The FN FAL Battle Rifle Read online

  platform into something akin to a designated marksman rifle (DMR). It was a good idea, and optics like the SUIT are still quite viable and effective pieces of equipment for civilian shooters, although the original SUIT has long since been surpassed in military use by newer scopes such The STANAG scope mount on an

  FN FAL. (Sedov K.B./CC-BY-3.0)

  as the Sight Unit Small Arms, Trilux (SUSAT) and Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG).

  The field manual for the SUIT

  summed up its form and function:

  A detachable optical sight with a

  magnification of four, equipped

  with an internally illuminated

  inverted aiming pointer. With the

  sight fitted the Infantryman’s night

  vision capability is extended

  enabling him to engage targets at

  28

  longer distances. The amount of

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  improvement depends on the light falling on the target and the target/

  background contrast. The increase in range varies from two to three times that of conventional open sights. By day, the sight unit assists in the acquisition and engagement of targets with low background

  contrast at the effective range of the weapon to which it is attached. It also forms a useful surveillance aid. (MoD 1975: 2)

  The SUIT used reflecting prisms and an offset design rather than the straight tube of conventional scopes. This configuration helped to reduce the overall size and length of the scope. Additionally, it placed the objective lens to the side of the bore, so that neither the front sight nor heat mirage from the barrel from extended firing would interfere with the view. The obvious disadvantage was parallax, in that the scope was not directly aligned over the bore, so that at some distance the bullet path and sight point of aim crossed and then departed further as range increased.

  A replacement top dust cover provided the mount for the scope. The SUIT was designed to be mounted and dismounted on the weapon without the loss of zero, a claim seldom found to be 100 per cent accurate. Range estimation has long been one of the most difficult things for the infantryman to acquire accurately, but it is necessary to get the best performance from modern military rifle calibres. With the SUIT, range estimation is reduced to the question, ‘Is the target closer or further away than 400m [437yd]?’ Again, the manual explains succinctly: ‘Adjust the range control lever as required. Use the 300m [328yd] position [to engage]

  targets up to 400m. Push the range control lever to the 500m position [to engage] targets between 400–600m [437–656yd]’ (MoD 1975: 10).

  Although the Trilux scope was used by only a few nations, the concept was not forgotten; nor did it come to be outdated. One of its greatest strengths was its ‘soldier-proof’ construction. It was not too surprising, therefore, that the Soviet Union ‘reverse-engineered’ the SUIT – with some ranging improvements – as their own 1P29 scope, which continues to be manufactured and fitted to military weapons, including the various Kalashnikovs and the PKM machine gun.

  The other ‘official’ FAL scope was German; it was later used on the H&K G3 when West Germany’s Bundeswehr adopted that weapon in place of the FAL. The Germans have long been known for high-quality glass production, and the Hensoldt Optische Werke’s F-series is a fine scope with Zeiss-equivalent optics. As with most Cold War-era DMR-type scopes, it offers fixed 4× magnification, with a 24mm (0.94in) objective lens.

  On the G3/HK91/CETME, the Hensoldt is mounted with the STANAG

  claw mount (the abbreviation stands for NATO ‘Standardization

  Agreement’), which allows the firer to use either the scope or the regular peep sights at will. It does, however, mount the scope so high above the axis of the bore that it leaves the rifleman using a ‘chin weld’ rather than a ‘cheek weld’ with the stock, making it more difficult to achieve proper eye relief and sighting consistency.

  Argentina used Hensoldt scopes on some of their FALs with a

  domestically designed and produced low-set scope mount that proved to be rugged and reliable. Many believe that the Argentine mount is superior 29

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  A Belgian-made FN FAL with a

  to the German STANAG mount, especially when it comes to cheek-to-Hensoldt scope and (at right) a

  stock weld.

  Hensoldt canvas scope case.

