L4a5 Bren markings

[mattgunguy]

How were the Royal Navy L4a5 Bren guns marked?

I'm just about finished rebuilding a L4a3 that ended up with a Mk2 charging handle instead of the folding Mk1. It's my understanding that the Royal Navy used some L4 Bren guns with the Mk2 charging handle. Since the center of section of this gun did not originally go with the rear section with the markings, I'd like to know how it should be marked before it goes to the engraver to have the serial number put back in place.

Additionally. How were the barrels marked? I ended up with an Indian made L4 barrel & am thinking about having it remarked as well. Serialized if nothing else.

Thank you.

Information

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[Brit plumber]

AFAIK, there were no A5 guns.

The convention was as below,

The A2, was a Mk3 body with 2 barrels
The A3 was a Mk2 with 2 barrels
The A4 was a Mk3 body with a single barrel
The A5 was a Mk2 body with a single barrel.

In reality the first A4s were being assembled well before the first A3s so Mk2 bodies were converted and issued with a single barrel. No A5 required.

[Peter Laidler]

A5 guns were mentioned in the Navy BR's......., their Book of Refernce. The BR ordnance supplements were the navy equivalent of our EMER's. But please feel free to correct me and I know that the EMER's disagree with the BR's and basic common logic over this numbering too

An A£ gun with one or two shot-out barrels, when fitted with an single chrome lined (forget part number) barrel immediately became an A5 by default and was marked as such, according to the EMER and BR Ord supplement. The BR's regarding small arms were soon discarded in favour of EMER's in any case. We serviced a LOT of rusty and otherwise shagged Navy weapons at the big Ordnance Workshop in Singapore and only worked to the UK Military standards - except for Lanchesters from the patrol boats and submarines where the spare parts had to come from Navy stocks at Sembawang Naval Ord Depot. Mind you, they still had a lot of old .303" Brens and rifles. The Marines in Borneo/Brunei, keeping an eye on the Indons had L1's and L4's of course