Bren L4 / .308 build

[Peter Laidler]

There were problems with the conversion of the Mk1 Bren to 7.62mm. That's because some of the internal and external machining configurations differed over the life of its production. We know about the external ones but they differed internally too.

The Mk2 gun was standardised internally and externally. But even better, the Mk3 gun retained the same internal bodywork so BOTH were ripe for a standardised conversion progress and both were very successful.

There was a proposed Mk4 gun, that was a Mk2 gun, lightened into pretty-much Mk3 spec. It seems that several hundred were converted and it was codified with a C1/CR xxxx type part number. The project was shelved because all the now redundant Enfield Mk1 production capacity was changed over to producing Mk3 guns. That meant that the Mk3 production was full steam ahead and the converted Mk2 - to Mk4 - was abandoned. But you could still occasionally find the lightened Mk3 gun butts (they were actually called, BUTT, Mk5) that started their lives as Mk2 butts, patched where necessary and lightened to Mk5 spec.

Difficult to get your head around the VAOS nomenclature sometimes, but there you go!

Generally speaking, Ordnance tried to ensure that the post war European based armies in Germany/Europe had the Mk2 guns, alongside Canada (and the allies such as Belgium and Holland who were also equipped with UK and Canadian stores). The Far East, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and India (until 1947 ?) got the Mk3's

My friend, an Army Ordnance liasion officer based at Enfield, Warrant Officer told me that many African - and others if a similar ilk - sent their Brens to Britain in exchange for as-new, reworked, converted L4 Brens. He said that we got thousands of crates of pure thrashed to death scrap that was only fit for the crusher or some spares and they got like brand new L4's

There a bit of Bren history