The Universal Carrier / Bren Gun Carrier
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- čas přidán 2. 04. 2023
- An overview of the Universal Carrier featuring some movies and video games where it turns up.
More War Movie Content: / johnnyjohnsonesq
Request a review: johnnyjohnsonreviews@gmail.com
Movies/Video Games Featured:
The Longest Day 1962
20 Million Miles to earth 1957
World Gone Wild 1987
A Bridge Too Far 1977
Company of Heroes 2
The Best of Enemies 1961
Post Scriptum
Battlefield V
#ww2 #army #guns
Farmers in NZ sometimes bought surplus carriers after the war. Very useful for carrying fence posts over rough country. 🙂
my family had a bren gun carrier for the farm
I've heard stories of ANZAC Day Bren carrier races back in the day.
Same in Canada. You would regularly see them for sale at heavy equipment auctions up until the 80, but I haven't seen one in decades.
Yep, down Dunedin way, my father went hunting with a Farmer who used a Bren Carrier - he also had a BREN for it as well. I was told of a story that while out hunting the BREN opened up on a group of Fallow deer while on the move. Because of the suspension, the carrier took a sudden dip then lurched and the BREN shot up the internals. I think they gave up hunting the rest of the day, preferring a cool beer.
Aussies got all the grants and lees left behind and took the turrets of and used them as tractors
The clip at the beginning from Longest Day was my favorite scene in the entire movie I’m so happy you included it
It was the inspiration for the whole video lol
That was Kenneth More, as Captain Colin Maud. He also played Captain Shepard on the classic movie Sink the Bismarck.😮. (Also in Sink the Bismarck was the extraordinarily lovely Dana Wynter. 😊)
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Denis Healey...ex Chancellor of the exchequer, was a beach master at Anzio...
“Give it a good BASH!!” I often say it myself. TLD is a favorite movie in our house. Many a line has made it into our daily vernacular
In this scene we saw James Bond as a Army corporal before he joined the Royal Navy as an intelligent officer for the MI6. 😆
A Canadian Veteran told about using the Wasp version to attack German columns.
I’ve driven a Bren carrier. It can be squirrelly, but it is fun to drive…In peacetime
What is a wasp variant? And how effective was it?
@@okobongdinko4606 Flamethrower version. It was devastating when used correctly and the fates smiled upon them
@@Blitz9H ah right, sounds deadly
@@okobongdinko4606 Definitely. He said one of his friends was attacking a German column and the engine cut out on his Bren gun carrier. The Germans “shot them like fish in a barrel”
@@Blitz9H that sounds awful, the carrier didn't offer much protection so they didn't have much of a chance but it just sounds awful
A step up from this was the Canadian developed Kangaroo, a Sherman without the turret and it's basket, but with ladder rungs welded to sides for quick ingress/egress. Arguably the first APC able to carry a number of troops in relative safety from most attacks other than from above.
Schneider-Brillié model 1909 was the first ever apc.
My father loved his carrier , he served in the KSLI and held the unauthorised record for the circuit around Shrewsbury Town back in the 1950,s cheer
My Dad used to tell me they'd whack the governor with a hammer and used the extra power to jump ditches and have a bit of fun in training in England. 😆
We had an old Bren Carrier on the playground at my junior school, It came from a local RAF airfield after the war. The engine and various bits and pieces had been removed but we had hours of fun playing war games. I do believe it was sold by the school in the mid-70s to a collector.
My great grandfather, Edward Rotan helped develop some of the prototype vehicles for the universal carrier in the old Somerville mass ford plant
One thing that was noted in an article for a war game. The Carrier section was Organic at Battalion level in a British Infantry division. Since Tanks and TD's were only attached on an "as needed" basis (unlike an American Division, which post-Normandy had about 100 tanks and TDs (60/40 mix) more-or-less organic to the division). The carriers were the one trump card a battalion commander could depend on having "on call" whether to scout, haul ammo or wounded, or cover a retreat. Occasionally they would haul troops (riding on the sides), if you needed to get a company somewhere quickly, though they really weren't APCs.
Just an additional fact: The Universal Carrier suspension (also developed from the Carden Loyd tankette) was so sucessful, that the Germans took it literally, though it was the American produced carrier, and apply it to their trucks replacing the rear wheels as a measure to overcome the rasputitsa on the Eastern Front. They called it the Maultier, meaning mule.
