Bren Gun and Universal Carriers: British Infantry Transport

A squadron of Bren gun carriers, manned by the Australian Light Cavalry, rolls through the Egyptian desert in January of 1941. The troops performed maneuvers in preparation for the Allied campaign in North Africa.

 

The Universal Carrier, a development of the earlier Bren Gun Carrier from its light machine gun armament, was one of a family of light armored tracked vehicles built by Vickers-Armstrongs and other companies.

The first carriers – the Bren Gun Carrier and the Scout Carrier which had specific roles – entered service before the war, but a single improved design that could replace these, the Universal, was introduced in 1940.

The vehicle was used widely by British Commonwealth forces during the Second World War. Universal Carriers were usually used for transporting personnel and equipment, mostly support weapons, or as machine gun platforms.

 

Two thousand Italian prisoners march back through Eighth Army lines, led by a Bren gun carrier, in the Tunisian desert, in March 1943. The prisoners were taken outside El-Hamma after their German counterparts pulled out of the town.

 

Among others, some British light artillery tractors and two Bren Carriers, Belgium, 1940.

 

Bren gun carriers pass Belgian refugees on the Brussels-Louvain road, 12 May 1940.

 

British infantry in carriers moving through the regiment at Grand Villiers, 1944. Photograph by Major Wilfred Herbert James Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two, North West Europe, 1944. Bren carriers are greeted by cheering civilians lining the streets of a newly-liberated French town.

 

British Bren Gun carrier among many other vehicles, Belgium, 1940.

 

The driver of a Bren gun carrier of 51st Highland Division, France, June 1940.

 

A Bren gun carrier of the Malta Garrison tows a trolley-load of 250-lb GP bombs to a Vickers Wellington in its dispersal at Luqa. (Imperial War Museum photo CM 4663)

 

Germans capture a Polish Stalin IS-2 Heavy Tank, "Thaddeus," and Bren Carrier in Germany.

 

3.7 cm PaK 36 auf Selbstfahrlafette Bren(e). The Bren Carrier was captured in small numbers. Mounting a 37mm PaK36/37 anti-tank gun to convert the carrier to the role of tank destroyer. Given the AT gun lack of power such machines were used mainly for training and guard services.

 

2cm Flak38 auf Fahrgestell Bren.

 

3.7 cm PaK 36 auf Selbstfahrlafette Bren(e).

 

Canadian Bren Gun carrier.

 

Red Cross Bren carrier ambulance of 18th New Zealand Armoured Regiment, Italy.

 

Captured British Bren Carrier mounting a British 2-pdr. anti-tank gun.

 

Bren Gun carrier T42768, North Africa.

 

Universal Carrier.

 

A Dutch man from Aalst, Noord-Brabant giving cigars to an Irish soldier sitting in a Bren Gun carrier.

 

Universal Carrier in Soviet Army service.

 

Maintenance of a Bren Carrier during a rest period in an Italian village behind the front line, January 6, 1944.

 

Local children are given a ride on a Bren Gun Carrier in Benghazi, November 1942.

 

French civilians crowding around a Universal Carrier to receive candy and cigarettes from Canadian soldiers in Normandy, 11 July 1944.

 

Canadian-manufactured Universal carrier during testing.

 

Canadian-manufactured Universal carrier during testing.

 

Canadian-manufactured Universal carrier during testing.

 

Canadian-manufactured Universal carrier during testing.

 

British tankers repair a Churchill IV infantry tank . France, Normandy, Summer 1944. Behind the tank is a British LVT and in the background a Universal Carrier moves along the road.