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36-613: The Mle 1914 was the last version of a series of nearly identical Hotchkiss designs, following the Mle 1897 , Mle 1900 and the Mle 1909 . The Hotchkiss Mle 1914 became the French infantry standard in late 1917, replacing the unreliable St. Étienne Mle 1907 . The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in France also purchased 7,000 Mle 1914 Hotchkiss machine guns in 8mm Lebel, and used them extensively at

72-399: A 250-round continuous cloth belt). Each empty feed strip was ejected automatically after its last round had been fired, leaving the bolt open in the rear position. Then introducing a new loaded strip into the gun triggered the release forward of the bolt and firing resumed. The Hotchkiss strips performed well with a three-man crew, but their capacity was too small for a single gunner firing from

108-525: A French government arsenal near Paris (APX) was the Puteaux M1905 machine gun inspired by the first gas actuated blow forward Bang rifle system of 1903. It was a deliberate attempt to develop an infantry machine gun that would be mechanically different from the patented Hotchkiss Mle 1900 machine gun design. However, the M1905 Puteaux machine gun soon proved to be unsatisfactory. Consequently,

144-547: A French post-war military evaluation says it all: " admirable weapon, patented clockwork, but very delicate and sparing its whims only for machine-gun virtuosos ." In July 1917 the Mle 1907 St-Étienne was gradually withdrawn from front line service and replaced by the distinctly simpler and more reliable Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun. Large numbers of the M1907 St-Étienne machine gun were then transferred to military units in

180-641: A scaled-up Type 3 chambered for 7.7mm , was also based on the Hotchkiss design. In 1930 to 1935, the Republic of China bought 1,192 Hotchkiss Mle 1914 machine guns from France. The Chinese also copied this gun and used the German 7.92×57mm Mauser . After the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, China ordered 1,300 more guns, but only 300 guns were delivered. It was also used during

216-446: A special wrench. The barrel could attain a temperature of about 400 °C, at which temperature it would be dark red in color. At this point the barrel dissipated heat as fast as it was generated. This only occurred after long continuous firing in a combat emergency situation. The most common complaint about the Hotchkiss was its weight: the gun and tripod weighed a total of 50 kilograms (110 lb). There were also complaints concerning

252-535: Is said to have been used by Communist forces in Korean and Vietnam Wars . St. %C3%89tienne Mle 1907 The French St. Étienne Mle 1907 ( French : Mitrailleuse Mle 1907 T ) was a controversial gas operated air-cooled machine gun in 8mm Lebel which was widely used only in the early years of the First World War . For “political reasons”, the "St.Etienne Mle 1907" was developed not to derive from

288-688: The Chinese Civil War . In 1919–1920, Czechoslovakia bought 855 Mle 1914s from France and received another 89 from the Czechoslovak Legion in France . 985 Hotchkiss Mle 1914 machine guns were in service within the Czechoslovak Army at the end of 1920 and 929 were still recorded in 1938. Poland received its first Mle 1914 Hotchkiss machine guns together with the arrival of the Blue Army in 1919. During and after

324-634: The Civil War broke and they were widely used by the conflicting parties involved. This machine gun also saw action during the Ifni War in 1957-1958. Hotchkiss machine guns firing 7 mm Mauser ammunition equipped both sides (government and rebels) during the Mexican Revolution (1911–1920). Furthermore, the Mle 1914 Hotchkiss in 8 mm Lebel was mounted in all French tanks and armored cars of World War I. Some examples of tanks that used

360-757: The Darne . During the Boxer Rebellion , Japanese forces acquired a French Mle 1897. Japan acquired a license and began producing Hotchkiss Mle 1897 machine guns in 6.5x50mm Arisaka caliber. During the Russo-Japanese War , each Japanese division had 24 Hotchkiss machine guns. Being lighter than the Russian Maxims , the Hotchkiss performed well. The production evolved to become the Type 3 Heavy Machine Gun in 1914. The Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun ,

396-603: The Invasion of Poland of 1939, the wz. 25 and wz. 14 machine guns were nevertheless used in combat by some Polish infantry units, notably the Border Defence Corps and National Defense . Spain bought the license of the Hotchkiss machine gun Model 1903, firing the 7×57mm Mauser ammunition. Adopted as the standard heavy machine gun of the Spanish Army, it was built at Oviedo . 2,000 were in service when

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432-602: The Polish-Bolshevik War the Polish Army bought additional guns in France and by 1936 there were 2,620 guns in Polish service (used under the ckm wz. 14 - "HMG Mk. 1914"). In the mid-1920s the army ordered 1,250 guns of a slightly modified version rechambered to the standard 7.92×57mm Mauser calibre. However, the army found that the newly delivered machine guns, dubbed ckm wz.25 Hotchkiss were substandard:

