Happened to see this the other day while looking at Dunkirk photos in relation to another thread. The gunner appears to be carrying the case for the Sight, Fixed Line?
“There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.”
Surpmil may be correct. They used a binocular case with a wood insert to hold the Plessey fixed line sight and the Bren has the dovetail for the sight, further, the sight wasn't taken out of service until October 1940 leaving it entirely possible some were with the British Army in France. Unbelievably, since they were so rare I encountered a collector in White Rock, B.C. who owned two of the sights. I was able to finagle one from him for $125.00 for my DEWAT Inglis Bren and tripod display. Unfortunately I was unable to import the Bren into the U.S. with me so an un-named collector in B.C. has an incredible display since only 666 were ever made.
The binocular case had buckles on either side for a strap, so it's either converted from one or custom made as they appear to be missing
Like this?
I had the sight and case myself at one time and as I recall it had no buckles on either end, only the loops on the back.
“There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.”
While the Bren eventually became the Magnificent Bren, we shouldn't forget that in 1940 France, it was regarded as a bit of a pig-in-a-poke. The Infantry fighting with it were crying out for the return of their old Lewis guns that had been replaced, prior to embarkation to France, by the new Mk1 Bren guns. The Mk1 guns suffered with major gas problems that were only overcome by opening-up the gas port in the barrel......., which caused even more problems further down the gas system. destroyed piston plungers, piston plunger springs and buffer plates
The Ordnance Board decided that the cause of the problem was the rapid introduction of the gun into service and the importance of the cleaning regime around the bipod sleeve and gas cylinder. Much more to it than that of course but by taking charge of and becoming the 'design authority' (taking it from Brno) the later Mk1* wide flash eliminator barrels and the Mk2 guns turned it around. And if you thought the Mk2 and 3 were as good as it gets...........
On the 7th day, the Lord redesigned it all - and it became the L4
And the infantry probably also liked the larger capacity of the Lewis drum magazines?
Speaking of which, was the upward protruding Bren mag ever considered a liability from a concealment point of view?
“There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.”
PM
Originally Posted by Roy W
