Last production date for Mk I's???

[TactAdv]

I ran across another Dealer Sample Bren I am looking at buying, it's a Mk I, but with what I guess is a quite late production date for Mk I's.....1944. See picture to tell the tale....

A basic, and classically stupid question in my mind arises as a result of this evidence and that of course being why would they continue to mfgr the Mk I variants so very long after declaring the Mk II variant to be the answer to saving time/materials/effort/cost, etc.,???

With my DFM mindset in high gear, I may surmise that for the facility that produced this late variant Mk I, simply keeping the lines and process operative and running as they were was more important than the loss of production in switching the whole facility program over to the Mk II standard? If so.....I'd wonder what the ability to continue to source all the subcontract parts and services which were, presumably cranking out almost all Mk II bits and pieces by then. It's Enfield, so my last obvious question would be.....did Enfield simply not get into producing Mk II's till AFTER sometime in '44??....or was there a period of time where they were producing Mk I's & Mk II's side by side....more or less??? And if THAT was the case.....were the majority of these "late Mk I's" further delivered with more and more Mk II parts installed as they were assembled and left the factory??

-TomH

Information

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[Brit plumber]

From what I understand Enfield only produced a few examples of the MkII (Pattern B) as a simplification trial. The Pattern A or MkI simplified was easier to produce at Enfield as they didn't need to change the set up of the machines too much. Daimler/Monotype were set up from scratch so could set the machines up for the MkII immediately. Enfield went straight from MkI to MkIII production bypassing the MkII. If you look at the MKIII, it shares quite a lot of machining with the early MkI and is said to be a development of the MkI rather than the MkII.

As far as I know, normal production MkI guns would be fitted with all MkI parts except (As Peter will confirm) when there was a shortage of a part and then they would fit later Mk parts i.e. the Mk2 butt.

What's the serial number on the gun, I've got a few BG and BH serial numbers on my list.

[Peter Laidler]

Production engineering is the answer behind your why didn't they question! Sometimes it is simpler to continue what you are doing than to muddle along for months on end changing production over to something else. I often mention the study during that production engineering period at Uni, of MGB GT tailgates and bonnets and the sheer costs of converting some already set-up machines!

As Brit Plumber says above, Enfield were producing a much simplified Mk1 gun (yours is in fact a Mk1A) while Monotype and Daimler were producing the Mk2 variants.

The serial number of your gun would be interesting as the last Mk1's were produced in 1944 and the lines completely stopped in order to change over to Mk3 production - which used much Mk1 stuff anyway!

One report at the time put it this way.
The Mk3 gun must be regarded as a lightweight Mk1 gun except for the rear sighting arrangement. This is reflected in the fact that the serial numbers will commence LB (for Light Bren).
The new Mk4 gun must be regarded as a lightweight Mk2 gun from which it is converted.

But whatever you have, remember that the Bren gun was probably the finest light machine gun ever put into the hands of a fighting soldier. Given its reliability, simplicity and accuracy, nothing more need be said

[TactAdv]

Thanks, Gents, pretty much exactly as I surmised above. Makes sense.
-TomH