468-617: The White-Laffly armored car. The Mle 1914 Hotchkiss was used by the Marine Nationale during the inter-war period, primarily on the twin Mle 1926 mount. It was replaced in service by the Hotchkiss Mle 1929 as it became available. During World War II some of these mountings were returned to service to try and compensate for the slow production of larger and more capable weapons, along with newer 7.5mm machine guns like

504-698: The French military for use in overseas colonies At the beginning of the World War I , the Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne proved to be unable to produce enough St. Etienne machine guns. The French military forces chose to adopt the Hotchkiss Mle 1900 with some minor modifications, as the Mitrailleuse Automatique modèle 1914 . The Hotchkiss gun is initially supplied to second-line troops but in 1916 front-line units began to use

540-648: The Hotchkiss and the St. Etienne machine guns was issued in 1915, the so-called "Omnibus Tripod". The French Hotchkiss had a rate of fire of approximately 450 rounds per minute of 8 mm Lebel ammunition, and a maximum effective range of 3,800 m (4,150 yd) with the "Balle D" bullet. Fire for effect was usually in successive bursts of 8 to 10 rounds. The gun could sustain continuous firing of about 120 aimed shots per minute almost indefinitely, except for occasional barrel changes (during continuous fire, approximately every 1,000 rounds) which were quick and easy to perform with

576-408: The Hotchkiss machine gun or else fabric belts, the latter introduced in 1916, for the 8mm Lebel ammunition could be used. George Chinn notes about the 1907 model that: "While it was gas actuated by means of a piston, the French reversed the conventional principle. Instead of the piston thrust rearward furnishing the source of energy to operate the piece, the gas propels the piston forward to unlock

612-478: The Mle 1914 Hotchkiss include the Schneider CA1 , Saint-Chamond , Renault FT and Char 2C . Conversely, British tanks and armored cars were fitted with the distinctly different Mle 1909 light Hotchkiss (a.k.a. the "Benét–Mercié"). A recently published series of modern firing tests with vintage machine guns summarizes the Mle 1914 Hotchkiss as being: "A heavy and rock-steady combination of gun and tripod,

648-513: The Mle 1914. That year, a parliamentary committee of inquiry concluded that the Hotchkiss was more reliable than the St. Etienne and the production of the latter was stopped. The Hotchkiss machine gun was gas actuated and air-cooled, in contrast to the Maxim gun which was recoil operated and water-cooled. The Hotchkiss machine gun barrel features five large rings which materially assisted natural cooling and retarded overheating. The gas cylinder under

684-508: The barrel features a regulator piston which can be adjusted to the normal rate of fire of 450 rounds per minute. The Hotchkiss machine gun itself (excluding the tripod) has only 32 parts, including four coil springs, and no screws or pins whatsoever. All parts of the gun are constructed in such a manner that it is impossible to assemble them improperly. The Hotchkiss fired from an open bolt , like almost all modern machine guns, in order to avoid "cook-offs" – cartridges being prematurely ignited by

720-609: The barrel was prone to overheating and the accuracy was found to be too low. Instead of trying to renegotiate the contract with Hotchkiss, the Polish General Staff ordered large numbers of Ckm wz.30 machine guns instead and both 1914 and 1925 models of Hotchkiss were withdrawn from infantry service by 1936. Some were sold abroad; many were modified to arm the Renault FT tanks, TK-3 and TKS tankettes, and Samochód pancerny wz. 29 and wz. 34 armored cars. During

756-470: The barrel, the same basic design led to the Mle 1900. The gun was tested in 1901 by two Chasseur battalions and in 1903–1904 with cavalry units. The French Army bought another 50 Hotchkiss machine guns in 1906 for comparative trials but adopted the more complex Puteaux Mle 1905 (upgraded as the St. Étienne Mle 1907 ) to equip the infantry in 1907–1909. Nevertheless, 600 Mle 1900 machine guns were also purchased by

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792-402: The bolt. The piston is attached by a spring-loaded rod to a gear rack. This in turn engages a spur gear which is fastened to an actuating lever. When the lever is in the forward horizontal position and engages a cam slot in the bolt, the gun is locked. Upon firing, the gas drives the piston forward, compressing the spring and causing the spur gear to rotate clockwise. The actuating lever turns with

828-440: The front in 1917 and 1918. Hotchkiss heavy machine guns, some being of earlier types, were also used in combat by Japan, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Belgium, Brazil, and Poland. The Hotchkiss machine gun, a sturdy and reliable weapon, remained in active service with the French army until the early 1940s. By the end of 1918, 47,000 Hotchkiss machine guns had already been delivered to the French army alone. Including all international sales,

864-414: The gear for a half revolution, retracting the bolt and stopping at the rear horizontal position. The driving spring then forces the piston rearward, which reverses the action and returns the bolt to battery." Nevertheless, in the muddy environment of trench warfare the mechanically complex St-Étienne Mle 1907 suffered from frequent stoppages and was difficult to maintain by front-line soldiers. A quote from

