Bren 100 Round Drum Mag

[Peter Laidler]

Not as simple as that Dan........ The unfortunates on the other end of the incoming can't see the tracer and even if they can, they know that as soon as the 81's get the map coordinates, they'll be on them next. We call it '.....the chop-chop' as in bad haircut day!

Information

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[Bruce_in_Oz]

Watching a Sustained Fire Machine Gun platoon shred the scenery gives you something to think about. Eight or so tripod-mounted GPMGs firing in sequence into a target area that can be the size of a football field at 1500 metres or further. This is not "precision shooting", more like area denial. The basic 7.62 NATO tracer burns out somewhat short of that distance, about 900 metres, but SF guns are sighted by "survey" techniques, not by squinting through a cranked up ladder sight.

In common with mortars and artillery, they are also controlled by a Fire Controller who is observing the target from a hopefully safe spot outside the arcs, somewhat closer to the impact zone; see also Mortar Fire Controller. The trick is that the guns fire bursts in sequence. This allows each gun to rest a bit between bursts and also allows the crew to reload, swap barrels and adjust the traverse and elevation for their next turn. This produces a steady stream of fire that is moved in a precise sequence to cover the target area

Such a shoot at night is spectacular if it includes tracer. Without it, there is just a lot of noise accompanying the glow from the night sights and "barber's poles" and the muted muzzle flash. Then again, the last shoot I attended as an observer / safety crew, they stripped out the tracer for the qualification day and night shoots, because during the "training" phase, the stuff kept setting fire to the dry scrub down-range.

Since Radar and passive acoustic locating devices started to become common on the battlefield, SFMG operations have become more subject to counter-battery fire. Medium and heavy mortars deliver a greater weight of unpleasantness much more rapidly than a flock of machine-guns. Cover that will shield you from high-trajectory bullets may just not cut it when 81 and 120mm mortar bombs start falling from three to five times the distance..

[tombear]

Er....



Held at Leeds


DDEIP3815 13/11/1944 Bren .303" -in Mk 1 Instructions to Guide Fitting of Extensions Sight No 1 Mk 1

DDEIP3811 13/11/1944 Bren .303" -in Mks 2, 3 & 4 Instructions to Guide Fitting of Extensions Sight No 2 Mk 1


DD(E)3432 04/01/1943 Sight Extension Bren .303" -in for use with 100 Round Magazine

DD(E)3433 04/01/1943 Sight Extension Bren .303" -in Mk 2 for use with 100 Round Magazine

I certainly copied one of the DDEIP and probably the DD(E) but unfortunately I don't have access to thousand odd Sheets I copied back when the Pattern Room Library was MoD run. The back up discs are so buried It would take weeks to find them. However I did share the lot with various folks so if some one could step in and put the images up...?

ATB

Tom

PS I also copied the drawings for the various sights that fitted onto the mountings rather than direct on the gun and those for the Motley and Straddle and they were kept in separate files so I do have access to them.

[Peter Laidler]

Interesting. No wonder that we'd never seen them. Introduced and declared obsolete on the same day. You have to do it that long winded way to bring the item onto the VAOS list and codify it before you can declare it obsolete otherrwise you end up with a backlog of obsolete kit which the blanket stackers can't get rid of.

It does seem very late on to introduce such a sight, given that the drums were pretty much obsolescent by then