Bren light machine gun

Most remaining British officers were killed or wounded.

Survivors seized Bren guns and attempted to hold a rubber estate before retreating to Bakri amidst artillery and aerial bombardment.

Australian gunners watching the fleeing Sepoys dubbed them the Galloping Garwallis.

On January 18, General Nishimura of the Imperial Guards Division launched a three-pronged assault that turned into a siege.

They did not yet know the truth of what would happen.

Initially, the Japanese were slow to close in, contending themselves with sniping and probing.

By 2.30 p.m., wounded Lieutenants Hackney and Tibbetts lay beneath a wrecked utility truck supporting the rearguard with a Bren gun until ammunition had run out.

The first imperial guards approached from the west, bayoneting and shooting anybody unable to escape.

Parts are very easy to get for

Brens, yeah.

I hadn't

thought about that.

The biting plan called for the 120 Paras to be dropped onto a small 600-meter-long landing zone around one kilometer east of the radar site.

Due to the risk of injury on landing, Stensub machine guns, pistols, and grenades could be tucked into the Paras' jump smocks, while heavier weapons and equipment like Lee-Enfield rifles, Bren-like machine guns, Hawkins anti-tank mines, and radios had to be dropped separately.

containers this was perhaps the riskiest aspect of the operation not only did the raiders risk being dispersed over a wide area but the time needed for them to regroup and recover their weapons was time the enemy could use to mobilize and bounce an effective defense indeed the vulnerability of lightly armed airborne troops against well-entrenched defenders had been dramatically revealed the year before when in may 1941 some 22 000 german forshimiaga landed on the greek island of crete The largest airborne landing in history up to that point, and the first attempt to capture a target entirely from the air, the operation, codenamed Operation Mercury, proved a pyrrhic victory, with the Germans losing nearly 6,000 men and 3,000 aircraft.

In the wake of this near disaster, Adolf Hitler forbade any further large-scale airborne operations, and thereafter the Fallschirmjager served mainly as elite ground troops, or carried out smaller-scale raids, such as the daring mountaintop rescue of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on September 12, 1943, but that is a story for another video in any events as the successful assault on fortress ebb and ml demonstrated the most effective way of maintaining the vital element of surprise was to land fully armed paratroopers directly on the target using assault gliders like the german dfs-230 but while the british had developed their own assault gliders the general aircraft hotspur and hamilcar rent the airspeed horser By the time Operation Biting was being planned, not enough gliders or trained pilots were available.

However, he was turned down on grounds that he knew too much about British radar technology to risk being captured.

This task thus fell to RAF Flight Sergeant Charlie Cox, a former cinema projectionist and talented radar mechanic who, on January 30, 1942, was, in the military parlance, voluntold into operation.

despite having never been aboard an aircraft or even a ship before cox was immediately run through an abbreviated jump course at raf ringway he would be assisted in his task by major dennis vernon of the royal engineers who with the help of a similarly looking british gun laying radar set was given a crash course in photographing the german radar set using a leica flashlight camera the work at the radar site was complete all sections would make a coordinated retreat down the cliffs to the beach the engineers clearing any mines using portable metal detectors the raiders would then be evacuated by a small royal navy flotilla waiting just offshore commanded by lieutenant commander frederick cook of hms tormentor the flotilla comprised six landing craft assault or lcas and two landing craft support or lcs's which would be ferried to the rendezvous point by the former belgian cross channel ferry hms prince albert To provide fire support during the evacuation, each LCA would also be manned by four soldiers armed with either Bren-like machine guns or .55-calibre Boyes anti-tank rifles.

The LSCs were also equipped with 20mm Oerlikon automatic cannons.

Now we've got two fascinating looking weapons here.

That I recognize as a Bren gun.

Yep.

.303?

Yes.

What are we gonna do with that?

The Bren gun's gonna stand in for the 303, um, aircraft, because the problem with the, the, the Browning 303 aircraft machine gun is it's air operated, uh, fired remotely with a trigger on the control column of the, the spade grip.

And so to make life easier, we're gonna set it up on a tripod.

They are recognized as the company of the Second North Staffordshire Battalion and a supply of weapons.

The weapons include Army type Lee-Enfield rifles, three Sten guns, two Bren guns, and three light carbines.

They are kept in a room at the end of the ablution block, which we call the armory.

It is in the same building as the locker room." Dawson added that there was no ammunition kept in the armory.