Does anyone have any literature or info on how the army expected a 2-man Bren team to operate? Clearly one is loading and one is firing but is there a lot more to it than that?
The no.2 refiles any empty magazines with new rounds from out of card boxes carried in ammo liners, in his spare time while the current mag' is being used.
A Proud Member Of 'Team Spleen!' who play mainly at Gunman Airsoft, Tuddenham, Suffolk.
He also gets to change the barrels and cool them down ....as one Desert Rat vet told me a long time ago ..."when the Germans were coming you never ran out of piss to cool the barrels down with " 
the no2 also carries the spare barrels and bren spare parts wallet.
When the bren no1 is hit he is supposed to roll to the right to allow the no2 to take over the weapon.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
!!! Conveniently rolling out of the way I hope!!! Drillwise..on the modern LMG the no2 would take off mt mag and put new one in...but Ive seen period ww2 film showing the no1 taking mag off and no2 sticking the new one in b4 the old one hit the ground. Makes sense as the no1 would know when hes out of ammo.
Theres also drills for moving the bren around...one man or the two man thing which looks terribly dangerous and difficult!!!
Yeah if you want i can scan in pics of the two man leopard and kitten crawls for bren teams.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
The No2 also needs to collect ammunition from other members of his squad to supply to the bren... This means the 2 bren magazines that each soldier carried.
He also had to carry extra mags... and carried extra ammunition pouches for the purpose.
I always though ammo replen was the L/cpls job.
the no2 has enough to do keeping a constant feed without running up and down the section asking for mags.
It is these days.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
Hi,
Thought Id stick my oar in here as I can never find anyone to carry my kit for me, Batman or No2!
Bren crew was different in different Regiments and circumstances. A marked difference was the infantry had a minimum crew of three on the Bren and Airlanding two cos they could only fit so many people in the Gliders.
RAF regiments and air defence crews had more ammo, a big tripod etc to carry also so there were more than three, how many I don't know though.
I am interested how different this could be! Did the Paras have a three man or two man Bren section for instance? Who carried auxilliary pouches.
Of particular interest for Husky, what should the Bren crew number be for South Staffords and mag/ pouch carrying details?
Peter Rabbit - Tank Killer
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawk914/2159973655/
Well 'on paper' a staffords bren team is exactly the same as a line inf bren team.
Glider forces used standard infantry company structure. Parachute companies are smaller.
So you should have a l/cpl bren team commander a no1 and a no2 as a 'gun group' with all the other six riflemen carrying spare bren ammo, no2 on the bren has aux pouches and bren barrel.
In reality up to 30 per cent of the platoon would be dead or injured/unconscious on landing so you grabbed whatever you could use.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
A veritable mine of info, as always. Cheers guys.
if you want i can scan in pics of the two man leopard and kitten crawls for bren teams.
Yes please mate.
I have a buddy who is very keen to come to Husky so I figured we could spend some time doing a little weapons training in my back garden and come as a 2 man team for South Staffs. Andy is kindly lending me his Denison and webbing.
This is a link from youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA9JP_DHVKM
Apart from some discussion as to whether the loader should be on the right or left of the shooter, what's with all this helmet-slapping stuff? It's not like the No.1 can fail to see he has a new mag in...
A veritable mine of info, as always. Cheers guys.
if you want i can scan in pics of the two man leopard and kitten crawls for bren teams.
Yes please mate.
I have a buddy who is very keen to come to Husky so I figured we could spend some time doing a little weapons training in my back garden and come as a 2 man team for South Staffs. Andy is kindly lending me his Denison and webbing.
I can just imagine your neighbours looking out of the window.... 
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
My neighbors are almost certainly Russian mafya so the sight of automatic weapons won't even raise an eyebrow.
Good luck with the 2 man leopard crawl with the bren.......make sure you film it!!!!
theoretically for trained soldiers used to moving in step its a piece of piss.
Civvy airsofters on the other hand....
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
I'm the Bren Gunners No.2 so this is how it works.
The No.1 carries the weapon. He fires the weapon. He will take the mag off when the Bren stops firing as either its out of ammo or its a jam and its up to him to check, if its the former i will then place the new mag in the housing while he is cocking the Bren to start firing again.
Myself and the L/Cpl in charge of the group both carry the aux pouches with 6 mags in. I would also in theory carry the spare parts wallet and spare barrel.
Also in the event of a misfire or jam it is also my job to either remove & change barrel or adjust the gas regulator.
As to which side to lie is down to where the no.2 is comfortable, i've laid on both the right and left but find the left easier as im right handed, making it easier to change magazine.
If the gunner is hit its down to me to take over and continue the fire as you have to remember the Bren gun is 60% of a sections firepower.
Hope that helps somewhat 
Thanks Andy. Very useful.
Do you think Barrie would mind if we urinated on the barrel of his Bren ? Purely for historical accuracy, you understand!
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
I'll tell you what, for historical accuracy's sake, I'll let you have a go Steiner. Of course, for even more accuracy, you would only be using this emergency method whilst in action so we'll make sure you're under lots of fire from K98s whilst you do the business.
