Second Floor Display of the AFP Museum features a life size model of a
"Bren Gun" Carrier.
The shipment of these vehicles was intended for other forces but was delayed in the Philippines at the outbreak of WW2. These were used by the USAFFE.
The vehicle modeled was named "Erlinda". It was a name embroidered on a hankerchief of a young woman who had been asaulted and killed by Japanese soldiers.
Two tired and raged looking figures are the representative of what the "Battling Bastards of Battan" looked like.

Uh...sorry Mondo."Remember Erlinda" was a sort of Battle cry used by the troops after a young Bataan lass was found in an abandoned Japanese foxhole--raped and murdered. It was never painted on a Bren gun carrier but the veterans who used her, suggested we do it upon seeing the diorama.After we finished it though, we came upon a Japanese video of one captured at Mariveles. It was armed with 2 water-cooled Browning .30 mg's. One was mounted on top of the Bren gun mount and the other was mounted on the engine deck. As for the rest of the Tamiya kit, you'll have to modify the lights and the front fenders to look more like the mortar-carrying version.The museum has promised to look for a couple of water-cooled mg's so we can complete the Bren! I'll be using the Tamiya 1/35 mortar and machine gun set for my kit though.I'll try to get a copy of that film so we can build it accurately.I'll keep you posted until I get it. Webster.

Hi Mondo, there were actually 60 of them! They were destined for the British garrison in Malaya but diverted to Manila when Malaya fell to the Japanese. Also, by the time our troops got "issued" theirs, they were already second-hand beat up machines since they came from the original Scout and US Army users. The vehicle we depicted in the diorama was already a veteran of numerous battles including the Trail Battles in February '42. Col. Xeres Burgos told me it was issued to him with the order to "learn to drive it yourself".His gunner, Dr. Nolasco, simply stuck his BAR through the original Bren Gun opening. At the time of the surrender, their unit was assigned to beach defence at Limay where they buried the vehicle hull-deep to serve as a pillbox. Neither of them could recall if the Browning on top of the engine compartment was an air or water-cooled MG. Furthermore, Pampanga Historian Dan Dizon recalls them as being "brown". I simply painted our replica in forest green and grey of the British forces in Malaya. I'll tell you when I get to borrow that video I mentioned in my other post. until then, Webster.

Hi Mel!
I read in Wainwright Papers and the book Fall of the Philippines that the Bren Guns were originally from Canada and destined for the Hong Kong Garisson; I don’t know if they were diverted to malaya, then to the Philippines; at any rate, i don’t know either if the origin ( from Canada) would make a difference in the color scheme? Also the 2nd Regular Division of the Phil Army which was assigned at the Service Command Area, located at the south easter edge of the Bataan peninsula, covering mariveles, Limay areas, including beach defenses had the Bren Gun Carrier Company; this info based on History of the 2nd Regular Division.
Hope this helps....

On the march North, the troops were to bypass Manila because it had been declared an open city; however, the rear guard, led by First Sergeant Ero "Ben" Saccone, was unsure of the route around the city. They decided to go through central Manila (the only maps they had were Atlantic Richfield service station maps) and it didn't seem to matter that the city was off limits.In the dark, one of Company C's tanks hit the Jose Rizall statue while trying to avoid hordes of fleeing civilians. The tank threw a track on impact and bent an idler. The crew worked all night trying to repair it, but by daylight, they saw it was hopeless. They disabled the tank and tried to hitch a ride with some Filipino troops in Bren Gun carriers. None would stop until the tankers leveled their .45 cal Thompson submachine guns at the convoy. Then they got a lift; they were the last armored troops out of Manila.

California State Militia and National Guard Unit Histories
Company C, 194th Tank Battalion in the Philippines, 1941-42
by Burton Anderson

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