Britain's Czech-made WW2 tank machine gun in.. .303? With Curatorial Assistant, Christian Wellard 

At first, I was upset. Where was Jonathan, and who is this guy. However, I was very impressed with the narrator. He was prepared, the lighting was good, and the camera angles very informative. I would rate him as excellent and the video very instructive. If this is his first video, when he gets used to doing them, he will be a force to recon with. He field stripped that machine gun like he had been doing it since he was a kid.

Christian is a wonderful presenter. He learned from the master after all!

Would be nice if you could do a follow up video showing the different Marks of BESA that entered service. There is incredibly little information about these great guns out there, especially on video so it would be great to have this missing part of firearms history on film.

Very interesting video and Christian is a good presenter. Thanks.

Really interesting, thanks Christian and team. Those equivalent 2023 prices were interesting to see too.

Hey, they remembered to set up the lighting rig this time. Also for us non gun nerds: .303 is 7.7mm.

Very nice pronounciation on "vzor". Well done presentation, sir. Thank you

Very interesting, I always wondered why we had this 'odd-one-out' MG in 7.92 Mauser.

The zb53 system of guns utilised a laterally pushed out belt ( imagine a u cross section tube) as compared to the much simpler push through belt of the mg34 mg42, so it was entirely possible to redesign for use for .303 rimmed. However there wasn’t the time for such a conversion so it was decided to use 7.92 instead. These guns were specifically used in tanks and other afvs with a separate logistic system so the special cartridge was acceptable

The Czechs also adopted it as a Fortress Machine Gun in a twin gun mounting, and in a mixed-arms mounting combined with a 47mm Anti-Tank Gun.

WoW. I got a flash back to my military service time , while watching this. Finnish Kvkk62 is with almost similar structure. Well it’s basically a vz57 in 7,62x39 and without quick change barrel. Nice presentation in deed.

Interesting design, feels like it wouldn’t be out of place in a sci-fi movie

Proud of our czech weapon industry

The Besa - thanks for the presentation. I appreciate the details that you provided while you did the stripping of the mechanism. Congratulations for doing a great job.😃

0:40 Actually, more like to replace the Schwarzlose 07/12 and 07/24 based heavy machine gun vz. 24 (produced by Zbrojovka Janeček), Cal. 7.92 Mauser. We didn't really use Maxims by then. The vz. 37 also had a variant with a heavy barrel, smooth on the outside (no ribs), for the use in fortresses and tanks.

Hey, great presentation! Well explained!

Well done! Good lighting and prepared.

Great content ! Thanks chaps.

One of the other reasons why the 7.92 calibre was kept on was logistics. Tanks were already getting their own specific ammo supply so it wasn't that difficult to supply 7.92 instead of 303

The .303 was a rifle round with a rimmed case that could cause feeding issues in a machine gun, though it did work well in some designs, it was not considered ideal. The BESA 7.92mm used a modern "rimless" case that was specifically designed for use in machine guns and semi-automatic weapons.

Great video!

Thanks for the insight never was sure why we adopted the besa and not a .303 version. liking the link to other uses other than hand held weapons

Excellent presentation.

Nicely done. :)

1) Ammunition incompatibility - Don't forget that every Stuart, Grant and Sherman tank plus the Greyhound and Staghound armored cars mounted the M1919A4 and M1919A5 firing the rimless 30-06 cartridge. So Britain was using THREE rifle caliber rounds. 2) At one point in my US Army career, I encountered a ZB-53 ground gun (ie Tripod mounted) that had been "acquired" (CIA?) in Africa in the 1960's.

In one of the Czechoslovakian reports was mentioned option for to remove trigger group during fire to allow the continues fire during retreating ( from trenches to fortifications ).

Good job Christian. You lucky chap!

Ive been building a 1/35 scale Churchill tank with scratch built interior, and when it came to the Besa, there were two included in the kit but needed improvement. I became interested while doing research to make the kit part better. It is indeed a most interesting machine gun!

Pronunciation nailed. Lovely

I'm sure Jonathan is a great guy but thank you for the alternative delivery ☺️

A nice beefy little boomstick. Always interesting tearing guns (and other military equipment) apart and see just how simple they are put together, something they of course have to be so they can be service in the filed.

Thank you from Amsterdam.

