FN FAL

 

Back to guns.  I got a book on these for Christmas [The FN FAL Battle Rifle, by Ron Cashner], and briefly entertained the idea of purchasing one, but then realized that their scarcity and cost ($1500-2000) put them out of my budget for the immediate future.  I have yet to fire one in person.  Most are semiautomatic, but I saw a select-fire (full auto capable) model for sale at the recent Dulles Gun Show for $12,000.  As Class III weapons go, that’s a bargain.  DS Arms is still making new ones, based off the Austrian variant, the STG58, generally considered the best version of the FAL. 

Oddly, I have fired the gun, but in a slightly different form.  When we were living in Paris, the nearest US PX was in Belgium, right over the border from France, a three hour drive.  The closest bases in Germany, Kaiserslautern & Ramstein, were 5 hours away.  Initially we would make day trips, until my parents discovered a hotel in Mons, Belgium, the Raymond, which catered to US personnel, mainly people transferring to Brussels and waiting for their sea shipments to come or go.  It had AFN TV and a unique mozzarella pizza I’d never tasted anywhere else.

We’d go out looking around local Mons, and found a toy store which sold plastic guns which fired little plastic bullets.  The muzzle velocity was well short of allowing these bullets to pierce skin, so they were OK.  One was a Thompson SMG – semi auto, of course – and the other was an FAL.  I have no idea where they went, but we enjoyed them for awhile.  I still have my replica MP40, which actually looks exactly like a real one, but you can see the gun is nowhere close to being capable of converted to actually fire bullets, much less full auto.  Anyhow.

While the US upgraded to a semiautomatic rifle, the M1 Garand, slightly before WWII, the UK went through WWII with the Mark 4 Lee Enfield, a bolt-action rifle, as its main weapon.  By the time WWII ended, it was obvious that an upgrade to a better weapon was a good idea.  After some flirting with the idea of a smaller round (in .276 caliber) was done, eventually the US bludgeoned everyone into accepting .308/7.62x51 as the “main round” for NATO.  Fabrique National, the famous Belgian gun company, had been working on a weapon which morphed into the FAL, chambered in 7.62x51.  Oddly, despite insisting that its allies adopt 7.62x51, the US then went ahead and adopted its own intermediate round, the 5.56mm cartridge.  D’oh!

While the US adopted the M14 (in 7.62x51), then the M16 (in 5.56mm), the UK and its Buddies – Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc. – adopted the FAL.  In its main form, the gun has a 21” barrel and is fairly long.  Later, shorter versions came out, including a folding stock “paratrooper” model.  There is an inch pattern which only the British use, and a metric pattern which everyone else uses.  The inch version is semi-auto only, whereas the metric version is select fire (capable of both semi-auto and full-auto fire).  The Israelis and Australians made small changes to their models.  The Indians actually combined elements of the inch and metric pattern versions to make their own. 

Brazil has also been a big fan of the FAL and used it for a long time.  West Germany wanted to use it for the Bundeswehr (West German Army) and asked to produce it in Germany under license.  But the Belgians, who didn’t forget German misconduct during WWII – which included looting and destroying the FN factory at Herstal (northeast of Liege, east of Brussels) on their way out as the Allies pushed them back into Germany – gave them a hard NO.  So the Germans developed the H&K G3. 

Major Conflicts with the FAL. Despite the absence of a World War III, the world has not been completely at peace since August 1945.  Various low-level wars and guerilla conflicts have absorbed the resources of numerous countries which adopted the FAL as their main weapon, pretty much everyone except the Soviet Bloc (who use the AK47 and its variants) and the US, which loves its M16. 

Jadotville, Zaire.  A recent film which features the weapon prominently, even in the promotional photos.  A battle broke out on southeast Zaire in 1961, and a unit of Irish soldiers – with no combat experience – was sent down there, ending up in a siege.  In addition to the FAL, they also used Lee Enfield rifles, Bren guns, and a Vickers heavy machine gun.  Remarkably, none of the soldiers were killed. 

Malayan Emergency, Oman, Aden, Northern Ireland.  During these brief conflicts involving British forces, the weapon of choice was the FAL.   Of these Malaya was a jungle scene, Oman and Aden were desert, and Northern Ireland was urban – Belfast, mainly.  “The Troubles” had the distinction wherein the IRA would lurk among the heavily populated civilian areas, effectively using the locals as shields.  All well and fine when guerillas wear civilian clothes in the jungle or rural areas, but in the middle of the city the challenge is for troops not to shoot civilians who can’t help being caught in the crossfire.    

Suez Canal (1956), Six Day War (1967), and Yom Kippur War (1973).  Leaving aside the original war of liberation in 1948, in which the Israelis were mainly armed with surplus guns from Nazi Germany – now there’s an irony – these three major Middle Eastern conflicts between Israel and its Muslim neighbors saw the IDF using the FAL.  Although there was some discussion of the gun’s reliability in desert conditions, overall the Israelis were pleased with it.

Vietnam War.  Although Harold Wilson’s Labour Government in the UK was against the war in Vietnam – as was John Lennon – the Australians sent troops to fight.  They were issued FALs, which performed well in the jungles of Vietnam.  Generally the troops found the weapon worked best on semiautomatic fire. 

Falkland Islands War (1982).  What’s amusing about this brief war is that not only were the Brits using the FAL, but so were the Argentinians.  Both sides enjoyed the weapon.  The Argentinians were also well equipped with Dassault Mirages and anti-ship missiles.  Merci, mes amis Français.  

It’s on my list of guns to get, but not sure when I’ll have an opportunity to acquire one: ideally a 21” full size model from DS Arms.