Machine gun "Chauchat" - the failure of the war
"Group of a special platoon" of the school of junior command personnel of the 11th separate engineer battalion with a Shosh machine gun. Smolensk, 1926
“The gun can fire at a speed of two hundred rounds per minute, and it correlates with other types of firearms. weapons in the same way that McCormack's reaping machine is related to a sickle, or a sewing machine to an ordinary needle. A few men armed with such a weapon can do the work of a regiment."
Richard Gatling
Richard Gatling
Weapon stories. Why some types of weapons are successful, while others are not, although in theory there should be nothing wrong with them. Nevertheless, weapons are known that have earned a very bad reputation, although they were produced in hundreds of thousands of copies. And in the first place among such losers is the French Shosh or Chauchat light machine gun, as the Americans called it. The reason for such a strange double name is that the head of the commission that worked on this machine gun was Colonel Chauchat (whose name in French is read as “Shosha” or “Shosh”, but can also be spelled!).
And it so happened that back in 1903, the French government, having made sure that one way or another, but the country's army already had a suitable rifle-caliber easel machine gun, thought about having a light infantry machine gun in addition to a heavy machine gun. From the numerous examples of automatic weapons taken for study, the French army council became interested in an extremely light automatic rifle that could fire both single shots and fully automatic, and be carried by a soldier, like a standard infantry rifle. It was the rifle of Colonel Shosh, which he offered in 1907 and 1913, however, without much success. There was interest, but there was no success? Yes, that's right, and all because the French military was frightened by too much ammunition consumption. Therefore, the case with an automatic rifle did not actually move from its place.
FM CSRG 15 (i.e. 1915). Photo armesfrancaises.free.fr
But the epiphany came only when the war had already begun and showed what weapons the French soldiers urgently needed. A commission was created, which was supposed to urgently create such a machine gun. It included Shosh himself, the designers Sutte and Riberol, as well as the Gladiator company. That is why the machine gun was produced under the abbreviation CSRG, according to the first letters of Chauchat, Suttere, Ribeyrole & Gladiator.
"Chowchat" 1915 (produced in 1917) from the Royal Arsenal in Leeds
As a basis, they took a rifle with a 20-round magazine, which acted by the force of the recoil of its barrel during its long stroke, the Hungarian designer Rudolf Frommer, who even before the war tested it in Switzerland. It was slightly modified and in 1915, already as a light machine gun, it was hastily put into production and put into service.
Sector magazine for a machine gun. It was designed for 20 rounds. But experienced soldiers recommended filling it with no more than 17-18 rounds of ammunition in order to eliminate delays due to the fault of the store. Photo armesfrancaises.free.fr
The military usually advocates a weapon that is simple in design - it is easier to master, easier to use, and it breaks less; manufacturers also love it, and it’s understandable why - it’s easier to produce. So "Shosh" turned out to be a godsend for both those and others. The body of the machine gun from the butt plate to the flame arrester was a pipe. Or rather, two pipes inserted one into the other. The machine gun handle did not even have a semblance of a pistol grip, but was a rectangular piece of wood screwed onto a frame and a stamped trigger guard.
Inside them was a ribbed barrel connected to the bolt carrier. Inside the bolt carrier there was a bolt, the head of which rotated and locked the barrel with its protrusions at the time of the shot. The bolt rod passed through a hole in the bolt carrier. A bolt spring was put on it. In turn, the spring of the bolt frame and barrel was put on the same rod with a spring. Photo armesfrancaises.free.fr
When fired, powder gases pressed on the muzzle of the barrel and forced the barrel, along with the bolt carrier and bolt, to move back. In this case, the shutter fell on the protrusion of the sear and was held in the rear position. Photo armesfrancaises.free.fr
Now the bolt carrier went forward along with the barrel. The shutter continued to be held in place by a sear, but at the same time it turned and disengaged from the barrel. Photo armesfrancaises.free.fr
Pressing the trigger released the sear and the bolt, which went forward, fed the next cartridge from the magazine into the chamber, turned and locked the chamber, after which the drummer pricked the primer and another shot took place. Photo armesfrancaises.free.fr
Two French soldiers with the most modern weapons of that time: the right one with a rifle grenade launcher, the left one with a Chauchat machine gun
To shoot a machine gun, a loaded magazine is inserted between the additional handle and the bipod mount. Its rear end then lifts up until the magazine latch engages, holding it in place. For a single shot, the fire selector from the “S” or “safety” position (“sur” in French) is placed in the “C” or “control” position (“controle” in French). If automatic fire is required, then it is transferred to the “M” position - “machine gun” (“mitrailleuse” in French).
