#BesalMachineGun
The Besal Machine Gun
One of the types of weapons that saw a lot of service in the period from 1918-1945 is the top-fed detachable magazine rifle-caliber light machine gun, or automatic rifle. Beginning with the Danish Madsen, reaching its height before and during World War II with platforms like the FM 24/29, ZB 26, and seeing continued service postwar (a notable example being the British L4, a legacy platform made from converted .303 caliber Bren guns, rechambered for 7.62×51 NATO and made compatible with standard issue rifle magazines, which saw service with its parent country into the 1990s), this type of weapon was a good compromise given the need for fully automatic firepower to augment the squad, while being lightweight and using the same ammunition supply as the rifleman. One such weapon that didn’t quite make it was the British Besal light machine gun, an article on which was recently posted to the Historical Firearms blog:
