BREN/BAR THOUGHTS

SOMEONE, erroneously wrote  earlier today that te BREN LMG only had one
crewman.

WRONGO!

the BREN had a team ; the section LCPL was the team commander, the
gunner	was the NO.1, the loader was the NO.2, and there were 2 ammo
bearers carrying preloaded  magazines for it in addition to their
personal arms.

four infantry men out of the  full strength TOE infantry section.

i have never been able to find out  what the BASIC AMMO LOAD for a BREN
LMG was-this has  eluded me.

magazines  were reloaded from standard service	rifle  stripper clips,
or  single  rounds. BREN LMG magazines were not casually tossed away
when empty.

the BAR in its SAW role had 2 men to serve it, although 1 man was most
common. The gunner NO.1 had a special ammo belt  that cheld 12 magazines
in its six pouches, and a 13th magazine in the BAR.  the NO.2 carried a
second ammo belt loaded with 12 magazines in addition to his  personal
weapon and  ammo. this was the MINIMUM BASIC AMMO LOAD for a BAR, and
both men often carried as many as 24 loaded magazines when going into
action. BAR magazines,were not	tossed away as jun when  empty either. 

other GIs could not reload BAR magazines with ammo from their own belts
and  bandoliers as  it was carried in pre-loaded 8 round clips for the
M-1 rifle.

(especially if they were toting SMG or carbines!)

BAR  magazines were re- loaded 1 round
at a time  or from 5 round  stripper clips.
reloads were carried in stripper clips from  bandoliers  (for the 1903
rifle) or in ammo cans of loaded stripper clips or bandoliers of
stripper clips.

the same person, i think, also wrote about the problem of reloading
those BAR 20 round  magazines due to high rate of fire.

WRONGO again.  the BAR	had two rates of  autofire, a "slow" cyclic
rate, and a "fast" cyclic rate.

the BREN only had one cyclic ROF-higher than the  BAR's.

both weapons  were  restricted to using pre-loaded magazines, and unable
to switch over to a belt  feed.

(this  happened later to the BREN LMG when it was re-chambered and
redesig - nated as a GPMG) 

to further muddle the  waters,	i found out that the  BELGIAN made BARs
made  bewteen the  wars  were able to use  belted ammo or loaded
magazines, and that these BARs also were used by the HEER as a
substitute LMG along with the Czech LMG, the French LMG, and the Danish
LMGs. 

(LOL-so we had both BRENs and BARs fighting on both sides in WW II)

the loaded  weight of a BAR was nearly 20 pounds-empty weight was around
17 pounds. 

i just	went brain dead and cannot  remembr what the  empty and loaded
weight for a BREN LMG was.

also, the BREN used the curved magazine  as it fired the pre-20th
century  .303  round. the Czech  made LMG, the French LMG, the Belgian
made BAR,  the US BAR,	and  MADSEN used rimless cartridges, hence the
"straight" magazine.

anyway-some LMG thoughts about old  and reliable  weapons.

DAWGIE