MG30 and the Bren

A

archerynut

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so i've been seeing pictures of these two light machine guns floating around. and i'm wondering if they were sourced from the same BRNO model that was liscenced to UK arms manufacturues before WW2. when the germans annexed Czechoslovakia, they took control of the vast arms industry there. are these two guns more or less the same design? i notice the top feed magazine, carrying handle and the entire design of both firearms is pretty similar. any relation?
 
According to my JANE's Recognition guide, the V26, designed in Chechoslavakia in the 1920's was redesigned to take rimmed cartridges and was originally called the ZGB33. The V26 has a finned barrel, while the Bren does not. The Germans used the V26 in WW2.
 
Yup, the ZB.26 and ZB.30 are direct predecessors to the Bren. The Germans continued to use them after they annexed Czechoslovakia
 
Gibbs505 said:
According to some, the Bren was the best Squad auto made, period.

Never fired one so I can't say!
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My grampy fired one a few times in action during WW2. He said he never felt so safe as when he was behind that MG. He fired a boys AT rifle a few times also.
 
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I have one and when I could shoot it I was amazed how accurate it was lets not forget they were going to use it for sniping ... thats right the No32 was first designed for the bren but the idea went bust and they adapted the scope for the No4"T"
 
One of the various Op Harvest illegal weapons collection sweeps that IFOR did in Bosnia picked up a 7.92 Mauser detachable box magazine. I saw the item, and it stirred some part in the back of my mind. The officer running the program took the words out of my mouth, Czech light machine gun he said. Of course, the Germans used all their nonstandard firearms in the Balkans.
 
Dimitri said:
Word of warning, when your shooting a Bren DONT grab it from the barrel it will leave a mark on you for over half a century. :eek:

Dimitri
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I've got a couple of those marks.

Here's what a Bren looks like when it goes back to it's roots.:)

abren1.jpg
 
This might come across as a silly question, but WHY would they have the magazine sitting out the top? I'd think that would be an awful view obstruction for the gunner. Admittedly I've never been behind a Bren so this is coming from pure ignorance on my part :)
 
TheIndifferent1 said:
This might come across as a silly question, but WHY would they have the magazine sitting out the top? I'd think that would be an awful view obstruction for the gunner. Admittedly I've never been behind a Bren so this is coming from pure ignorance on my part :)
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When you're looking through the sights, you don't have any field of view any way. Besides, you've got a loader and other infantry beside you to watch out.

The top mount magazine is probably the best set up for a box fed LMG. The gunner doesn't have to move himself or the gun in order to reload or to have the loader do it. It allows for a lower profile too.
 
Dimitri said:
Stevo,

That a Full-Auto/Converted/Dewat ?? :confused:

Dimitri
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CA. Bought it the day after my FAC came in when I turned 16. Used to hunt gophers with it with 20 rounds mags. Amazingly, no babies or kittens were slaughtered by this evil gun.
 
TheIndifferent1 said:
This might come across as a silly question, but WHY would they have the magazine sitting out the top? I'd think that would be an awful view obstruction for the gunner. Admittedly I've never been behind a Bren so this is coming from pure ignorance on my part :)
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The Bren might have had "odd" offsite sites because of the top loading magazine but think of it this way, loading a magazine from the bottom when your prone with the bipod is problematic, I know its common to have magazines off the side of some types of firearms but grab a box and a half of 303 British ammuntion and tape them together, now tape that to a rifle on the side, gets pretty heavy on one side effecting the use of the rifle doesn't it ??

So the top is the only "logical" way to go which still allows easy loading of the rifle by the rifleman and his loaders (assuming he has loaders). :)

Stevo said:
CA. Bought it the day after my FAC came in when I turned 16. Used to hunt gophers with it with 20 rounds mags. Amazingly, no babies or kittens were slaughtered by this evil gun.
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Stevo,

Cool! :cool:

Dimitri
 
I used the L7 lmg in NI and it was really a great weapon, not the GPMG but then it wasnt meant to be!
 
We had a good Bren when I was in Cadets at Clinton Collegiate. A lot of them had white stripes painted around them and were marked DP (display), but it was a good one, capable of firing. My brother-in-law shot one in cadets at Ipperwash. Wish I had done that. It is probably part of Wendy's rusty Toyota now.
 
Tyockell18 said:
My grampy fired one a few times in action during WW2. He said he never felt so safe as when he was behind that MG. He fired a boys AT rifle a few times also.
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I bet your Gramps would have lots of stories to tell! Give him my respects!
 
I read a book about the SAS in Aden and they used the Bren as a sharpshooting
(not quite sniping) weapon. This was in the early 80's so it had quite a long useful lifespan. That war was quite interesting in that the UK won against an intrenched insurgency that had lots of outside support from the communist chinese and veitnam but did it with a few SAS "advisors.
 
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