  Unlike the SUIT’s simple two-position range lever, the Hensoldt has a This example is one of the 1,836

  true bullet-drop compensator (BDC) tuned exactly for the trajectory of the

  ‘G-Series’ FN FAL rifles that were

  imported to the United States

  7.62×51mm NATO Ball round. It is adjustable from 100m to 600m (109–

  between 1959 and 1962. (Photo

  656yd), and matches the trajectory very closely indeed. The Hensoldt lends courtesy Rock Island Auction

  itself well to more precision sniper-type shooting, as the range adjustments Company)

  are in 25m rather than 100m increments. With accurate range-finding, the trajectory can be almost perfectly matched for engaging targets much smaller than man-sized – i.e. head-sized – targets. In the aftermath of the squabbles over the G1 FAL, the German Hensoldt came to be used instead on the PSG 3 (‘PSG’ standing for Präzisions-Schützen-Gewehr, or ‘precision rifleman’s weapon’) sniper rifle, an accurized version of H&K’s G3.

  The Canadian Army found the C1 sufficiently accurate to develop a sniper version of the weapon. In September 1958 the Director of Infantry addressed the Royal Canadian School of Infantry with, in part, this evaluation of the Canadian-made C1’s accuracy:

  In firing trials, the C1 Rifle has proved more accurate than the No. 4

  Rifle at all distances up to 1,000 yards in an ‘as issued’ condition. The influence of wind on the bullet is less pronounced than on the .303-in Mk 7 bullet. The various features which combine to afford this greater degree of accuracy include an extremely well made barrel in addition to the cartridge characteristics. (Quoted in Stevens 1982: 125) After a series of extensive tests conducted from October 1956 to April 1957

  on American, British, Canadian and even a Russian scope, the Canadians chose the Canadian Leitz as having the superior optics and reticle.

  With a new plant built in Midland, Ontario, the Leitz optics were made by the noted German Leica camera firm. Adopted as the Sniper Scope C1, it had 4× magnification and featured a BDC ring graduated from 100yd to 1,000yd in 100yd increments. Leitz also manufactured a heavy-duty top cover for the FAL to provide a solid scope-mounting base.

  The British and Australian militaries both tested the Leitz and found that it fogged up in humid tropical climates. Leitz improved the sight with

  ‘tropic proofing’, and it was later accepted for service with the Australian Army. Only a few hundred of these scopes were made, and they are now 30

  valuable collector’s items.

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  The spirit of the bayonet

  The bayonet seems like an anachronism in the day of assault rifles with high-capacity magazines. The weapon itself originated centuries ago in the days of single-shot muzzle-loading muskets, when a soldier could sometimes be expected to get off only a single shot before closing with the enemy. At that point, the bayonet turned the empty musket into an efficient pike.

  The British Army in

  particular has always placed

  an emphasis on cold steel.

  Although it seemed that the day

  ay

  of the bayonet had long since passed,

  nce p

  assed,

  British, Commonwealth, French and

  nch and

  Turkish bayonets saw considerable

  erable

  use in the Korean War; even the

  n the

  tough and seemingly fearless R
ed

  s Red

  Chinese infantrymen could be broken

  when confronted with a bayonet charge. The most famous instances of The ingenious early Type A bayonet charges in modern times, however, would involve the FAL – on bayonet, with ‘free-recoil’ spring both sides – in vicious night fighting during the Falklands War in 1982. and integral flash hider. This example appears to be Argentine-British forces had been fought to a standstill and the battle hung in the made. (Joaquín Alvarez Riera-PD) balance; a bayonet charge by a handful of Scots Guards against the Argentine Batallón de Infantería de Marina 5 on Mount Tumbledown tipped the scales in the British favour and carried

  the attack home.

  Fabrique Nationale

  designed the first FAL

  bayonet, the Type A, a

  standard knife-blade

  pattern but with an

  ingenious modification to keep the bayonet from

  affecting the rifle’s accuracy while fixed. A spring

  hidden in the pommel of the bayonet produced

  what FN called a ‘free-recoil’ bayonet, which

  allowed it to ‘float’ while the rifle was being fired.

