Another for the collection

[Peter Laidler]

I spoke to an old wartime employee from CRD during the Bren bren book research and he told me how they rolled the driving bands on. It was slightly over width for the recess and slid over the projectile like a er........, condom. Positioned over the recess by the jaws of the rotating machine and 6 large equidistant taper wheeled jaws (3 on each side) came down hydraulically onto the spinning projectile and squeezed the ends of the driving band tightly into the slot in the projectile*. Because the band was very slightly wider, when the taper wheels came down they spread the copper band so that it expanded outwards/upwards slightly at the middle section. So they got a perfect shape to a) lock into the recess b) be held fxxxxxg tight and c) perfect shape to take the rifling. Sorry to go off at a tangent with another bit of absolutely useless info.....
*otherwise the driving band would rotate in the barrel but the projectile wouldn't rotate due to, er........ weight, mass and physics!

Great to speak to this old shop foreman. Alas, the private and never before photos of the Bren barrel and parts shop are lost..........