The photos of the British 6th Armoured Division jeep with goofy Bren mount
show up in various jeep books from various angles. I agree soldiers would
ditch the strange gear as soon as possible.
British SAS SOMETIMES mounted a single Bren at the rear of the jeep (with
multiple other MGs up front) or more often mounted a single Bren on a post
on the left front fender for the driver to shoot with his left hand.
Canada mounted some Brens to the dash of some United Nations M38 or M38CDN
jeeps in the Middle East.
Basically Bren was CARRIED in jeeps (e.g. Airborne versions) but rarely
mounted.
Brens (singles or pairs) were mounted in rear of 15 Cwt trucks sometimes (as
were twin Vickers MMGs) but mainly in training and not usually in combat.
Colin Macgregor Stevens
MVPA Member 954 (since 1977)
Editor: "Maple Leaf Up!" newsletter
of Western Command Military Vehicle Historical Society
(Established 1977)
British Columbia, CANADA
Owner of:
1944 Willys MB jeep (ex-Norway)
1942 BSA airborne bicycles (2)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Maurizio Beretta" <pierino@tin.it>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2000 1:36 PM
Subject: [MV] Bren mounting
> I was looking for any photos showing bren mountings on jeep.
>
> I was pointed to a 1941 Bantam BRC picture, found on John Carroll's book
> "Jeep".
>
> I got a group of seven pictures from the "Tank Museum" in Bovington, UK.
>
> the museum curator, David Fletcher, is a tank expert.
>
> He's writing to me:
>
> "A Bantam 40 BRC supplied to Britain and shown with extra stowage and
> Lakeman/Bren mounting, in service with the 6th Armoured Division.
> Tom Lakeman was a Royal Tank Regiment officer, slightly mad according to
> people who knew him, who devised all kinds of strange machine-gun
mountings."
>
> "We have a large collection of photographs of Lakeman machine-gun mounts
> but they are all slightly different. The principle was a balance of arms
> and springs, like an office desk lamp, the idea being to reduce the weight
> of the weapon when used against aircraft. In practice they were usually
> more trouble than they were worth and most soldiers hated them and tried
to
> throw them away at the first opportunity."
>
> any of listers knows more about this guy ? and any drawing about Bren
> mountings ?
>
> http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1091264&a=9841896
>
>
> tks
>
> maurizio
>
> __________
> | | Maurizio BERETTA mailto:pierino@tin.it
> |______(*)_|
> /\__----__/\
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> |_\ o||||o /_| Chiasso, 11
> |----JeeP----| I - Milan 20155
> |_| |_| ph. + 39 023270228 fax + 39 023270228
>
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Dec 03 2000 - 20:29:48 PST