  The early British-designed ‘trident’ bayonet also used FN’s free-The rare, simplified Type B

  floating principle. It had been a standard practice in the British Army for bayonet, which lacked the integral decades to fix bayonets after dark. Practically from the beginning of the flash hider of the Type A.

  (Photo courtesy of Rock Island

  military issue of firearms, troops almost universally fired too high at Auction Company) night. The weight of a bayonet on the muzzle served as a reminder to the Tommy to fire lower at night. Since the original prototypes of the FAL did not have a muzzle device, the trident prongs of this bayonet were also intended to form a flash suppressor.

  For the SLR, the British introduced the creatively named L1A1

  bayonet, and later a slightly modified L1A2, giving way to the L1A3 in the mid-1960s. Australian and Canadian blades were nearly identical to these British patterns, while the Indian 1A featured a longer blade (254mm/10in) and wooden grips. The L1 series, up to the L1A5, remained in service until 1987.

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  When in 1965 NATO countries standardized on muzzle devices 22mm (0.86in) in diameter in order to be able to use one another’s rifle-launched grenades, a new bayonet became necessary. This became the Type C, a socket bayonet with slots to match those of the flash suppressor. It was simple, utilitarian – and ugly. It could not be used as a field knife; it was a pig sticker, plain and simple.

  The Austrians, though, never developed or adopted a bayonet for their StG 58. When asked about this by an American gun writer, one Austrian colonel replied, ‘Have a friend poke you in the chest just as hard as he can with the grenade launcher and see if you like it’. (Quoted in Fortier 2001: 26).

  Rifle grenades

  Western European and other Free World armies have always seemed to make greater use of rifle grenades than have US forces. Until the arrival of dedicated grenade launchers such as the 40mm M79 and M203, rifle-launched grenades were a common item in military inventories around the world. (The Rhodesians were limited in their choices by UN embargo, however, and apparently did not use anti-personnel rifle grenades.) As with many other infantry weapons, the main weakness of the rifle grenade lay in the lack of live-fire training needed to become proficient with them. Soldiers in World War II, who had long experience and much practice with these grenades (usually under enemy fire, guaranteed to inspire rapid learning), spoke well of the weapon and were able to perform a wide variety of valuable tasks with them, although anti-tank use was never high on that list.

  Accordingly, FN developed and manufactured a variety of rifle

  grenades. (The synthetic butt for the FAL itself was adopted in part because it was stronger than the wooden type and could withstand the firing of considerable numbers of grenades while supported on a hard surface.) The most widely used of the FAL rifle-launched grenades was known to most soldiers by the name ‘Energa’. The Energa is an anti-tank, hollow-charge, high-explosive weapon fired from a projector fitted to a rifle, or a flash suppressor designed to fit rifle grenades. It was designed from the outset as an anti-tank weapon; its anti-personnel effect was comparatively small compared to that achieved by conventional

  fragmentation-type grenades.

  Older rifle grenades such as the Energa required a special blank grenade-launching or ballistic cartridge; some individual weapons, such as the FAL, also required a dedicated grenade-launching projector to be attached to the muzzle of the rifle to use them. Especially with a self-loading rifle, this system was inefficient and sometimes downright dangerous to a soldier in the heat of battle trying to keep blanks and live rounds separate from one another.

  The best and most efficient rifle grenade that followed the Energa was the bullet-trap (BT) grenade of the early 1960s. MECAR, another Belgian firm based in Brussels, led the development of and still manufactures the most notable BT rifle grenades, which have seen use by some 35 nations.

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  BT rifle grenades have a steel tube in the stem; this contains a series of

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  hardened-steel discs. These discs absorb shock and collapse upon Brazilian Army special forces themselves, trapping the bullet while harnessing its power and that of the during the 2003 Independence propellant gases to launch the grenade. This greatly facilitates the ease Day Parade in Brasília, Brazil.