Sorry, but the tracked part of the Maultier had nothing to do with the UC, it was literally the track assembly from Pz-Is mounted on trucks.
As in, not copied but taken directly from actual Pz-Is.
Also, heavier Maultiers instead used the suspension parts from Pz-IIs instead.
@@DIREWOLFx75 There are various variants of the Maultier - and yes, one of them used the carrier Tracks. One of such vehicles is on display at the Technik Museum Sinsheim/ Germany
The Universal Carrier is an adorable little machine. She may be small, but she's fierce.
CV/33: "Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary!"
i've seen one up close before, it's kinda cute
@@thekhoifish0146very cute
@@ThatWelshGuy. indeed
@@thekhoifish0146 where did you see it?
I saw one at bovington
I'm sure the CV/33 would still manage to loose.
I have also seen this military vehicle in "The one that got away" (1957) and "Operation Dunkirk" (2017) . My grandpa used to call this thing rocking horses in the second world war.
As a side note they were fantastic during the pacific war in which being very small and very light allowed the Australians to outflank or bypass most areas which were impassable for the Japanese as well as being a great way of getting around if not to and from places in which tires or wheeled vehicles would typically get stuck or bog down and some versions of the UC were amphibious which meant that things like river crossings wasn’t that big of an issue considering that the three alternatives were to build a bridge which took time and resources, look for an alternative route or simply swim across a crocodile infested river, vs driving along in a UC, and again they really are underrated, yes it was weakly armored and it wasn’t the most comfortable thing to be bouncing around in and the thing was very exposed but apart from that, it was just there and it just did it’s job.
Hey, you forgot these: ...,,,:!
@@waynebimmel6784 ?
@@hadesdogs4366 nice comment but some punctuation would have been helpful
@@waynebimmel6784 NEVER
I read it just fine, hades.
I spent a lot of time on Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia. On the island was a rusted out old shell of a Bren Gun Carrier. I asked around and found out that it was purchased through Crown Assets in the 1950s, brought to the island and became the first motorized vehicle there. It was used for everything from hauling groceries to building materials to injured people. Where it rests today is where it broke down. They stripped it of anything useful and repurposed it all. The transmission was shot, but the engine was still ok, so it was welded to the shaft of a generator. This provided electricity to the staff buildings for years until replaced with a diesel one. Decades of salt air has taken its toll on the frame, but it’s still recognizable as a Bren Gun Carrier.
Wow, i didn't know NZ (my home country) made these thing!
fun fact: the NZ designed, but never made Schofield Tank did also use the suspension from a Universal Carrier.
Although a first prototype design that performed badly in trials was made along with a improved one, unfortunately the whole tank never saw the light of day again and was stored away, then scrapped as the project was advised to stop.
You’re legendary for using that legendary scene from The Longest Day as the intro!
Ive been fortunate enough to get an up close and personal look at an australian bren gun carrier, such a cool and neat little vehicle.
One of the fascinating things about the Universal Carrier is just how beloved it was. Many tankettes and field tractors either didn't leave enough of an impact to be memorable, or were poorly received by those who used them. The carrier on the other hand, despite being known for being finicky to operate, became quite popular among Allied forces who used it and would continue to be exported for both military and civilian use long after the war.
Wait my country built tanks wow I thought we would've duct taped metal to horses 😂...cheers Johnny have an excellent day
Have mum strap the bathtub to the tractor
If you're from New Zealand, mate, the Bob Semple tank was considerably worse than metal duct taped to horses. It basically was a metal bathtub strapped to a Caterpillar tractor. 🤣🤣🤣🫣
@@User_Un_Friendly hahaha now that's a real weapon of mass destruction
@@User_Un_Friendly ok but:
* japan never invaded new zealand
* no bob semple tanks were ever lost
* easily produced
👍
Thumbs up from Alabama
"Give it a good bash!" 😂
Red Orchestra - Ostfront is the only game I can think of where you could use a land-leased Universal Carrier armed with a DT machine gun.
Love all those goofy moments of game bugs in the video LMAO
Goofy clips are the heart and soul of the channel!
Love your stuff, this vid looks great!
My father (Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, went to England in 1940, came home in 1946 via Caen, Belgium and Holland) disliked them as they had, he said, a tendency to flip.