900-629: The grand total of all Hotchkiss machine guns sold by the manufacturer in various calibers was well in excess of 100,000 units. The Hotchkiss was based on a design by Captain Baron Adolf Odkolek von Újezd of Vienna , first patented in July 1889 with further patents following in the following years, tested in 1893 in Saint-Denis , near Paris. The patents had been purchased in 1894–1895 by the firm of Benjamin Hotchkiss . Benjamin Hotchkiss

936-408: The inside of a tank. This led to the adoption of a 250-round articulated metal belt in 1917. It was widely used in all French tanks of the period and in some military airplanes. Beginning in 1900, two basic tripod types were used prior to World War I, when the final and most effective third Hotchkiss tripod model (the Mle 1916) became adopted and widely distributed. A tripod that could be used for both

972-471: The more reliable Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun. Around the turn of the century the French military evaluated machine guns made by the private French firm of Hotchkiss et Cie . While the tests were technically convincing, following which Hotchkiss machine-guns were purchased for French alpine and colonial troops, it was decided for political reasons that a machine gun for French line infantry had to originate from state-owned arms manufacturers. A first attempt by

1008-634: The national arsenal at Saint-Étienne (MAS) thoroughly reworked and modified the Puteaux machine gun resulting in some measure of improvement but also increased complexity—64 component parts for the St-Étienne Mle 1907 vs. only 32 parts for the Hotchkiss Mle 1914 . Barrel changes on the Mle 1907 St-Étienne were much easier than on the M1905 Puteaux and its firing rate could be set at any point between eight rounds per minute and about 600 rounds per minute. Either metal strips different from those used on

1044-454: The overheated chamber. Although the Hotchkiss machine gun was easy to feed continuously with a three-man team, each individual strip held only 24 rounds of 8mm Lebel ammunition. This feature proved to be one of the Hotchkiss's shortcomings, as the crew needed to reload the gun several times for every minute of firing, far more often than on every other machine gun of the same period (the Maxim used

1080-486: The patented Hotchkiss machine gun. Instead, to avoid patent infringement and royalties, it borrowed its gas operated, blow-forward design from the semi-automatic Bang rifle of 1903. The Bang system, first transposed by 1905 to the French Puteaux APX Machine Gun , had proved unsatisfactory enough to inspire its redesign by 1907 as the "St-Étienne" machine gun. However the Mle 1907 "St-Étienne"

1116-660: The rear, to the French colonies, and to the Italian Army . Many also ended up in the Greek Army during the 1920s. Altogether 39,700 Mle 1907 St-Étienne machine guns had been manufactured when the decision to close down their last assembly line was taken in November 1917. The Mle 1907-T was still in service at the beginning of World War II , for instance with second-line units. Romania contracted 500 machine guns from France in July 1916; 268 were delivered until August when

Hotchkiss Mle 1914 machine gun - Misplaced Pages Continue

1152-507: The tripods, particularly the "Omnibus" tripods, which were perceived as too high above ground and too heavy. The principal user of the Mle 1914 Hotchkiss machine gun was the French infantry during World War I and the early days of World War II. The Hotchkiss company delivered 47,000 Mle 1914 machine guns to the French Army between 1914 and the end of 1918. Several hundred were chambered in 11mm Gras for use against enemy balloons, as that

1188-481: The world's first efficient air cooled machine gun is admirably reliable and accurate" (Robert Bruce, 1997). These qualities provided the French military with an excuse to keep the Hotchkiss in active service far beyond its point of obsolescence and into World War II . The last recorded uses of the Hotchkiss by the French Army were in Indochina and Algeria, after World War II, to defend outposts in static positions. It

1224-494: Was no longer alive at the time of the purchase, but the Odkolek design was further developed and greatly improved under the direction of American-born Laurence Vincent Benét, son of General Benét . In 1898 an export model was offered for international sales by Hotchkiss and sold to Brazil , Chile , Japan , Mexico , Norway and Venezuela that year. With some useful changes, such as the addition of five cooling radiator rings on

1260-438: Was only a partial redesign: the original blow-forward gas piston, rack-and-pinion system, and bolt mechanism of the Mle 1905 "Puteaux" machine gun had all been kept only slightly modified inside the newer weapon. Eventually a total of over 39,700 "St-Étienne" Mle 1907 machine guns were manufactured between 1908 and late 1917. They were widely used by French infantry only during the early part of World War I until their replacement by

1296-588: Was the smallest caliber of incendiary bullet; all other French examples were in 8mm Lebel . The second-largest user of the Hotchkiss was the American Expeditionary Force in France between 1917 and 1918, with the US purchasing and deploying 7,000 Hotchkiss machine guns during the war. The Hotchkiss Mle. 1914 was also used on numerous french armored vehicles such as the Renault FT , the Char 2C and

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