Talk:The Flowers of War

ZB 26 actually a bren?

From the screencaps it seems obvious to me that this is a Chinese Bren gun. The gas return cylinder is too short with the bipod mounted at its end also the barrel is not finned. The difference is evident when comparing the screencaps to the ZB 26 picture, the ZB's gas return cylinder runs the length of the barrel. Canada manufactured significant quantities of these Brens for the Chinese government in 7.92mm (which meant using a straight magazine like the later NATO version). As such this weapon is anacronistic as it was supplied during WW2. I attach a link which mentions the Chinese Bren. http://www.koreanwaronline.com/arms/bren.htm

Looks like it. Nice catch. --Funkychinaman (talk) 14:30, 29 April 2014 (EDT)

Agree with the ID, but just wanted to say that the picture on that site looks a bit suspect to me. Firstly, the magazine is too long and has a more pronounced forward rake than the ones seen on the 7.92mm Canadian made Brens. Secondly, this has a drum rear sight whilst I believe that all of the Canadian built Brens had the simpler folding rear sight., Thirdly, it has an adjustable bipod which is also wrong for the Inglis Brens. Lastly, the British/Canadian Brens lacked the machining on the side of the magazine well which originally was part of the mounting for the ZB 26 style rear sight. I don't know what this gun is, but aside from the strange mag it looks like a ZGB-33, which was one of the final Brno made prototypes for the Bren. It might be that this is one of the ZB 39 "Commercial Brens" which were chambered in several different calibers including 7.92mm I believe, but these are rare and I have never seen one so can't say if this is one. Here, here, and here show pics of typical 7.92 Brens, which differ from that image but match the machine gun in the film (jsut noticed when posting these that the 7.92 Bren also has the shorter flash hider, which is also present on the movie guns). --commando552 (talk) 17:22, 29 April 2014 (EDT)