Great roundup on the history and characteristics of the Universal carrier. Two extra things worth noting, 1) among the weapons fitted was a formidable flamethrower versions called the Wasp, much feared by Germans in defensive positions in Belgium and the Netherlands in 1944-45. 2) The universal carrier appears in an amusing 1942 film called "If Day" depicting an imagined German occupation of Winnipeg. Universal carriers stand in for German armour: czcams.com/video/8scLEt70yIE/video.html
I know I'm having a good day when a Johnny Johnson video drops.
Interesting Fact:
The Germans and the Italians captured dozens of Universal Carriers and really liked the qualities of the vehicle. The Germans mounted several types of anti-tank guns and even Panzerschrecks! The Italians tried to copy the Universal Carrier but lost the competition to the L 40 Cingoletta (based on the Semovente L 40 da 47/32 tank destroyer).
thanks for showing how the steering worked....I have always wondered....
That "Praying Mantis" prototype looks like something out of Star Wars haha.
I think a new variant as drone would be very efective !
Love these mini videos. Keep them coming if you can!
My grandfather's dad was a bren gun carrier driver when he was in Burama fighting the Japanese. I sadly didn't get to meet him as he died in the early 80s about 10 years before i was born
My dad was in the home guard and thought highly of them better than a roller coaster.
Why didn't the yanks use them? Kind regards Roy Bennett from Wollongong
Well done. I would have recommended the differences between the Loyd Carrier and the Universal Carrier.
I meant commenting on the differences between the Loyd Carrier and the Universal Carrier.
The Jeep was a little more useful as a post war surplus vehicle. I’m so old I remember my father had one when I was a little kid. He welded an old pickup truck cab to it to make it a four season vehicle in Colorado.
That sounds more "4 seasons" for the Front Range than the mountains. I've spent nights that were -30° up there.
I like to think that the German Wiesel is the spiritual sucsessor to the bren carrier. Looks like they use same suspension too.
If given the choice between a UC and a Jeep, I think I would take a UC, unless were were looking at long cross country travel.
Thanks for the reminder, I still laugh at the “floating Shermans” in A Bridge Too Far.”
Of all places I was in Canberra Australia went round the parliament, then went round at the nearby military museum, and that’s when I got close up to a universal carrier open topped, but a very useful piece of kit because it was so adaptability and could be used in numerous ways with good crew
Another great video! A video on the katyusha artillery piece would be cool@
A friend of mine's dad in high school had one in Fawnskin near Big Bear Lake. Used it do drive around the back roads in winter.
Yes I can remember them being used on farms here in England . Can also remember back in the 1950s seeing them packed into a field of about an acre behind a garage waiting to be cut up for scrap
I've driven this thing in BF5. Great for zipping to an objective quickly ...if you can manage to not flip it over
That thing belongs to every war game, just like the "VW Kübelwagen" of Germany or the US' "Willy's Jeep" which appears in the video, too :)
That was very informative,thank you
Friends of mine bought one in the early 90's to restore, we hid behind a wall when they first started it, but it wouldn't move. They did about 15-20% of the work before they lost interest sat in a garage and was sold on a decade later.
When one of their relatives heard they had bought one, he warned them that it could be extremely dangerous having seen an accident where the drive chain snapped, causing the carrier to flip and crushing the people inside.
One funny detail is that in the opinion of some military historians the Universal Carrier may actually have been the only correct implementation of the tankette, which was to have a highly mobile armoured vehicle with a machinegun that could act as a mobile pillbox. Governments saw the tankette as a very cheap way to have large tank armies, a job for which they were never suited.
Drive chain?
@@nicklatheron8795 Nope! They had a central drive shaft that was above the belly plate but covered from front to rear so even if it broke at the front joint all it would do was flail around inside the cover and scare the living **** out of you. It could not drop to the ground to pole-vault the vehicle as suggested by the relative in rotwang2000's post..
@@brustar5152 That's what I thought. I've been in a couple of UC's and built models of them.
The US had a relatively similar vehicle as the UC called the High Speed Tractors. They were typically light tanks given truck cabs and made to tow large guns from the 155 Long Tom to the 8 inch Gun M1 and even a 240mm Howitzer. However none of these vehicles were as armored as the UC nor as light, and all the different vehicles designed as HSTs were equally unarmed. They were not made to see any exchange of fire, even with an HMG for defense
Not Quite. They weren't typically truck cabs built on a light tank. They were specifically designed and although the drive train and suspension looks like Stuart light tanks suspension, they were their own design.
