First take a picture. This is the machine gunner who taught the corps in the movie "The Flowers of War". This machine gun looks quite tall and elegant. Compared with the Czech light machine gun, the barrel has no heat sink, which is obviously more refined. Is this machine gun Czech? Obviously not. This machine gun is actually a Bren machine gun. Judging from its straight magazine, it is a Bren machine gun that fires 7.92*57mm Mauser bullets, which is the well-known 79.
If you want to say this 79, the father of this machine gun is the British Bren machine gun, and its ancestor is the ZB-26 light machine gun of Czechoslovak . This matter starts from 1930. At that time, the gentlemen's army of the British Empire was still using Louis machine guns that looked as good as anti-tank guns. This gun was heavy and inconvenient. By the 1930s, it was already a very backward machine gun.
Louis machine gun
At this moment, the British began to seek a new machine gun to replace the old Louis machine gun in their hands. They turned their eyes to Czechoslovakia, which has a very outstanding light machine gun, which is the familiar ZB-26 light machine gun. This machine gun was considered one of the best light machine guns in the entire World War II. Here we will talk about the ZB-26 light machine gun. Its air conduction principle and bolt offset locking are both great, launching 7.92*57mm Mauser bullets.
If you want to say how outstanding this machine gun is, let's take a look at the machine guns in World War II. The Americans actually did not have light machine guns. They used BAR as light machine guns, which was actually an automatic rifle; the British Bren machine gun was copied in Czech style; the Japanese's crooked handle was inexplicable, and the structure was copied in Hatchacas, and its open-type ammunition made the Japanese complain, and the later Type 96 and Type 99 were also in the external structure. The Czech style was copied, but the internal structure was actually a crooked one. The Soviet DP-28 light machine gun was too heavy, and its barrel replacement, weight and portability were not as good as the ZB-26, and its large bullet disk like an anti-tank mine was enough to be affected. The most buggy was the German MG-34 and MG-42. These two were very good in terms of rate of fire, weight, and fire sustainability. However, this machine gun was still an general machine gun, , and it was not on the same latitude as the ZB-26.
is one of the few machine guns that are stronger than ZB26, but it is a general machine gun
So what about ZB-26, its 20-round magazine, looks a bit small now, you will think that at least 50 rounds are enough, but if you substitute the environment to the time, in 1926, the melon-eating soldiers were still using bolt-action rifles to pull the bolt, these 20-round magazines are completely enough, and with the magazine on it, plus a secondary shooter quickly replacing the magazine for , there is no problem with firepower. As long as the secondary shooter is powerful, there is no problem. This is like the character Dou Bing in "The Leader", carrying a large box to serve Milong's light machine gun. Moreover, its barrel can quickly replace with , which is very convenient. There is no problem with , the ZB-26 light machine gun, which was said to be one of the best light machine guns at that time.
Since this ZB-26 is so outstanding, then the British man waved his pen and wanted this gun, and I wanted this machine gun, but you have to change it for me to use it. At that time, the bullet used by the British was .303 bullet (7.7*56mm), so they had to change the ZB-26 to this way. During the improvement of , it went through ZB vz 27, ZB vz 30, and ZB vz 32, and finally ZBG-33 successfully took over. This was the British Bren Mark I light machine gun later.
Brun Mark I
This Brun Mark I still has a very obvious shadow of the ZB light machine gun, such as the snail-type gate adjuster, which is the same as the ZB-26 light machine gun. Later, the Japanese Type 96 and Type 99 light machine guns were used. Among the later styles of the Brun machine gun, Mark II and Mark III were replaced with vertical doors, and this snail-type regulator was cancelled. Moreover, the door has become a hole, no longer a gap.
In different points, from the appearance, it is mainly the barrel. The Bren machine gun has canceled the heat dissipation slot. The function of the thing is actually average. The purpose is to increase the surface area and facilitate heat dissipation, but it will increase the very troublesome workload. If the bullet is replaced, the magazine will be different, and the magazine of the Brun machine gun will become an arc-shaped magazine. The air buckle of the Brun machine gun is close to the middle of the barrel, while the air buckle of the ZB-26 is close to the muzzle.
And the one in the movie "The Flowers of War" is 79, a Bren light machine gun produced by the Ingris Arsenal, Canada. Here, many people would emphasize that this machine gun is called 79 Boran, not Bren. In fact, this is a transliteration issue, and it is all about Bren in English. Canada is the younger brother of the UK, and he uses whatever the UK uses. The Bren machine gun is no exception. After 1938, Canadians simply started producing the Bren machine gun by themselves.
