Description
This book is an in-depth study of the Bren light machine gun in service with the British infantry in the early years of the Second World War. Constructed as a ‘capability primer’ it uses a reworked version of Rich’s research method of ‘TEPIDOIL’ to analyse the Bren gun’s role. This covers:
- Equipment – what did Bren gunners need?
- Personnel – who were they and where did they come from?
- Training – how were they trained?
- Doctrine, including tactics – how did they fight?
- Information – what did they need to know?
- Organisation – how were they structured?
- Logistics – how did the people and equipment get to where they needed to fight?
- Infrastructure – where was their equipment built and where were they trained?
This is an A5 book of 116 inner pages with a mix of colour detail recreated pictures and picked original photographs from the Second World War.
Chris Kolonko-Weet (verified owner) –
Excellent book! Well worth the money and a must for anyone with an interest in the Second World War era British Army and the Bren gun.
Detailed review here-
https://youtu.be/1XkvaNcfALk
Mike Anton (verified owner) –
My review of the Vickers MG Collection & Research Association ‘Bren Gun in NW Europe and at Home 1939 – 41’ book.
I would just class myself as ‘interested in the period and with a general awareness of the British Army’s abilities and equipment’. I’ve been doing voluntary condition reports of some of the surviving SWW defences in Sussex, and researching Home Forces units in the area in 1940/41, primarily through War Diaries and other primary sources.
I only have a handful of books and printed reference materials in my library and don’t own any period memorabilia so this is my first ‘deep dive’ document on any topic.
With that in mind, this is a cracking publication and has set the bar high.
The Bren features heavily in these defences and so this is a timely arrival for my site recording. It’s packed with information but is easily digestible and the layout allows easy referencing. There’s a variety of period posters and instructions sheets along with modern summaries and tables of key points.
Possibly the best aspect for me are the excellent layout photos of all the various gun parts and personal equipment for the Bren Gunner. These are complimented by high quality labelled photos of living history personnel wearing the period correct equipment.
After that the Organisation section has excellent infographics of sections, showing their roles and what equipment they had.
Again these are very clear and helpful graphics.
The book finishes with sections on logistics and organisation which include some great information on order volumes and the numerous companies involved in the production. Whilst not necessarily relevant to the use of the Bren they are to me fascinating extra details which highlight the breadth of subject knowledge and just add to overall publication.
Richard and the team have clearly spent hundreds of hours putting this together, and the effort and the subject knowledge really shows.
Thoroughly recommended!