I appreciate how, for the most part (I suppose this mostly applies for the firearms related stuff tbf), content on this channel treats you like you already have some relevant knowledge. You know your audience, I'd say. I think most museums tend to assume that the audience knows nothing about the subject so as to keep it accessible

Very interesting to know that some special occasion like this happens in a quite big army like British. If anything, can you make more video on other Vickers MG variants? Also, if anything, I don't think I quite understand what's the problem with air-cooled Maxim gun for tank. For other use, German did it, Russian did it, British also did it. The only thing I think is the problem is the increase in barrel weight

Looks to be a very nice gun. Simple, strong, yet rather elegant in design I would say. I understand there might be a strong desire to fit as much on the screen as possible. At several times during the video the interesting bits were at the bottom of the screen. That gives those of us who depend on closed captioning a poor choice of viewing the details or "listening" to what's being said. Wanted to make you aware that can be an issue 10:50 for example

Always wondered why the hugh side plates. Now seeing it disassembled I understand why.

Great design.

Great video- So how come it was not adopted as an infantry weapon? Why did we stick with the heavy water-cooled Vickers? Presumably because of deciding to not go for the .303 version?

This humble curator might not look like it but he's well 'ard

Interesting!

Every day's a schoolday. I simply didn't know the British used the Mauser cartridge in anything. Of course I'd heard of the Besa, but had assumed it was a .303.

So used to Jonathan doing these vids, when it's somebody else my brain goes "You're not my real weapons historian!"

0:41 Was Czechoslovakia such a big user of Maxim guns? I was under the impression that they got a lot of Schwarzlose MGs from the breakup of Austro-Hungary. 2:17 While Darne system seems to be exotic nowadays, it, as far as I get it, provided reliable feeding for rimmed cartridges regardless of the exact position of the machinegun, making it valuable for aircraft and, conversely, anti-aircraft applications, not to mention the indirect fire, which was still very much on the books.

It even has m-lock slots. Nice.

Jonathan’s had a shave.

The Czech & The Belgians are the UK's best weapons designers.. EG: BREN , ZB-53, FN FAL, GPMG, SAW.. & The UK Police use mostly German H&K weapons.

The Cruiser tank A13 and the Matilda I (A11) were equipped with .303 machineguns.

Quite interesting

The adoption of the BESA as a tank gun was why British armour had flat fronted armour until the end of the war while German, Russian and US designs moved to sloped armour for better protection. The BESA required flat mounting.

On this day in 1939, Czechoslovakia sent a Vz. 38 light tank to UK for evaluation. Didn't adopt that, but adopted the Besa

Additionally, and critically the armoured corps had their own supply chain in existence so adding a separate calibre of small arms ammunition, while not ideal was not as significant as it would have been for the infantry.

It's amazing how reliable and accurate the bren gun was with a 30 round box mag in rimmed. 303 Must have been a nightmare getting restocked for the 8mm mauser machine guns and I'm sure they used alot of captured ammunition like what was intended with the sten. China went as far to produce their own propiatary cartridge so an invading force could not use it instead of pick between 5.45 or 5.56, I think I'm one of they few to fire one and for the barrel length it seems to have alot more flash and recoil that 5.56 maybe 15 to 20 percent more powerful than 5.56 the 05 bullpuo has the safety catch in the worst place but I also got to fire a standard rifle configured the 05 I think it was called, one of the only Millitary arms I know of half designed by a woman. Now they are replacing most of everything with front line units that looks alot like the new IWI ace assault rifle. Crazy how a lick of paint and a free float handguard is what makes our SA80 an A3 I'm sure we could have had a good deal from Canada diamco AR rifles or even made our own. The .303 cartridge was outdated before ww1, personally I find civilian. 303 to be under loaded and you can only reaood the brass a few times, millsuorp can be awful but less rimlock. The P13 was a great mauser action rifle in what would kind of be a hotter version of 7mm mauser with no cordite. If they changed service cartridges after WW1 then we could have potentially had self loaders. The Russians, most ex Ussr and comblocj nations and Eastern nations seem to be doing just fine with the oldest Millitary cartridge still used the 7.62x54r I have a martini end feild and SMLE converted to that caliber as in the US it was crazy cheap and by having those rifles with a shot out leed rechambered and abit of the muzzle cut off and recrowned it made them accurate and cheap to shoot. Kind of ironic how everyone want to go to about. 270 to . 280 I'm pretty sure if British. 270 or. 280 was accepted with the EM2 instead of just cut down 30-06 with advances to the powder, projectile and maybe even case with steel case or part SS base it would probably still be in service. I think 8mm mauser would make for a GP machine gun cartridge today. The best machine gun I have shot was the PKM as its so light while the original MG42 is much Niger the 7.62 nato versions are still good. I think zastava in Serbia may still make their own copy of the MG42 in 8mm mauser. Poland is desperately trying to convert PKM type MGs to 7.62 nato with mixed results. No idea why we did not use a 9mm pistol in WW2 as we had the sten, a few penny's more into the sten and it would have been much better even with some plywood / bakelite furniture

Firstly Vz 37 was both a general purpose /heavy machine gun and tank machine gun in Czechoslovak service. Czechoslovak AFVs Lt-vs- 34 Lt vs 35 and Lt vs 38 all carried vz 37. The vz 37 was the replacement for Schwarloze -Janeček modification vz.07/24. not for a Maxim or a Vickers -in fact the Czechs continued to use (until the German takeover) a Vickers variant the vz 30 later called MG 30(t) by Germany which was an air cooled Vickers commercial C type as used in aircraft.