  Note the tubular socket bayonets,

  with which rifle grenades can be utilized by the ordinary rifleman, and known as the Type C, which considerably reduces recoil.

  somewhat resembled apple-

  There are further types of rifle-launched grenades, equally useful but corers. (Victor Soares/ABr/

  not specifically designed for anti-tank or anti-personnel use. Battlefield CC-BY-3.0-BR) illumination, even for troops with some night-vision equipment, can be a godsend; at the other end of the spectrum, obscuring visibility can be equally important. A series of rifle-launched smoke grenades can create an effective screen that can conceal either an attack or withdrawal. For example, the MECAR BT smoke grenade has a range of 300m (328yd) and burns for 2½ minutes, emitting a cloud of dense opaque smoke the entire time. Rifle-launched ‘riot control’ grenades filled with CS tear gas also saw frequent use in Northern Ireland and Palestine for dispersing crowds of rioters or protesters.

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  USE

  The right arm of the Free World

  Oddly enough, even though it was the most widely distributed military rifle in the Free World, the FAL rifle never did see service in its intended role. Meant to face a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, the FAL

  fortunately never had to be used for this purpose. It did, however, give excellent service in battle around the world in many smaller wars and numerous insurgencies.

  IN BRITISH SERVICE: SUEZ TO THE GULF WAR

  The Malayan Emergency

  Within the post-war ‘End of Empire’ conditions experienced by Britain, the FAL in its L1A1 form saw nearly continuous use from the 1950s to the early 1990s in a long series of counter-insurgency conflicts. The L1A1 served British and Commonwealth armies in the Malayan Emergency (1948–60), the Suez Crisis of 1956, the Indonesian Confrontation (1962–66), Vietnam, the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, the Falklands War of 1982 and – owing to Special Air Service (SAS) mistrust of the SA80 assault rifle – some limited use in the First Gulf War in 1991.

  During the Malayan Emergency of the 1940s and 1950s, British forces were stretched thinly indeed, as units were sent to fight other communist forces in Korea. In the early days of the Emergency, bolt-action Lee-Enfield No. 5 ‘jungle carbines’ and underpowered American-made M1

  and M2 Car
bines first saw initial action until replaced by the FAL. The earliest FALs to arrive in-country were of Belgian FN manufacture. Later, when UK production of the SLR geared up, the troops received genuine 34

  L1A1s. An American observer detailed his thoughts on the weapon:

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  Because of the British emphasis on the

  individual soldier and his personal

  weapon, small arms were of great

  importance. The British Army had a fine

  new family of predominantly 7.62

  millimeter infantry weapons, as efficient

  and effective as any in the world for

  conventional warfare. For various

  reasons, these arms were not particularly

  well adapted to the jungle …

  The standard infantry rifle in the

  British Army and the armies of the

  wealthier members of the

  Commonwealth was the self-loading

  rifle designed by the Fabrique Nationale

  d’Armes de Guerre (FN) . This is a fine

  weapon which fires the 7.62 millimeter

  NATO round, 20 to each detachable

  box magazine. In the British Army, this

  weapon does not fire fully automatically,

  but can deliver rapid single shots with

  astonishing accuracy .

  It was entirely satisfactory during

  the Malayan emergency, but eventually

  ran into severe competition from the

  AR15 (US M16) … For use in the

  jungle, the British Army felt that the

  AR15 was superior to their self-loading

  rifle … (Weller 1966: 17)

  Militarily, the Emergency was a small-

  unit war, involving short, sharp firefights between small groups. The L1A1 SLR continued in use The troops had to be alert and ready to fight at any moment during through Britain’s ‘small wars’

  their ‘jungle bashing’, often after weeks without a single contact. of the late 20th century. Here, a soldier of H Squadron,

  From National Servicemen to Gurkhas, the soldiers responded 5 Royal Tank Regiment, crosses magnificently, proving the Western soldier could indeed outperform the a makeshift bridge in Sarawak, Third World guerrilla.