There's no way to remove the Bren from the Carrier, right?

[Brent Pollock (WBRP)]

It did not occur to me to try until last night and I could not get the driver nor a passenger to remove/acquire the Bren from the Bren Carrier...which I found odd because I thought it was mainly supposed to function as a way to shuttle the Bren on the battlefield but have it used from a dismounted firing position, yes?

[John Kettler]

Brent Pollock (WBRP),

Welcome aboard!

You are correct, per the Wiki, but I guess the modeling doesn't reflect this

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

"All the Universal Carriers were armed with a Bren light machine gun and one Carrier in each Carrier Section also had a Boys anti-tank rifle. By 1941 the Carrier platoon increased in strength to contain four Carrier sections and one Carrier in the Carrier sections also carried a 2-inch mortar. By 1943 each Universal Carrier now had a crew of four, an NCO, driver/mechanic and two riflemen. The Boys anti-tank rifle was also replaced by the PIAT anti-tank weapon. The Universal Carrier's weapons could be fired from in or outside of the Carrier. A Carrier platoon had a higher number of light support weapons than a rifle company."

Regards,

John Kettler

[Brent Pollock (WBRP)]

John,

Thanks for the response, but there is no need to 'welcome' me...although 'welcome back' could be appropriate. My old 'WBRP' profile somehow got scrapped a few years back and I could not get the BFC lads to revive it. Up until now I really didn't have much to say that hadn't been said by others, but this Bren Carrier thing flipped my switch.

It's good to be back officially in the web fray, even if I am erroneously labelled as 'Junior'.

[John Kettler]

Brent Pollock (WBRP),

I wasn't sure whether we had one or two under the basic name, so I erred in favor of covering two. As for your status, it won't take many posts for you to once again be an august Senior Member. Just look at the respect it gets me!

Regards,

John Kettler

[A Canadian Cat]

Don't help him! He is kicking my ass with those carriers:) BTW why do you want to remove the bren gun? They are doing a fine job in the carriers?

[JonS]

In a recce section of three carriers, one will have an acquirable 2-in mortar (and ammo), one will have a PIAT (and ammo), and one will have an acquirable Bren (and they all have ammo for that). I think there are a few other carriers dotted about the place with acquirable Brens, like in the A-Tk platoons, maybe?

Edit to add: universal carriers do not have acquirable weapons, for obvious reasons.

[Brent Pollock (WBRP)]

Yes and no. I just looked into what you stated and it is true for the PIAT and 2" mortar, but there is no acquirable Bren. The third one does have extra Bren ammo and it seems to me they jerry rigged a work-around by assigning inherent Brens to the Scout sections. As Ian Leslie can attest to, this makes them nasty once both the passenger and bow-mounted Brens get going.

I have not looked into whether you can do similar things with the MGs that were meant to be removed from halftracks (e.g. the German SPW 251/sMG). All this is based on my experience playing ASL and its Chapter H notes.

[JonS]

I'll save you some time: you can't remove mounted weapons from vehicles. (acquirable weapons obviously can be removed)

[Baneman]

The German 251/x halftracks usually have an acquirable Panzerfaust, but that's it ( not counting ammo ). Note that the smaller 250/x does not have a Faust.

[akd]

I'll save you some time: you can't remove mounted weapons from vehicles. (acquirable weapons obviously can be removed)

The vickers MMG can be dismounted from its carrier, but this requires the passengers to be a dedicated MG team tied to the weapon. It is not "acquirable", nor can any other unit mount the carrier and take the MMG away.