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Service history
Inservice Usedby Wars 19141945 See Users Mexican Revolution World War I PolishSoviet War World War II Spanish Civil War Second Sino-Japanese War First Indochina War Algerian War
Production history
Designer A. Odkolek von Augeza Laurence V. Benet Henri Mercie. 1897 (M1897), 1900 (M1900) 19141920 (M1914) over 65,000 M1897 M1900 M1914
Specifications
Weight Length Barrellength 53lb11oz (24.4kg) 1390 mm ( in) mm (31 in)
Cartridge
850R Lebel 757mm Mauser 6.550mmSR Arisaka 11 mm Gras 6.555mm 8 mm gas-actuated 450 round/min 2,375 ft/s (724 m/s) 24 round strip 250 round articulated metal belt
The Mle 1914 Hotchkiss machine gun chambered for the 8mm Lebel cartridge became the standard machine gun of the French Army during World War I. It was manufactured by the French arms company Hotchkiss et Cie, which had been established in the 1860s by American industrialist Benjamin B. Hotchkiss. The gas-actuated Hotchkiss system was first formulated in 1895 by Odkolek von Augeza ( Austria ) and improved into its final form by Hotchkiss armament engineers Laurence Benet and Henri Mercie. The Mle 1914 was the last version of a series of nearly Legionnaires in Morocco with a Hotchkiss M1914. Circa 1920. identical Hotchkiss designs : the Mle 1897, Mle 1900 and the Mle 1908. The heavy Mle 1914 Hotchkiss is not to be confused with the lighter Hotchkiss M1909 (the U.S. "Benet-Mercie" or the British Hotchkiss Mark I). At the beginning of World War I, the St. tienne Mle 1907 was the standard machine gun of French infantry. However, due to inferior field performance by the St. Etienne, the Hotchkiss Mle 1914 became the French infantry standard in late 1917. The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in France also used the Mle 1914 Hotchkiss extensively 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. The AEF in France purchased 7,000 Hotchkiss machine guns in 8mm Lebel, between 1917 and 1918, and used them extensively at the front during the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives.
Service Use
World War I. France and USA
The principal user of the Mle 1914 Hotchkiss machine gun was French infantry during World War I and in 1939-40. The Hotchkiss company delivered 47,000 Mle 1914 machine guns to the French Army between 1914 and the end of 1918. Several hundred were in the 11mm Gras caliber for anti balloons use since it was the smallest caliber to be able to receive an incendiary bullet but all the others were in 8 mmLebel. The second largest user of the Hotchkiss gun was the American Expeditionary Forces in France between 1917 and 1918. The U.S. purchased and used in combat 7,000 Mle 1914 Hotchkis machine guns, also in 8mm Lebel.
U.S. Army soldiers operating the M1914 Hotchkiss gun in France, 1918.
Japanese version
Hotchkiss machine guns in 6.5mm caliber were successfully deployed by Japan. The production of the gun was licensed to Japan to become the Type 3 Heavy Machine Gun, but the cartridge was the standard Japanese 6.5x50mm Arisaka rather than the original 8mm ammunition. The Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun, a scaled up Type 3 chambered for 7.7mm, was also based on the Hotchkiss design.
In China
The Japanese licensed version: the Type 3 (Taish 14) Heavy Machine Gun. Muse de l'Arme, Paris.
In 1930 to 1935, the Chinese Nationalist Government bought 1,192 Hotchkiss M1914 machine guns from France. The Chinese also copied this gun and used the German 7.9257mm Mauser. After the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, the Chinese also ordered 1,300 guns, but only 300 guns were delivered.
Other countries
Hotchkiss machine guns firing 7mm Mauser ammunition equipped both sides (Governmental forces and Pancho Villa's) during the Mexican Revolution (19101920). The same type of 7mm Hotchkiss machine gun, built under license in Spain where it was the standard medium machine gun, was widely used by the conflicting parties involved in the Spanish Civil War (1930's). Furthermore, the Mle 1914 Hotchkiss in 8mm Lebel was mounted in all French tanks and armored cars of World War I. Some examples of tanks that used the Mle 1914 Hotchkiss include the Schneider CA1, St Chamond, Renault FT-17 and Char 2C. Conversely, British tanks and armored cars were outfitted with the British version of the distinctly different Mle 1909 light Hotchkiss (a.k.a. the "Benet-Mercie"). 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, 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 were in Indochina and Algeria, after World War II, to defend outposts in static positions.
Users
Belgium Chile Greece Italy Brazil France Vichy France Republic of China Japan as the Type 3 Heavy Machine Gun Mexico Norway Peru Poland Spain Sweden Turkey United States
References
"Machine Guns of World war 1", Robert Bruce, 1997, Windrow and Greene Publishers, ISBN 1-85915-078-0 "U.S. Infantry Weapons of the First World War", Bruce Canfield, 2000, Andrew Mowbray Publishers, ISBN 0-917218-90-6 "Handbook of the Hotchkiss Machine Gun, Model of 1914", War Department, Office of the Chief of Ordnance, November 1917. Reprinted by: Normont Technical Publications, Wickenburg, Arizona, 1973. ISBN 0-87947-043-7 "Mitrailleuses francaises d'Infanterie", Guide de l'Eleve-Mitrailleur, Centre Regional de Mitrailleurs de Bourges, 1918,
External links
The Hotchkiss Gun [1] French 8mm HOTCHKISS machine gun, Model 1914 [2] French 8mm HOTCHKISS machine gun, model 1900 and 1914, accessories [3] (French)
References
[1] http:/ / www. firstworldwar. com/ atoz/ mgun_hotchkiss. htm [2] http:/ / www. thetankmaster. com/ ENGLISH/ AFV/ HOTCHKISS. asp [3] http:/ / www. mitrailleuse. fr/ France/ Hotchkiss/ Hotchkiss. htm
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/