Their name tells you why they weren't armoured, High Speed Tractors, Tractors for towing artillery. M5 for field artillery, M4 for medium and heavy anti-aircraft guns/artillery and M6 which replaced the M4 for heavy artillery. The High Speed part of the name was to differentiate between horse-drawn (slow speed) and vehicular (high speed).
Also, they were armed with a M2 50 cal on a ring mount for anti-aircraft self-defence.
Great research as always Johnny! You missed two Universal Carriers with flamethrowers from WWII stock footage used in “A Bridge Too Far” opening credits.
You missed a critical opportunity to tell us to “Take care-ier” at the end
Fantastic video as always!!!
They are surprisingly quiet and zippy, you don't realise just how fast they are. They were never to be used as armoured vehicles, this point had to be explained to more than one officer who sent them into combat thinking they were like mini tanks.
On a more sober note, my neighbour, who was a desert war veteran (artilleryman), told a tale of 'defective' men being taught how to drive them. The men were of below a certain level of intelligence.
After they were taught and got used to the carriers, the vehicles would be loaded up with sandbags and sent into minefields to clear them.
The impression I got was this not common army practice, the men and vehicles were saved for a major attack.
Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist saying "But but that's not on any official records!" or "But but that is a waste of vehicles!" or "But but Why didn't you take photographs or video it on your phone!" Remember:
1) This was told to me by a WW2 veteran of the desert war. I *personally* did not witness it, I was not even born in WW2.
2) Do you think anyone, even then, would have written that down?
3) It was considered better to risk and use up a single man and his machine rather than a tank with crew or the lives of the sappers etc who would have to carefully clear a path under fire.
4) The man may survive and the vehicle stood a chance of being repaired.
5) Photos may exist of the men, my neighbour showed me a picture of a group of men with their carriers (No I don't have it, its was 40+ years ago)
6) Mobile phones hadn't been invented then, no I can't go back in time to take pictures (You would be surprised how often someone suggests something along those lines)
7) You don't have to believe me, it's not going to affect your life or those of you around you. If you think I'm full of crock, just nod to yourself and have a nice weekend.
My uncle was in the 2nd war and he was in the bren gun carrier. One story he said, they had just given a German position a good working over with their carrier then made for the hills. Then a little later were hit with an artillery shell. 3 of the guys didn't make it. He did make it home from the war.
It looks like fun to operate. Love to ride in one someday.
There was one on Blackpool seafront in the sixties with a wooden platform on the back for carry tourists out to waiting boats for trips up and down the coast.
I believe that the Universal Carrier is the most produced armoured vehicle in history. Most people think it is the T-34, but about twice as many carriers were manufactured.
Just throwing it out there for trivia nerds. Let me know if I am mistaken.
During the childhood, i often give "anything mechanical give it a good bash" to my old NES console
That Ford V8 at its heart gave it the reliability and torque it needed. Good use of AWM clips
I feel like you could buy a dozen of these and use them as go karts
Great, my dads mate had a couple of these on his farm, so growing up was fun. lol
They were built in the US too at the Medford, MA Ford plant.
4:23 ah yes the British strategy of no clipping and flinging their vehicle to paradrop their infantrymen
2:23 A friend just shared me your video. I was surprised to see a almost 8 year old video of mine here :D
I#ve watched a few of videos in the past but I think this is the first time I left a comment.
Glad you popped in! Thanks for the clip. Hope you didn't mind 👍🙏
Dang, those bumps made my kidney's hurt just glancing at them, lol!
Honestly the true work horse of the British army and by British army that includes everyone such as the Indians, Africans, Australians ect where the two biggest and heaviest vehicles at the time doing most of the work loads was the Bedford truck and the universal carrier, be it used as a reconnaissance vehicle, a mortar platform, a mobile flame thrower, troop transport, a command or communications vehicle with added radio equipment, an ambulance, mobile artillery, even a light tank, anything and everything the British needed or wanted was through the universal carrier, add a machine gun to the front and you’ve got a mobile pillbox, add a few Besa machine guns to a rotating mount and a Bren gun on the front and you’ve got an anti infantry fighting vehicle and again, the UC truly is the unsung hero which tends to be over shadowed by its much larger counterparts like the tigers, Sherman’s and t34’s and funnily enough despite britian fight the war from start to finish, we don’t really hear much about the British during ww2 outside of a few small but major events but they tend to be forgotten especially on the big screen and the last British war film was 1917, other than that the British and again British includes colonial forces as well tend to be forgotten about despite contributing the most during the war.
