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Talk:Besa machine gun

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The article states, "In an emergency, the BESA could use stocks of captured German ammunition because it fired the same cartridge as the Kar98k rifle and MG-34 and MG-42 machine-guns." While chambered for the same cartridge as the German weapons, those rounds would need to be loaded in compatible belts. Did the BESA use the same type of belts as the German MGs? Were the belts reuseable/reloadable? Good Skoda (talk) 18:59, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Pretty sure it did not use the same belts as the German MGs, and there are no accounts of any captured German ammunition supplies ever being needed for or used for the BeSA MG. The ZB53 (on which it is based) and Besa both use non-disintegrating steel belts which are fed from the right side only. The German guns used non-disintegrating (MG-34) linked metal belts fed from the left. Either way, British tank crews reviled the weapon, which in a cramped and enclosed armored vehicle (due to its design) exhausted hot propellant and gas straight back into the firer's face, both blinding and asphyxiating the gunner after 25 rounds or so and severely limiting use. It was also considered unreliable. Unlike the ZB53 (and Bren) the Besa's barrel could not be changed out by the operator (notice the absence of barrel grip handle) to maintain fire, and later weapons were also prone to overheating, the already inadequate barrel cooling fins and shroud perforations deleted entirely in the later (post 1943) Mark II and Mark III versions, which also used a higher fixed cyclic rate, exacerbation the situation. The weapon's shape required a large hole in the armor to mount and prevented the use of a sloped glacis or mantlet. British tankers clamored for the Browning M1919A4 instead, and finally got their wish in the early 1950's, it would go on to serve the British military until the mid 1990's (post Gulf War 1), while the Besa was unceremoniously dumped 45 years earlier. 132.3.37.68 (talk) 14:27, 1 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No use without sources. GraemeLeggett (talk) 14:43, 1 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I've never heard of any British or Commonwealth tank crew complain about the BESA, on the whole it was well liked. The change to the Browning .30 was entirely due to the British adoption of the .30 cartridge for AFV use with the formation of NATO, this was before the 7.62mm NATO cartridge was standardised upon, as it was known that any non-US cartridge was unlikely to be adopted, which meant that existing British stocks of 7.92mm ammunition would soon become unusable and converting the relatively few BESA 7.92mm guns to any new calibre would not be cost-effective just as it hadn't been cost-effective to convert the design to .303 SAA pre-war.
The BESA had a 'heavy' barrel to allow it to fire for long periods, it wasn't as if it had to be carried by hand, so by 1942 no British armoured vehicle had a machine gun with a changeable barrel. Generally, no British tank crew was ever put in a position of having to put down continuous machine gun fire for long enough periods to worry about the barrel life anyway. Besides, you've got a bloody great-big-gun you can use a few feet away if the opposition starts to become too annoying.
BTW, British Army tank crews aren't called 'tankers' - a 'tanker' is a vehicle or vessel used for transporting fuels. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.149.55.68 (talk) 21:22, 1 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

BESA or Besa?

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I have seen both. I assume that the name came from people trying to pronounce "BSA" out loud, but it's not strictly speaking an acronym because the extra "E" isn't present anywhere in Birmingham Small Arms. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 12:18, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Pre- and post-war BSA motorcycles were invariably known to aficionados as Beezers which is how 'BESA' is pronounced. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.149.55.68 (talk) 21:33, 1 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
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