About this 79 is a product of the external weapons provided by Canada as an integral part of the Allies when the war entered the second half of the war and the overall situation was decided. At that time, in the German-occupied areas in Europe, many of the weapons used by the resistance organizations were weapons that fired 7.92*57mm Mauser bullets. The 7.92*57 Mauser bullets were relatively easy to find (it was found if you killed a few German soldiers), while the .303 bullets were difficult to find. Moreover, light machine guns such as ZB26 and ZB30 were also common there; while the bullets used by China on the Asian battlefield were also 7.92*57mm bullets, such as Zhongzheng rifles, Czech machine guns, civilian 24 heavy machine guns, etc., were all of these bullets.
Then, the light machine guns provided for these troops must not be the original Brun machine gun. If they use the original Brun, bullets and other things must be done through foreign aid. Without foreign aid, the gun cannot be used. Therefore, it is very necessary to produce a Brun machine gun that fires 7.92*57 bullets. Then, the Canadians reversely modified the Bren machine gun. Originally, the ancestor of the Bren machine gun used 7.92*57mm Mauser, but later the British changed it to .303, and now it has been changed back.
This 79 is actually a revision of Bren Mark II. Bren Mark III is a short barrel model and is a paratrooper type. You can find that the 79-Yuan photo above is the same as Bren Mark II. On the magazine, for convenience, the 79-Born magazine is the same as the ZB-26 magazine. It is both trapezoidal magazine and the capacity is 20 rounds, not the 30 rounds of the Bren machine gun.
79 The erection mark is written on "7.92 Bren MkⅠ", which is said to be MkⅠ, but in fact there is no subsequent model. This machine gun has three marks inscriptions, but the guns are all the same. One marks the year, which is provided to the European resistance organization, and the other marks the "79-9" . It is the Bren machine gun that was provided to China through the loan lease bill. The Bren machine gun received through the loan loan bill that year also fired .303 bullets, but it was almost useless later because there were no bullets left without the British.
79 Two different inscriptions
1949 used 79-evolving militia
79 in appearance. In addition to the elements of the Brun machine gun, there are many other elements of the Brun directly copied ZB-26. For example, in the picture below, there is a magazine manhole cover inside. This Brun is the same as ZB-26, and the barrel fixing bolt is the same type. This barrel fixing bolt, the Japanese Type 96 and Type 99 are different from ZB-26. This trapezoidal magazine is not considered a copy, it is purely for convenience.
Czech and seven-nine local
There is also a kind of machine gun that is often mistaken for 79, for example, I mistakenly thought for 79 back then. It is the Brun machine gun that the third brother is still using so far. Its straight-row magazine is indeed very similar to the 79 Boran, who was mistakenly considered to be the 79 Boran loading 30 rounds. In fact, this machine gun is an L4 Brun launched by , which is 7.62*51mmNATO, not 79.This machine gun is a Bren machine gun modified after the end of World War II. In the 1950s, NATO replaced it with 7.62*51mmNATO. The British .303 bullets were useless, and the gun had to be changed to fire 7.62 bullets. The magazine was straight and slightly curved. Its magazine is actually interchangeable with the L1 rifle, so sometimes you will see the L4 Bren using a 20 round magazine.
India L4 Brun
And as a "core" member of the Commonwealth country, India naturally cannot be missing him. Adhering to the principle of "whatever the UK uses" and this L4 Brun is in his hands. However, although it is the 21st century now and the Bren machine gun has been eliminated, India is really powerless in manufacturing light weapons. He still needs to use this L4 Bren. Not only the Bren machine gun, but also the Lee Enfield rifle, he is also using it.
And we also have a good idea about modifying the Brun machine gun. In the late 1950s, we replaced the 7.62*39mm rifle bullets, and the original 7.92*57mm bullets have been discontinued and are getting fewer and fewer. However, the Brun machine gun and ZB-26 are not bad, so we can't just use it. After all, the number is huge, so it's okay to use it for some militia. It was simply modified directly and changed to a Bren machine gun and a Czech machine gun with AK magazine inserted into it.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Brun machine gun and the Czech
guns are often randomly involved in film and television dramas. After all, most Brun and Czech styles have been modified, which is easier to find, but the original ones are not easy to find. Therefore, Czech styles with curved magazines are often randomly involved in film and television dramas. This is seriously contrary to historical facts, but it is not easy to find props, which is also a relatively helpless thing. The following is very typical. This arc magazine is not a .303 Brun's arc magazine, but an AK arc magazine.
This arc magazine is actually AK's magazine
. This Bren machine gun inherits a series of advantages of ZB-26, which makes it one of the best machine guns in World War II. Even after the end of World War II, the Bren machine gun has always been very outstanding. And to say how outstanding it is, you see, the third brother is still using it.
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