#L4

After World War II, the UK sought to modernize its small arms, many of which were based on designs originating from before the First World War. For its medium machine gun, the British were still using the reliable but increasingly obsolete Vickers water cooled gun in .303 caliber. With the adoption of the 7.62 NATO by the UK, trials were held to select a new air-cooled general purpose machine gun, which resulted in the adoption of the excellent Belgian MAG. In these trials, however, was tested a belt-fed variant of the magazine-fed Bren gun, called the X11E4. This gun is the subject of an article over at The Armourer’s Bench, as well as an accompanying TAB video, embedded below:

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: