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Bren is also a commune of the Drôme département in France.
The Bren Gun was Britain's primary light machine gun in WWII.
The British Army adopted it in 1935 to replace the ageing Lewis Gun. The name is a contraction of "Brno Enfield", signaling the gun's manufacture by the Enfield armory, based on the Czech LK vz.26 light machine gun which was manufactured in Brno.
A gas operated weapon, it fired the same .303 British rounds as the standard Lee Enfield rifle at a rate between 480 and 540 rpm, depending on the model. A disadvantage of the weapon was that its rate of fire was much slower than that of its German counterparts. Also, it only accepted magazines, and so demanded more frequent reloading than did belt fed machine guns. The Bren was typically used with a 30 round magazine that in practice was filled to 28 rounds to prevent jamming. There was also a 100 round drum available for Brens in an anti-aircraft role.
Some considered the Bren too accurate because its cone of fire was extremely concentrated. Its weight also stretched the definition of "light" machine gun, because it was often partially disassembled and its parts carried by two soldiers when on long marches.
Despite these seeming shortcomings, it was popular with British troops who respected the Bren for its high reliability and combat effectiveness. Re-barrelled to 7.62 mm NATO and renamed the LMG, was used by the British Army until the late 1970s.
External links
- Nase noviny (http://www.geocities.com/nasenoviny/brenEN.html)
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