Bren gun figures 1940 and the fall of France

[Kev G]

As the discussion regarding Bren guns remaining in the UK after the fall of France in 1940 was merged in amongst the parent thread 'Enfield made MKII's ?' I have posted this to give the subject it's own discussion in the hope that it will stimulate some debate.

With many thanks to David Boyd and his extensive collection of PRO documents (20,000) which cover British WW2 UK production and the Ministry of Supply some more details are available from his records.

For ease of reference and to save typing out all the info here, David Boyd has an excellent website where the immediate aftermarth Dunkirk and the BEF loses in France and stock held in the UK can be seen here

The references and tables are from (MoS) Ministry of Supply files which I have copies of and can confirm the data relating to Bren holdings in the UK that are given are correct as per the original documents.

Note,as taken from MoS docs and shown on the website -,the equipment requirement of a token division includes all the initial equipment of an infantry division, its share of equipment from the armoured divisions, all equipment from non divisional troops and reserves. For example a regular infantry division required around 740 Bren guns while a "token" division requires 1,171.

The tables given are for "weapons in the hands of the Army in this country" and also include Air Defence of G.B.

Further to the information given on the website there are MoS docs which cover details of all UK Bren holdings, the Middle East and Defended Ports/garrisons abroad holdings.
These figures are for stocks held December the 1st 1940.
Monthly Bren deliveries going back from December to April have also been compiled so figures can be worked backwards.

War Office statement of stock -
UK Bren gun stocks Dec 1st 1940 - 26,591
ME Bren gun stocks Dec 1st 1940 - 7,280
DPA & OG's etc Bren gun stocks Dec 1st 1940 - 2,748

Total of Bren guns stocks Dec 1st 1940 - 36,619

If the monthly Bren production figures are subtracted from the 36,619 figure backwards , this would give a stock for August 1st of 27,052.
If the Dec Ist 1940 figures for ME and DPA & OG's stock is subtracted from the 27,052 figure for August it would still give a UK August 1940 stock of 17,024.

I don't know what the August 1940 non UK stocks were so have given a 'conservative' figure from Dec 40.

Total of Brens produced up until August 1940 is given as 39,277

Australian Bren production produced no guns in 1940
Canadian Bren production may have been about 1,600 in 1940 but none reached the UK in 1940 apart from 2 submitted for test/trial.
Non UK production can be disregarded when looking at the figures given for 1940.

From the MoS and War Office figures for Bren gun stocks held and delivered above it would suggest that the 2,300 figure of Brens remaining after the fall of France given from the War Office returns for the defence of the UK (given by the ALS in Aldershot) in August 1940 are in dispute by a large margin.

As the 2,300 figure is also used by Maj FWA Hobart which he gives his source as 'International Armament' - Johnson & Lockhoven does anyone have a copy of 'International Armament' to see where the figure in that publication is attributed to ?

As the MoS figures cover weeks,months and years over many pages of records the numbers recorded are not a one off typographical error or a misread that has compounded itself.

As has been said please don't shoot messenger !

ATB Kevin

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