Besa

Besa machine gun
General Historical Information
Place of origin	Czechoslovakia
Type	Tank-mounted machine gun
Rate of Fire	450(Mk.I) 750(Mk.III)
Magazine	225-round belts
Ammunition	7.97x57mm Mauser
General Ingame Information
Used in vehicles	Various British ground vehicles Panzerkampfwagen 38(t)

The Besa Machine Gun is the British designation of the Czechoslovak ZB-53. The ZB-53 was also called MG 37(t) in German service and continued to be used in originally Czechoslovak tanks like the 38(t) Tank. There are two versions in FHSW, predominately the Mk.I and the much rarer Mk.III that has a higher rate of fire. On the map Sand Storm all vehicles that mount Besa MGs have the Mk.III variant. A notable vehicle outfitted with Mk. III guns is the Light AA Mk.I which has four of them.

The Besa Machine Gun was a British version of the Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine-gun, which in the Czechoslovak army was marked as the TK vz. 37. It was used extensively by the armed forces of United Kingdom during the Second World War, as a mounted machine gun for tanks and other armoured vehicles, to replace the heavier, water-cooled Vickers .303 machine gun. Although it required a rather large opening in the tank's armour, it was dependable and reliable. The name came from the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA), who signed an agreement with Československá zbrojovka to manufacture the gun in the UK. The War Office ordered the weapon in 1938, and production began in 1939, after modifications.

Development and use

Although Britain's armed forces used the .303 in rimmed round for rifles and machine guns, the ZB-53 had been designed for the German 7.92 x 57mm Mauser round - referred to by the British as the 7.92mm. Although it had been intended for the British to move from rimmed to rimless ammunition generally, with war imminent wholesale change was not possible. It was considered by BSA and the Ministry of Supply that the industrial, technical, and logistical difficulty of converting the design to the .303 round would be more onerous than retaining the original calibre, especially given that the chain of supply for the Royal Armoured Corps was already separate from the other fighting arms of the British Army. As a consequence, the round was not changed for British production. Since the Besa used the same ammunition as Germany used in its rifles and machine guns, the British could use stocks of captured enemy ammunition. The gun was belt fed with metal link belts holding 225 rounds, which was uncommon since belts with 200 or 250 rounds are far more common.

The Mark II version entered production in 1940. It was modified with a selector to give high (around 800 rounds per minute) or low (around 500) rates of fire. As the war progressed the design was modified to be more rapidly and economically produced, resulting in the Mark III version. This came as either an "L" (for low) or "H" (high) firing rate models. While American-produced armoured cars or tanks would arrive fitted with .30 cal Browning machine guns, many British tanks and armoured cars would be equipped with the Besa machine gun. The Besa machine gun was phased out shortly after WWII while Browning machine guns would remain in use.

15 mm Besa machine gun

15 mm Besa machine gun
File:Besa 15mm.png
General Historical Information
Place of origin	Czechoslovakia
Type	Tank-mounted machine gun
Rate of Fire	450
Magazine	25-round belts
Ammunition	15x104mm Brno
General Ingame Information
Used in vehicles	Light Tank Mk VIC

The British also adopted the larger ZB-60 machine gun to replace their Vickers .50 machine gun. Both of the new Besa machine guns replaced the Vickers guns in the Light Tank Mk VIC. The 15mm machine gun was also used in the Humber armoured car but its effectiveness was limited in sustained automatic fire as it fed from 25 round belts and was inaccurate. When the US entered the war the .50 M2HB Browning soon became the primary heavy machine gun of all the western allies.