PURPOSE: To prevent damage to a backplate due to stress concentration by attaching a pair of opposite portions to a retention device retaining the elastic return devices of brake shoes on the backplate, the opposite portions retaining the elastic return device in two mutually perpendicular directions.

CONSTITUTION: An automotive internal shoe drum brake is provided with a pair of brake shoes 1, 2 supported on a backplate 3. Each of the brake shoes 1, 2, is connected to a junction 4 or the like at one end and to an actuator 5 at the other. The shoes are radially separated by the actuator 5 against a shoe return spring 6 and pressed into contact with a brake drum around them. The return spring 6 is formed roughly into the shape of C and retained on the backplate 3 by a retention device 7 secured to the junction 4. Further, the retention device 7 has a pair of slots 11 and a plurality of parallel tongue-shaped portions 12, 13 formed in its flat plate 9, thereby retaining the return spring 6 in two mutually perpendicular directions between the tongue-shaped portions 12, 13.