Repairing Bren Mk 1 barrel

[Peter Laidler]

Mmmmmmm. Why we went ahead with a converted Bren........ That's a question that I really don't know the answer to Cinders - and one that I'd never thought about. But it MUST be a combination of the fact that a) the Bren was already a known quantity and in service and b) that the only real alternative was the L2 rifle. And...... anyway, that is really not a light machine gun as such, just a heavy rifle.

As for keeping the old .303 gun going while a successful 7.62mm LMG replacement was sought really wasn't an option. The very last thing you need at section or platoon level is a mixed ammo fleet although there was a mixed fleet for several years. It was during these years that the L4 Bren finally emerged. As one of the design team said to me, it didn't really fall into place until the final design of the L1 rifle magazine was finalised and after much gnashing of teeth, until a Bren body was cut in half vertically from front to rear. But even then it wasn't that simple because the magazine had to be further lowered into the body. Causing even more problems for them. But in the end they got perfection

Richard. If it is just L4 barrels you need for your L4A3 or 5 gun, the answer is, once again, simplicity itself if you already have some old .303" barrels. If you've got to make afresh then your problems making new are just starting. Think gas blocks, gas plugs, flash eliminators first. Even Enfield didn't remanufacture the gas blocks and plugs but utilised those removed from barrels removed from the thousands of .303 barrels* that came in with guns for conversion.

*Off at a tangent so look away njow if you are so minded. Because the steel quality of those thousands of old now scrap barrels was already a known and of a certifiable quality, British Steel, Firth Brown and Corby Foundry et al, who supplied the 'new' barrel steel in rolled stock took this steel back in part payment!