>>21150Well it's based on the ZB26, which was a Czech weapon, the ZB26 was in 7.92mm Mauser, the British bought the rights to produce it in their own caliber, .303
Bren standing for Brno (the original maker of the ZB26), and Enfield (the makers of the .303 gun)
It's good for many reasons, it has a quick-detach barrel, meaning when you shoot the gun a lot and the barrel gets hot, you can detach it and take it off, then attach a spare barrel which is cool, allowing you to keep shooting (while your hot barrel cools down). Basically, as long as you have loaded magazines and barrels, you can keep shooting.
The top-loading made sense for prone shooting, given that the 30rd magazine in .303 is kind of tall.
There was also a 100rd drum magazine made for the gun, which ideally was used when the gun was put on a tripod or other static mount, with these drums and plenty of spare barrels to use, the Bren could passingly serve as a General Purpose Machinegun, being used for fortified positions and for anti-air fire, especially with someone to assist with loading and swapping barrels.
Compare it to the American BAR, and it's quite a lot better.
