The Besa machine gun was a British version of the Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine gun, known in Czechoslovak service as the TK vz. 37. Its name came from the Birmingham Small Arms Company, which licensed manufacturing rights from the Czechoslovak maker of a design originally by Vaclav Holek. Following a War Office order in 1938, production began in 1939 with some design changes, and the weapon served throughout the Second World War as armored vehicle armament, replacing the heavier water cooled Vickers gun despite requiring a larger hull opening for installation. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Weapon Class
Weapon Class (category) Weapon Class (category) Classification
Service Status Weapon ClassTank-mounted medium machine gun 1 Introduced Year Connections
Operated By
Source Wikipedia: Besa machine gun
Used In
Source Wikipedia: Besa machine gun
Source Wikipedia: Besa machine gun
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Besa machine gun
Infobox, Type field
Tank-mounted medium machine gun
Infobox, Production history field
Produced: 1939-1945
service-status
service = 1939-1960s
caliber
cartridge = 7.92×57mm Mauser
- Used In: World War II, infobox wars field: 'World War II'
- Used In: Korean War, infobox wars field: 'Korean War'
Operated By: Israeli Defense Forces, Infobox, used_by field
Infobox used_by field:
View the SourceWikidata: Besa machine gun
Wikidata Q829411, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.