The Besal, properly named "Gun, Light, Machine, Faulkner, .303-inch", was a light machine gun of British origin. The weapon was intended as an alternative to the
Bren gun as it was lighter, simpler, cheaper and easier to manufacture and therefore was not dependent on the
Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield which was within range of German bombers. As the threat to the supply of Brens receded, it was eventually deemed unnecessary and never went into mass production.
[Modern Small Arms” by Major Frederick Myatt, Salamander Books, 1978]
The design was by Harry Faulkner of the
Birmingham Small Arms Company, which also manufactured the larger
Besa machine gun
The Besa machine gun was a British version of the Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine gun (called the TK vz. 37 in the Czechoslovak army"TK" from ''těžký kulomet'' "heavy machine gun"; "vz" from ''vzor'' "Model").
The name came ...
which like the Bren was a product of the pre-war Czech arms manufacturer. That weapon's name was a nickname for Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) and the Besal was to be a lighter version; a Besa-light. This was however not an official designation.
References
External links
*https://web.archive.org/web/20130115040831/http://www.archivingindustry.com/Militaryfirearms/brenpage.htm
*http://www.acant.org.au/Articles/MGs_inBritishService.html
*http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s97/bongomania/Besal2.jpg
{{BritishEmpireWeapons
Light machine guns
World War II infantry weapons of the United Kingdom
Machine guns of the United Kingdom
History of the London Borough of Enfield
Military equipment introduced from 1940 to 1944