The Besal, properly named "Gun, Light, Machine, Faulkner, .303-inch", was a light machine gun of British origin. The weapon was intended as an alternative to the

Bren gun The Bren gun (Brno-Enfield) was a series of light machine guns (LMG) made by the United Kingdom in the 1930s and used in various roles until 1992. While best known for its role as the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry LMG in Worl ...

as it was lighter, simpler, cheaper and easier to manufacture and therefore was not dependent on the

Royal Small Arms Factory The Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF), also known by the metonym ''Enfield'', was a UK government-owned rifle factory in Enfield, adjoining the Lee Navigation in the Lea Valley. Some parts were in Waltham Abbey. The factory produced British m ...

, Enfield which was within range of German bombers. As the threat to the supply of Brens receded, it was eventually deemed unnecessary and never went into mass production.Modern Small Arms” by Major Frederick Myatt, Salamander Books, 1978 The design was by Harry Faulkner of the

Birmingham Small Arms Company The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand tool, hand, po ...

, which also manufactured the larger

Besa machine gun The Besa machine gun was a British version of the Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine gun (called the TK vz. 37 in the Czechoslovak army"TK" from ''těžký kulomet'' "heavy machine gun"; "vz" from ''vzor'' "Model"). The name ca ...

which like the Bren was a product of the pre-war Czech arms manufacturer. That weapon's name was a nickname for Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) and the Besal was to be a lighter version; a Besa-light. This was however not an official designation.

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20130115040831/http://www.archivingindustry.com/Militaryfirearms/brenpage.htm *http://www.acant.org.au/Articles/MGs_inBritishService.html *http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s97/bongomania/Besal2.jpg {{BritishEmpireWeapons Light machine guns World War II infantry weapons of the United Kingdom Machine guns of the United Kingdom History of the London Borough of Enfield Military equipment introduced from 1940 to 1944