Bren LMG featured in Chinese TV serials

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Sinophile
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Bren LMG featured in Chinese TV serials

#1

Post by Sinophile » 23 Aug 2013, 06:27

I have watched quite a few Chinese TV serials and I am always a little shocked at the frequent appearance of the Bren Light Machine Gun. Especially for battles taking place in the late 1920s.

Was the Bren LMG with curved cartridge that prevalent throughout China, other than in the Burma theater where you would expect to find them?

Are Chinese TV serials distorting history a little bit? Should we actually be seeing Czech ZB-26s instead?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bren_light_machine_gun

ChristopherPerrien
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Re: Bren LMG featured in Chinese TV serials

#2

Post by ChristopherPerrien » 23 Aug 2013, 07:53

As props and functioning copies, it would be easier to find/buy BREN guns than original Zb-26's.

On the same note, those guns may be Japanese copies of the Zb-26 confiscated at the end of the war, or even original Zb-26, because it was a great and tough design. Would need screen shots to determine exactly what they are, and that might not work either.


Sid Guttridge
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Re: Bren LMG featured in Chinese TV serials

#3

Post by Sid Guttridge » 23 Aug 2013, 11:30

Straight or curved mags?

Rob Stuart
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Re: Bren LMG featured in Chinese TV serials

#4

Post by Rob Stuart » 23 Aug 2013, 13:40

Bren guns in 7.92mm calibre were made in Toronto in 1943-1945, apparently about 43,000. See http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_arch ... 27,3627472 and http://www.archivingindustry.com/Milita ... enpage.htm. I would presume that they were delivered starting only in January 1945, when the Ledo Road opened, unless a few were flown in before then.

keith A
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Re: Bren LMG featured in Chinese TV serials

#5

Post by keith A » 23 Aug 2013, 14:36

I have seen pictures of NRA soldiers equipped with Bren Guns allegedly in 1943 and 1944. The troops in question don't appear to be from X force because they are in a darker uniform (khaki? dark grey?) but most photographs show the ZB26 in use. I will try and find the original URL.

Y-force didn't have many Brens until later in the war. I assume that by 1944 the quality of the ZB26s must have been poor given the age of the weapons, and the difficulty of replacing them.

best regards


Keith

L1E1
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Re: Bren LMG featured in Chinese TV serials

#6

Post by L1E1 » 23 Aug 2013, 18:38

Mainland Chinese TV serials are well-known of 8O ........... Please take a look........They were fighting in Burma 1942.
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peeved
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Re: Bren LMG featured in Chinese TV serials

#7

Post by peeved » 23 Aug 2013, 21:42

7,62x25 mm Thompson and FJ helmet?

Markus

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YC Chen
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Re: Bren LMG featured in Chinese TV serials

#8

Post by YC Chen » 05 Oct 2013, 09:03

Ya... This is not the worst case. There are film/TV serials featuring WW2 Chinese soldier with Type 56/AK-47, PLA soldiers fighting Vetnamese army carrying "Chiang Kai-shek" rifle from WW2, etc. etc.

However in many cases those LMGs in Chinese TV serials with curved magazines could well be original ZB26s. In 1950s a large number of ZB26s and Thompson SMGs(and perhaps other guns) were modified in order to fire 7.62 ammunition. They were fitted with new curved magazine. The Thompson in L1E1's picture is a good example.

P.S. The characters on Canadian-made 7.9mm Bren. "七九勃然 加拿大造" - "79Bren Made in Canada"
Photo taken by myself in N4A Memorial Hall, Yancheng.
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CanadianBren.JPG

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