Berthier Mle 1907/15
Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Etienne · Rifle · Out Of Production · 1915
Also known as: Fusil Mle 1907/15, Fusil d'Infanterie Modele 1907 Transforme 1915, Berthier 1907/15, Mle 1907-15
Overview
The Fusil Mle 1907/15 Berthier was the standardized World War I service rifle developed from André Berthier's turn-of-the-century bolt-action design, intended to supplement rather than replace the problematic tube-magazine Lebel Mle 1886/93 as France mobilized for war. Chambered in 8x50mmR Lebel and built at Saint-Étienne, Châtellerault, and Tulle as well as at U.S. plants under contract, the 1907/15 combined a conventional rotating bolt with two forward locking lugs and a Mannlicher-pattern en-bloc clip feed system: a three-round clip was inserted through the top of the action and retained in the fixed magazine until the last round was fired, at which point the empty clip fell free out of a cut in the magazine floor. Cycling was dramatically faster and more reliable than the Lebel's slow tube-loading drill, and in the hands of a competent soldier the Berthier could be reloaded and back in action in a fraction of the time. The 1907/15 served across every French theater of the Great War - Western Front, Dardanelles, Macedonia, Palestine, and France's African and Indochinese colonies - and its fundamental architecture remained in French service in reserve, colonial, and second-line roles all the way through the First Indochina War.
Specifications
| Weight (empty) | 3800 g (134.0 oz) |
| Weight (loaded) | 3850 g (135.8 oz) |
| Overall Length | 1306 mm (51.42") |
| Barrel Length | 797 mm (31.38") |
| Action Type | Bolt Action |
| Firing Mechanism | Striker Fired |
| Trigger Type | Two Stage |
| Magazine Capacity | 3 rounds |
| Magazine Type | En Bloc Clip |
| Muzzle Velocity | 725 m/s (2379 fps) |
| Muzzle Energy | 3363 J (2480 ft·lbf) |
| Effective Range | 400 m (437 yd) |
| Maximum Range | 2400 m (2625 yd) |
| Rate of Fire | 15 rpm |
| Barrel Rifling | Right Hand |
| Rifling Twist | 240 mm (9.45") |
| Number of Grooves | 4 |
| Frame Material | Steel |
| Barrel Material | Steel |
| Stock Material | Wood |
| Finish | Blued |
Calibers
- 8x50mmR Lebel · primary — also known as 8mm Lebel, Cartouche Mle 1886, Balle D, Balle N, 8x51mmR
Features
- Firing modes: Repeating
- Feed systems: En Bloc Clip, Three Round Clip
- Safety mechanisms: Manual Bolt Safety, Half Cock Notch
- Features: En Bloc Clip Loading, Bottom Clip Ejection, Rotating Bolt, Two Locking Lugs, Tangent Leaf Rear Sight, Blade Front Sight, Straight Bolt Handle, Full Length Wooden Stock, Bayonet Lug, Cleaning Rod, Sling Swivels
Variants
- Mousqueton Mle 1890 — Cavalry Carbine
- Mousqueton Mle 1892 — Artillery Carbine
- Fusil Mle 1902 — Indochinese Tirailleur Rifle
- Fusil Mle 1907 — Colonial Infantry Rifle
- Fusil Mle 1907/15 M16 — Wwi Five Round Revision
- Mousqueton Mle 1916 — Wwi Carbine Five Round
- Fusil Mle 1907/15-M34 — Interwar 7 5mm Conversion
Service history
Operators
- French Army · adopted 1915 · as Fusil Mle 1907/15
- French Foreign Legion · adopted 1915
- Free French Forces · adopted 1940
- Polish Contingent in France · adopted 1917
- United States Army · adopted 1917
- Belgian Army · adopted 1940
- Hellenic Army · adopted 1940
- Viet Minh · adopted 1945
Conflicts
- Pancho Villa Expedition (1916-1917)
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Russian Civil War (1917-1923)
- Rif War (1920-1927)
- French Pacification of Indochina (1885-1940)
- World War II (1939-1945)
- First Indochina War (1946-1954)
Production
Estimated total produced: 2,900,000 · Production years: 1890-1918
Total across the entire Berthier family (Mle 1890 cavalry carbine, Mle 1892, Mle 1902, Mle 1907, Mle 1907/15, Mle 1916 and their five-round revisions). Manufactured principally at MAS, Châtellerault, and Tulle, with a wartime contract of approximately 200,000 rifles produced in the United States by Remington for the French Army from 1915 to 1917.
Origin
Country of origin: France
Designer: André Berthier
Discontinued: 1918
Notes
The Berthier's defining weakness at introduction was its three-round magazine, chosen in 1890 for a cavalry carbine and never seriously revised before the war. Against the five-round Mauser 98 and Lee-Enfield and the French Army's own rapidly expanding appetite for sustained rifle fire in the trenches, three rounds was grossly inadequate, and the factories could not immediately retool. The 1916 revision (sometimes catalogued separately as Mle 1907/15 M16 and Mousqueton Mle 1916) introduced a lengthened magazine well taking a five-round en-bloc clip, along with a sheet-steel cover over the magazine opening to reduce mud ingress. Earlier 1907/15 rifles were progressively upgraded to the five-round standard where possible. A further interwar conversion, the Mle 1907/15-M34, rebuilt surviving rifles for the then-new 7.5x54mm French rimless cartridge with a detachable box magazine, effectively cutting the last ties to the 8mm Lebel round. The en-bloc clip ejecting downward through the magazine floor remains a distinctive feature that set the Berthier apart from the Mauser and Mannlicher families of the same era.
Background
French Army doctrine in 1890 called for a cavalry carbine - not an infantry rifle - and so the Berthier's three-round en-bloc clip was designed around a horseman's ammo pouch, not a trench. When it was pressed into infantry service in 1915 the three-round limit was immediately obvious and immediately hated, but French industry could not retool mid-war, so a generation of poilus fought on the Marne and at Verdun reloading twice as often as the Germans they faced. When the five-round fix finally came in 1916, soldiers christened the improved rifle the 'Berthier à cinq coups' - 'the five-shot Berthier' - and the name carried real relief in it.