Bren L4 / .308 build

[Peter Laidler]

There were problems with the conversion of the Mk1 Bren to 7.62mm. That's because some of the internal and external machining configurations differed over the life of its production. We know about the external ones but they differed internally too.

The Mk2 gun was standardised internally and externally. But even better, the Mk3 gun retained the same internal bodywork so BOTH were ripe for a standardised conversion progress and both were very successful.

There was a proposed Mk4 gun, that was a Mk2 gun, lightened into pretty-much Mk3 spec. It seems that several hundred were converted and it was codified with a C1/CR xxxx type part number. The project was shelved because all the now redundant Enfield Mk1 production capacity was changed over to producing Mk3 guns. That meant that the Mk3 production was full steam ahead and the converted Mk2 - to Mk4 - was abandoned. But you could still occasionally find the lightened Mk3 gun butts (they were actually called, BUTT, Mk5) that started their lives as Mk2 butts, patched where necessary and lightened to Mk5 spec.

Difficult to get your head around the VAOS nomenclature sometimes, but there you go!

Generally speaking, Ordnance tried to ensure that the post war European based armies in Germany/Europe had the Mk2 guns, alongside Canada (and the allies such as Belgium and Holland who were also equipped with UK and Canadian stores). The Far East, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and India (until 1947 ?) got the Mk3's

My friend, an Army Ordnance liasion officer based at Enfield, Warrant Officer told me that many African - and others if a similar ilk - sent their Brens to Britain in exchange for as-new, reworked, converted L4 Brens. He said that we got thousands of crates of pure thrashed to death scrap that was only fit for the crusher or some spares and they got like brand new L4's

There a bit of Bren history

[Daan Kemp]

Must say in South Africa we used 7,62 Brens for some time from about 1972 onwards until they all disappeared, replaced by MAG, which were already in service by that time. IIRC local conversions using normal FN mags. All our FN mags were withdrawnin 1973 IIRC for Bren use and replaced with whatever.

[Peter Laidler]

I have seen several SA Brens, converted locally. They didn't have the magazine well inserts. Not a wise move! The original magazine guides suffer badly and as a result, the FN and L1A1 type magazines get eaten away without the support given to them by the mag well inserts.

Our own L4A1 gun didn't have them either - and used the FN magazines with the small front knib instead of the big hefty block at the front that we use on our L1A1 type magazines. That said, the L4A1 didn't last very long but a few were still around and a whole lot of them ended up as 7.62mm DP L55A1 guns. Correct me if I'm wrong about the DP designation. But it was around that number!

[Peter Laidler]

Just another thing about the L4 Brens and the remaining 303 Brens with Mk3 gun butts fitted Cal-50 and others that might be restoring them. A late modification was to put a sling loop on the top curvature of the butt plate. A GOOD idea but it was a good example of the office bound senior people not getting the whole picture. That's because when the guns were returned to workshops to have the butt plates modified (usually the big workshops would send a quantity of modified ones over for the unit Armourers to fit as and when), they'd be returned but the new deeper butt plate - with the looped extension on the top - wouldn't fit in the rifle and machine gun racks! Well, they WOULD, but it bent the new sling loop over and it broke!

Nobody was game to authorise the modification to the bolted-in gun racks. Another bit of Bren history. Has anyone got the EMER that shows the modification?