Hi from Brno :D

As a side note: Here in the USA, I was unsuccessful in locating a live transferable BESA as I owned a Humber armored car at the time that took a BESA. I ended up going with a .303 Browning MKII. The Browning required an adaptor that I still have. Meanwhile, I stumbled on the only BESA I ever came across. This was located at the JM Davis Firearms Museum in Oklahoma.

The Czechs certainly knew their craft.

It's has tilting bolt but what does the bolt locks into? It can't lock up against the top cover and the receiver is completley open on top. I don't see anywhere where a lock surface could be. How does this thing work?

What they did from the ZB26 to do this, is kinda like the PK made from a bigger and reverse AK (but with another cartridge)

Am I the only one that thinks that looks like a giant version of spas 12

Looks incredibly complicated to machine

why isn't the pistolgrip used as the charging handle more often? that seems like a Really handy feature....

i mean.. the only maxim thing we used in CZSK was MG08/15 and that wasent for very long

Royal Armouries slight correction @ approximately the 12:35 mk. Speaking about the 7.92mm cartridge... "...which only have one use, in tanks." The 7.92mm cartridge and the machinegun that used it, were also used in British aircraft.

So it's been said that the Besa was such a bulky design that it couldn't be fitted in sloped armour. Is this true ?

So where did the British and Commonwealth forces get their 7.92 mauser ammo from ? Sourcing military prototypes from the Czechs and ammo from the continent would have been all very well in 1937 but after the fall of France all those suppliers would have been cut off. Presumably the small arms committee would have known that was a real possibility, so were there 7.92 mauser production facilities in British territories ?

Did it use canvas or disintegrating metal belt?

Is it true that because this gun needed a flat surface to be mounted on, Britain couldn't design tanks with sloped front armour as it would need a new hull machine gun ?

Woosh thats a big boy........

Jonathan back on tour with the Darkness? Hagic hulk though

Did Britain consider the .303 Browning for tank use, which was being produced for the RAF?

Looks like it could be from Star Wars

Brits used Lee Enfield .303 rifle amongst others in the 2 wow.

I wonder why the Brits did not use .303 Brownings on their tanks as they had domestic licensed production of Browning type guns for the RAF?

Ah yes, Father of the Beezer.

The video makes it look like its the size of a M2 .50 BMG. Forced perspective? Very big gun? or Very small person?

Wonder if many were used on tripods for ground use?

The ammo was made by Kynoch in Britain, only manufacturer. I did not hear it in the video. Marked 1z

I thought this was Matt Lucas in a wig, at first.

Also, the heavy machine gun of Romanian Army in WW2.

They could have just used the Brownimng M1919 like the RAF.

Two by two hands of blue. Otherwise a most excellent presentation. :)

I always wondered what Jonathan Ferguson looked like without the beard 🤔

Ah yes, a renowned general purpose machine gun of loyal elbonian forces!

RAD!

I would love going forward if you guys said how much each gun in your collection cost (if it was paid for) and what the equivalent value is now.

The 7.92mm round was pretty close to .303 in diameter. Since 7.92 was belted in the first place, it was no bigger problem than with .303.

Didn't Peregrine Worsthorne get shot in the the belly by one of these Beeza guns in Cyprus?

Sound is TOO quiet!

I need 40000000 of those to buy ok

If only Roland had invented the 303 forty years earlier. We could have blasted the enemy with Aciiiiiied A A. A A Aciiiiiied 🙃🙃🙃🙃

Made it in 0.5" calibre as well..

I need 300000 of those to buy ok

This HMG should have replaced the Vickers water-cooled HMG during WWII.

A weapons expert called Wellard, who looks anything but 🤣

Brno💀

They were already adopted the .303 Browning for the Air Force, they should have just made heavy-barreled versions for armor. Or armour.

You're not Jonathan!

He literally doesn't say "Beza" until 6:15...

Where is Jonathan >:c

Ferguson without beard looks way more younger