bolt, barrel and magazine. It was re-designated as the "L4 light machine gun" (in various sub-versions) and remained in British Army service into the 1990s. A slotted flash hider similar to that of the contemporary L1 rifle and L7 general purpose machine gun replaced the conical flash hider. The change from a rimmed to rimless cartridge and nearly straight magazine improved feeding considerably, and allowed use of 20-round magazines from the 7.62 mm
L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle. Bren gunners using the L4A1 were normally issued with the 30-round magazine from the SAW L2A1. Completion of the move to a
5.56 mm NATO cartridge led to the Army removing the Bren/L4 from the list of approved weapons and then withdrawing it from service. The Mark III Bren remained in limited use with the
Army Reserve of the
Irish Defence Forces until 2006, when the
7.62 mm GPMG replaced it. The Bren was popular with the soldiers who fired it (known as Brenners) as it was light and durable, and had a reputation for accuracy. The most notable use of the Bren by Irish forces was in the
Congo Crisis during the 1960s, when the Bren was the regular army's standard section automatic weapon. Bren guns were in service with the
Rhodesian Security Forces during the
Rhodesian Bush War, including a substantial number re-chambered for 7.62 mm cartridges similar to those examples in the British Army. The Rhodesian Bren guns continued to see frequent action until the 1970s, when they were largely replaced by the
FN MAG. A few were captured and re-issued by the
Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA). Some examples were still in service with reservists of the
British South Africa Police in 1980, and were inherited by the
Zimbabwe Republic Police upon the country's internationally recognised independence. Zimbabwean policemen continued to deploy Bren guns during operations against ZIPRA dissidents throughout the early 1980s. The
South African Defence Force deployed Bren guns during the
South African Border War alongside the more contemporary FN MAG as late as 1978.{{Cite web ==Variants==