Chauchat

Chauchat
Chauchat LMG in the museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw.
Type	Light machine gun
Place of origin	France
Service history
In service	1908–1945
Used by	See Users
Wars	World War I Greco-Turkish War Polish–Soviet War Winter War Continuation War Greco-Italian War World War II (limited)
Production history
Designer	Louis Chauchat and Charles Sutter
Designed	1907
Manufacturer	Gladiator SIDARME
Produced	1915–1922
No. built	≈262,000
Variants	Chauchat Mle 1918 (.30-06 Springfield) Chauchat (Polish) (7.92×57mm Mauser Chauchat (Belgium) 7.65×53mm Argentine
Specifications
Weight	9.07 kg (20.0 lb)
Length	1,143 millimeters (45.0 in)
Barrel length	470 millimeters (19 in)
Cartridge	8×50mmR Lebel, others
Action	Long recoil with gas assist
Rate of fire	≈240 rounds/min
Muzzle velocity	630 metres per second (2,100 ft/s)
Effective firing range	200 metres (220 yd)
Maximum firing range	2,000 metres (2,200 yd)
Feed system	20-round magazine
Sights	Iron sights

The Chauchat, named after its main contributor Colonel Louis Chauchat, was the standard machine rifle or light machine gun of the French Army during World War I (1914–18). Its official designation was "Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG" (in English: "Machine Rifle Model 1915 CSRG"). Beginning in June 1916, it was placed into regular service with French infantry, where the troops called it the FM Chauchat. The Chauchat machine rifle in 8mm Lebel was also extensively used in 1917–18 by the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F), where it was officially designated as the "Automatic Rifle, Model 1915 (Chauchat)". A total of 262,000 Chauchat machine rifles were manufactured between December 1915 and November 1918, including 244,000 chambered for the 8mm Lebel service cartridge, making it the most widely manufactured automatic weapon of World War I. The armies of eight other nations – Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Serbia – also used the Chauchat machine rifle in fairly large numbers during and after World War I.

The Chauchat machine rifle was one of the first light, automatic rifle-caliber weapons designed to be carried and fired by a single operator and an assistant, without a heavy tripod or a team of gunners. It set a precedent for several subsequent 20th-century firearm projects, being a portable, yet full-power automatic weapon built inexpensively and in very large numbers. The Chauchat combined a pistol grip, an in-line , a detachable magazine, and a selective fire capability in a compact package of manageable weight (20 pounds) for a single soldier. Furthermore, it could be routinely fired from the hip and while walking (marching fire).

The muddy trenches of northern France exposed a number of weaknesses in the Chauchat's design. Construction had been simplified to facilitate mass production, resulting in low quality of many metal parts. The magazines in particular were the cause of about 75% of the stoppages or cessations of fire; they were made of thin metal and open on one side, allowing for the entry of mud and dust. The weapon also ceased to function when overheated, the barrel sleeve remaining in the retracted position until the gun had cooled off. Consequently, in September 1918, barely two months before the Armistice of November 11, the A.E.F. in France had already initiated the process of replacing the Chauchat with the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle. Shortly after World War I, the French army replaced the Chauchat with the new gas-operated Mle 1924 light machine gun.