The German soldiers who captured these machine guns as trophies also actively used them! National Archives and Records Administration, Washington
Because both the bolt and barrel roll back a distance greater than the combined length of the case and bullet, this movement is called a "long stroke". Such automation is simple, but has its drawbacks. First of all, as it turned out, its use on the Shosh machine gun limited its rate of fire. A long cycle did not allow more than 250 rounds per minute. Again, this did not upset the military too much, since it reduced the consumption of ammunition, but now the soldiers only had to do what they had to do to fill magazines for the machine gun, and even incomplete ones, since the 20-round ones often jammed. Yes, and the shot itself was, as it were, stretched, because of which the machine gun could move relative to the target ahead of time, and this seriously affected accuracy! And he could well have moved, since the heaviest parts of it moved in this machine gun - the barrel, the bolt frame and the bolt itself.
Like the Americans who entered the war in Europe without their own light machine gun. I had to buy "shoshi" from the French and learn how to shoot it in French on the go ... National Archives and Records Administration, Washington
All sources unanimously note that no more crudely designed and ugly automatic weapon than this machine gun fell into the hands of soldiers, although the Chauchat was cheap to manufacture and easily adapted to mass production. This made it possible to produce it in thousands, and this "mass character" just became the reason for its poor quality. The fact is that when it was decided to release it, contractors from various companies rushed at him like flies on honey.
Government arsenals produced only barrels and bolts, and all other parts were produced by private firms, which often had nothing to do with the production of weapons before. In addition, most of the manufacturing tolerances on its parts were of such a nature that it could be produced anywhere. There was also no interchangeability of parts, as French methods did not require careful checking of every detail. Thus, from the point of view of interchangeability, this machine gun can be considered manually modified.
Chauchat for the US Army. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
Firms used cheap and even often illiquid materials, and even violated the technology of their processing in order to reduce the cost of production, despite the decline in quality. However, even machine guns made according to the standards of state arsenals had many shortcomings. In addition to the above, the machine gun was inconvenient to hold when firing. The location of the curved magazine also created considerable inconvenience when carrying weapons, and the thin bipod was easily bent. True, it weighed less than other light machine guns of that time, but this was where its advantages ended.
American Shosh. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
At the time the United States entered the war, the government contracted with the French to supply enough Shosh machine guns to equip each division as they arrived. While American troops were reading rave reports of production success with the superior Browning machine guns at home, here in Europe they were forced to fight the Chauchat.
Scheme of the Chauchat M1918 machine gun, caliber .30. The new machine gun received a carob magazine for 16 rounds, which further reduced its rate of fire.
In addition, it turned out that the American cartridge is stronger than the French one and therefore has a greater destructive effect on the machine gun, that is, with this cartridge, the Chauchat began to break down even more often.
American soldiers with Chauchat at the front
From December 31, 1917 to April 3, 1918, 37 864 mm machine guns were purchased or converted to .8 caliber, so that nine divisions were armed with them before sailing to Europe. Well, in total, 30 of these machine guns were produced, and ... where and to whom they were then only not supplied.
Sight and hole for ejection of shells. Due to the unfortunate location of the latter, as well as the recoil pad that goes over the butt, the sight and front sight had to be moved to the left. Photo forgottenweapons.com
Here you can clearly see the bolt and the groove with which it turns and locks the barrel. Photo forgottenweapons.com
Fly. Photo forgottenweapons.com
TTX machine gun "Chauchat":
Length: 1070 mm (model without flame arrester)
Length: 1170 mm (model with flame arrester)
Barrel length: 450 mm
Empty weight: 8,87 kg (model without flash hider)
9,5 kg (model with flash hider and magazine opening shutter)
Cartridge weight: 10,45 kg (model with flash hider)
Store capacity: 20 cartridges
Caliber: 8 mm
Ammunition: 8 x 50R called 8mm Lebel
Barrel rifling: 4 on the right with a pitch of 240 mm
Initial speed: 630 m / s
Initial energy: 225 kgm
Rate of Fire: 240 shots / min
Practical rate of fire: 120 rounds / min
Practical firing range: 200 m
Maximum range: 2000 m
Penetration: 50 cm of soil and 40 cm of spruce wood at a distance of 400 m
Penetration: 1mm thick chrome steel plate at 400m
Production: d'Armes de Châtellerault and Manufacture d'Armes de St-Etienne (barrels)
Made copies: from 225 to 000
Period of use: from 1916 to 1940
Some parliamentarians in France attempted to investigate the "Chauche case", referring to the principles of distribution and placement of production orders and control over their execution, but so many politicians and manufacturers were involved in it that this investigation was not successful.
And this is Ian McCollum from "Forgotten weapons" testing "Shosh" with his own hands and ... great smears on targets with it. Well, it also stuffs no more than 17 rounds into the store! Photo forgottenweapons.com
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