And Canada had nothing to do in WW2 they used us for shock troupes they put us in first.The Germans feared the Canadians and Hitler respect us .
Be me an Australian with an LS V8 in my shed. Learns these were built in Australia. Manically uses my 3 beer soaked braincells.
My grandad used these and loved them in Korea and Malaya (he's still alive)
They were still going strong in Korea. An ideal battle taxi it could say ferry men and supplies up to the front lines or back to the rear without exposing them to sniper fire unlike the jeep.
I KNEW you were going to start this one with "The Longest Day."
How could you pick anything else?
Thank you Johnny. The germans had similar machines....i thing it had a limited effective purpose....probably good for mud also. Cheers mate
It’s honestly a simple yet rugged little vehicle being both highly mobile and to some extent even amphibious and personally I’d choose a universal carrier over a jeep any day
Thanks Johnny, see ya on the next one.
4:32 didn’t mention that they could fly
Hey johnny the germans also used captured versions that where used as tank hunter teams with panzerfaust and I believe 6 panzershreck rocket tubes.
Australia also had the 2pdr tank attack variant.
I love this tank since i was a kid, i want it in warthunder, the one with a boys rifle, or AA variant, or maybe both.
The sidewalk plows in my hometown were converted Universal Carriers.
Very cool
it's vehicles like this and the deuce and a half that won the war for the allies
😅when I was at Scott Base, NZ's Antarctic Base in 1966-67, there was a bren gun carrier. However, I believe that the narrow tracks made it not too suitable for field use. It was taken out to our ski run and used to power the rope ski lift. Probably the most exclusive ski club in the world.
4:24 historically accurate use of the universal carrier, which could also function as a paratrooping vehicle when needed. Which also secondarily functions as a one use artillery
They were made all over the world, with many variations, when I was a kid they were used on farms doing everything from carting livestock and feed, to land clearing.
Man, what I wouldn't give to scoot around in that thing for an hour.
I’ve had a ride in one of those!
I love it, but I'm sad that the wasp flamethrower wasn't mentioned.
Or the British tank equipped with a flamethrower. 😮
@@User_Un_Friendly a Churchill variant ,I think....perhaps one General Hobart,s funnies..?...
Kenneth More - the Beachmaster - spent his WW2 as a Royal Navy officer. He served in the cruiser AURORA and the carrier VICTORIOUS.
1:25 thought he was vaping 😂
Germans loved the UC as well and put all those captured at Dunkirk to good use. In North Africa Germany mounted a 37MM AT gun to top of carrier. On Russian Front Germans loaded them with explosives and used them to breach fortifications by using a remote control. Most were used in Crimea during the siege of Sevastopol. However these were not as reliable as those used by the Africa Corp.
A bit late but keep up the good content johnny :)
With lovely V8 Flathead engine great on the M25 .
Allegedly there are two or three Carriers abandoned in forests near where I live. After the war many were used for other tasks such as forestry etc. When they finally broke down they were just left 😢.
Fin fact: This was the most popular vehicle that was used by the Greek army in exile, especially during the battles of El Alamein and Rimini.
Allllright I’m Johnny never gets old 😂
Honestly an unsung little hero
Still looks really handy
It was a pretty nifty machine. Like a tracked jeep(a treep).
As a kid in the fifties for a while my bren gun carrier was my favourite toy.
Can you start listing torque figures with the vehicle drivetrains? That is the far more important number than horsepower when talking about pretty much any military vehicle.
0:00 till 0:10 heard it first when i was just a we little boy. still use it today
Krag Jorgensen?
No it's the Universal Carrier, colloquially known as "Bren Carrier"
I'm still waiting for the Jeep.
The most produced armoured vechicle of the world war 2
Cool little thing in a cool little vid'!
good show!, was the wasp based on a bren carrier?, also I think some were armed with vickers machine guns and some with 2 pounder cannons, also many were shipped to the soviets.
Been hoping you'd do something on this little guy for a while.
Yes