Mother of all Bren Accessories

[grant580]

I found this for sale on Canadian Gunnutz. Now this is something you don't see often.

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[Brit plumber]

I would love to get my mitts on some of those!

[grant580]

Well Brit plumber, for the nominal fee of $2600 you can have them!
This same gentleman has a very nice Canadian issued WW2 3 inch mortar, complete with sight, inert mortars, carrying tubes and transit chest in another area of that sight.

[Brit plumber]

Well Brit plumber, for the nominal fee of $2600 you can have them!

Now there lies the problem I think most of us have!! I've never got $2600 when I want it!

[Peter Laidler]

Not 10 years ago these kits - ex Indian Army, complete with the Ordnance stores numbers etc etc, virtually unused and still in deep shipping/transit grease were on sale in the UK for the princely sum of £75. I always listen to the wise old John Sookey of this forum. EVERYTHING was cheap - yesterday. Wise words there John!

The most useless bit of kit ever designed for a Bren

[grant580]

Peter,

You say the mags were useless, is this because they jammed, were hard and slow to load or all the above? Were they common in the UK during the war do you know?

My war bride Aunt claimed she used to be an A/A gunner on the rooftops of London during the war and used a Bren gun on some sort of tripod. If she was still around I would ask her if she used them.

[Peter Laidler]

They were useless and deleted from the training manuals very early on in the war and the AA legs followed shortly afterwards. This was because while the Bren gunners could hose down aircraft, non too accurately, out to the range of his tracer bullets (because that's the extent of his sights with this kit don't forget.....) by definition, the enemy aircraft were up there just loooking for trouble and they were itching for a scrap and gave him one. But not at 700 yards with .303" but at 1 mile or so with cannon fire. That included the truck or wall he was holed up behind too. Yes, the instructors soon got wind of this from the men in the front line in France and AA instruction ceased. There's probably more to it than that but thereafter, aircraft up there looking for a scrap were to be regarded as sleeping dogs or to be left to the AA guns

[stencollector]

I have attached a photo of a packing slip from one of the Canadian drum chests. Apparently they were still being shipped out from Kalvinator Canada in October of 1943.

As an aside, Kalvinator Canada's initials (KC) are to be found on the majority of Canadian Sten gun mags.

I have one of the drum mags from this very chest which I traded for several years ago. They don't show up often here in Canada, and are exempt from the magazine cartridge limits imposed on most of the magazines here in Canada.
Attachment 28802

[Brit plumber]

Peter, have you heard of extended sights for the Bren? I found a LOC that mentiones extended sights for AA use. Probably somthing that never materialised into anything.

[hatrick]

Sweet Set!!!!