Fusil-Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG (Chauchat)

History

One of the most ridiculed artillery pieces in military history - the French "Chauchat" light machine gun - originated in the fighting of the First World War. Chauchat's story, however, proves that both sides of the French version, housed in its original 8mm cartridge, are highly regarded useful battlefield weapons - even the Belgian form of the Argentine Mauser 7.65x53mm cartridge, when cut No major issues occurred.

On the other hand is the American modification - the M1918 - fitted for the more powerful 30-06 cartridge, which works very badly with the fragile, lightweight Chauchat design. In fact, American fighter jets using the 8mm Lebel caliber chauchat have had success with this weapon, and some of them have become honorary veterans of the war while engaging the enemy with the Chauchat light machine gun.

Chauchat's design stems from the work of an early commission of French collaborators, including Colonel Louis Chauchat. The design direction resulted in a weapon that could be carried into combat by a single person, provided machine-gun-level firepower, and could be mass-produced with limited manufacturing facilities.

When France entered World War I in August 1914, it lacked light machine guns, so Chauchat went into production in September under the name "Fusil Mitraileur CSRG Modele 1915".

Chauchat was designed from the outset for mass production with minimal mechanical use, which resulted in a rough-looking overall design. The action is fully contained, theoretically contributing to accuracy. Its general layout consists of a central tubular shape that constitutes the receiver and barrel, with iron sights mounted above the gun body and a front attachment behind the muzzle. The muzzle itself is covered by a conical flash suppressor.

A simple rifle-style wooden shoulder stock was mounted to the rear of the receiver, with a simpler pistol-style grip underneath. A front snap grip is mounted in front of the main grip, and the magazine is clearly visible just in front of this attachment.

When firing as a front mount, a thin, sturdy foldable bipod is used to balance the gun against the terrain.

The magazine has a special semi-circular shape due to the tapered nature of the French 8x51mm Lebel Rifle Rim Cartridge. This arrangement allows 20x8mm bullets to be loaded into spring-loaded detachable metal magazines.

Two side ports cut into the side of the magazine allow the operator to read the ammo count instantly. The spent cartridges are ejected from the opening in the upper central part of the weapon.

In addition to being easy to produce, the Chauchat was intentionally designed as a light portable weapon, at a time when machine guns were large heavy systems and were often deployed as fixed defensive positions. Portability allows Chauchat operators to bring machine gun fire directly to the enemy and clear trenches faster than any bolt-action rifle.

The gun had a muzzle velocity of 1,970 feet per second and a rate of fire of 240 rounds per minute. When loaded with a 20-round magazine, the overall length is 46 inches and the weight is 23 pounds.

Chauchat's action centers on a gas-assisted "long recoil" operation, in which the bolt and barrel move back together (the full length of the cartridge) to complete the firing cycle (called "full stroke"). The bolt is then locked as the barrel is returned forward, a movement that causes a new cartridge to be removed from the waiting magazine.

Once the barrel and bolt are fully reinserted, the action is complete and the gun is ready to cycle again.

The manufacture of the gun was entrusted to the Paris-based "Etablissements des Cycles Clement-Galdiator", a famous French bicycle manufacturer specializing in the forming of metal tubes. Therefore, the manufacture of cheap small arms revolves around pulling tubes and steel plates.

About 244,000 chambers were made for the 8mm Lebel gun and quickly issued to French Army units. In practice, these weapons are largely well-received, and their history of problems is not as enduring as when used by the U.S. military (see below).

The chauchat became one of the most produced small arms in World War I - total production reached 262,000 at the end. This model was used by French colonial security forces in Morocco until 1932.

That's not to say that Chauchats are flawlessin fact, her designs have several inherent flaws. Originally, the gun was mass-produced by a company with little experience in gun manufacturing, which led to the introduction of poor quality parts, quality control, and poor design practices. This, in turn, could lead to a breakup in the heat of battle. Prolonged recoil makes the weapon inaccurate in untrained hands, tests have shown that if it hits a well-defined target, only the first shot has a reasonable chance of success: so strong hands are required when firing the weapon hold.

In addition, the exposed ammunition in the hollow magazines tended to collect various battlefield debris - dust, dirt and mud - which was common on World War I battlefields, resulting in contamination of the feeding action under certain conditions. The heavily tapered magazine design also introduces significant distractions.

In addition to use in France, neighbouring Belgium has a stockpile of 6,935 chauchat, about half of which have been refilled as Argentine Mauser 7.65x53mm cartridges. These reportedly worked well even in wartime conditions. Finland received 5,000, Greece 3,980, Italy 1,729 and Romania about 7,200. The Russian Empire acquired about 6,100 of these weapons, which were still in service with Red Army units during the Russian Civil War. Serbia managed a stockpile of 3,838 machine guns and Poland received 11,869, about half of which were converted to 8mm Mausers.

Some were then shipped to Spain for use in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

When the U.S. Army arrived to support the Allies in the battle of 1917, the Army authorities acquired several French automatic weapons to fill the shortfall in their own stockpiles. One such weapon became the Chauchat light machine gun, which the American Doughboys dubbed the "Automatic Rifle, Model 1915 (Chauchat)", nicknamed "Sho-Sho". These were adopted under the designation "Type 1918" ("M1918"), of which approximately 13,000 to 16,000 French guns were passed to the Americans, still locally chambered for the original French 8mm Lebel rifle cartridges.

In order to better use the more familiar 30-60 Springfield cartridge for the U.S. military, it was decided to reload the weapon and feed it with a new straight-box detachable magazine design.

These changes started with the often-publicized horrific operational history of the Chauchat - largely due to the greater inner strength of the 30-06, which pushed the Chauchat's internal components to their absolute limits. Rest is the order of the day, and so is failure. An order of 25,000 weapons turned into around 19,000 in utility form, with thousands eventually being relegated to training missions once replacements were found. This eventually came in the form of the legendary Browning M1918 "BAR" ("Browning Automatic Rifle") - a light 20-round magazine machine gun built by famed American gunsmith John Moses Browning and later used in World War II It has had more combat use in a global conflict than it is currently.

However, by the end of the war, the BAR did not arrive in usable quantities and the problems started around September 1918 - the war in Europe would end with the armistice in November 1918. At this point, the French kept only about 63,000 chauchats in their own inventory.

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