Chauchat Mle 1915 CSRG
Societe des Cycles Clement-Gladiator · Machine Gun · Discontinued · 1915
Also known as: CSRG Mle 1915, Fusil Mitrailleur Mle 1915, FM Chauchat, Chauchat-Sutter, M1918 Chauchat, Shosha, Automatic Rifle Model 1915
Overview
The Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG, universally known as the Chauchat (pronounced 'show-sha'), is a French long-recoil operated automatic rifle that became the most widely produced light machine gun of the First World War. Designed in 1907-1913 by a team comprising Colonel Louis Chauchat, engineer Charles Sutter, ballistician Paul Ribeyrolles, and engineers from the Gladiator bicycle factory (hence the acronym CSRG), it was adopted by the French Army in 1915 as an emergency replacement for the cumbersome Hotchkiss Mle 1909. The weapon operated on the unusual long-recoil principle - shared with only a handful of other machine guns - in which the entire barrel and bolt travel rearward together through the full length of the cartridge before separating and returning independently, producing a distinctive heavy reciprocating sensation and a slow 240-250 rpm cyclic rate. Chambered in the rimmed 8x50mmR Lebel cartridge, which had been designed in 1886 for a tubular magazine bolt-action rifle, the Chauchat required a deeply curved 20-round semicircular magazine to accommodate the pronounced rim taper; to ensure the cartridges would feed despite the severe curvature, the magazine walls were cut with large open slots on the right side, which unfortunately also admitted trench mud, dust, and debris directly into the action. Weighing approximately 9 kg with an overall length of 1,143 mm and a 470 mm finned barrel inside a perforated cooling jacket, the Chauchat was fired from an integral bipod using a conventional pistol grip and wooden shoulder stock, and could be switched between semi-automatic and full-automatic fire with a selector above the trigger. Roughly 262,000 Chauchats were manufactured by Gladiator and Sidarme between 1915 and 1918, issued at a scale of one per eleven-man French infantry squad - a revolutionary level of squad-level firepower for the era. More than 16,000 were rechambered in .30-06 Springfield as the M1918 Chauchat for the American Expeditionary Forces, a variant which suffered catastrophic reliability problems due to dimensional and pressure mismatches, and was quickly withdrawn from U.S. service in favor of the BAR. Despite its notorious reputation, the Chauchat served in Belgian, Serbian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Czechoslovak, Finnish and Greek armies throughout and after the war, and surviving stockpiles saw action as late as the Spanish Civil War and the early years of the German occupation of France in 1940.
Specifications
| Weight (empty) | 9070 g (319.9 oz) |
| Weight (loaded) | 9500 g (335.1 oz) |
| Overall Length | 1143 mm (45.00") |
| Barrel Length | 470 mm (18.50") |
| Height | 254 mm (10.00") |
| Action Type | Long Recoil |
| Firing Mechanism | Open Bolt |
| Trigger Type | Select Fire |
| Magazine Capacity | 20 rounds |
| Magazine Type | Detachable Box |
| Muzzle Velocity | 630 m/s (2067 fps) |
| Muzzle Energy | 2540 J (1873 ft·lbf) |
| Effective Range | 200 m (219 yd) |
| Maximum Range | 2000 m (2187 yd) |
| Rate of Fire | 250 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
- .30-06 Springfield — also known as 7.62x63mm, .30 Cal, .30 Gov't '06
Features
- Firing modes: Semi Automatic, Full Automatic
- Feed systems: Detachable Box Magazine 20 Round Semicircular, Detachable Box Magazine 16 Round Us Variant
- Safety mechanisms: Manual Safety Selector, Open Bolt System
- Features: Long Recoil Operation, Semicircular Curved Magazine, Open Sided Magazine, Finned Barrel Aluminum Jacket, Integral Bipod, Pistol Grip, Shoulder Stock, Barrel Cooling Shroud, Quick Detach Magazine, Select Fire Trigger, Low Cyclic Rate, Reciprocating Barrel
Variants
- Fusil Mitrailleur Mle 1915 CSRG — Standard French Production
- Chauchat M1918 — Us 30-06 Variant
- Mle 1915/1927 Chauchat-Ribeyrolles — Interwar Belgian 7-65mm Rework
- Chauchat Ballon — Observation Balloon Variant
- Mitrailleuse Chauchat Aviation — Aircraft Observer Variant
Service history
Operators
- French Army · adopted 1915 · as Fusil Mitrailleur Mle 1915 CSRG
- American Expeditionary Forces · adopted 1917 · as Automatic Rifle, Model of 1915 (Chauchat) / M1918 Chauchat
- Belgian Army · adopted 1915 · as Fusil Mitrailleur Chauchat
- Imperial Russian Army · adopted 1916 · as Ruchnoy pulemyot Shosha
- Serbian Army · adopted 1916 · as Chauchat Mle 1915
- Romanian Army · adopted 1916 · as Chauchat Mle 1915
- Greek Army · adopted 1918 · as Chauchat Mle 1915
- Polish Army · adopted 1919 · as Reczny karabin maszynowy Chauchat wz. 1915
- Czechoslovak Legion · adopted 1918 · as Chauchat Mle 1915
- Red Army · adopted 1918 · as Ruchnoy pulemyot Shosha
- White Movement forces · adopted 1918 · as Shosha
- Finnish Defence Forces · adopted 1918 · as Chauchat pk/15
- Italian Royal Army · adopted 1917 · as Fucile Mitragliatore Chauchat
- Kingdom of Yugoslavia · as Chauchat Mle 1915
- Spanish Republican Army · adopted 1936 · as Fusil ametrallador Chauchat
- Lithuanian Army · adopted 1919 · as Chauchat Mle 1915
- Estonian Army · adopted 1919 · as Chauchat Mle 1915
- Free French Forces · adopted 1940 · as Fusil Mitrailleur Mle 1915
- French Resistance · adopted 1940 · as FM Chauchat
Conflicts
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Russian Civil War (1917-1923)
- Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921)
- Estonian War of Independence (1918-1920)
- Lithuanian Wars of Independence (1918-1920)
- Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)
- Rif War (1920-1927)
- Chaco War (1932-1935)
- Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
- World War II (1939-1945)
Production
Estimated total produced: 262,000 · Production years: 1915-1922
Approximately 262,000 Chauchats were produced in total, making it by a wide margin the most-manufactured automatic weapon of the First World War. Primary producers were Societe des Cycles Clement-Gladiator in Pre-Saint-Gervais and the Sidarme consortium (Societe Industrielle des Armes et Munitions), with smaller runs assembled by other French subcontractors. Approximately 244,000 were chambered in 8x50mmR Lebel for French and Allied forces, and roughly 16,000-18,700 M1918 variants were produced in .30-06 Springfield for the American Expeditionary Forces. A small postwar Belgian rework in 7.65x53mm Argentine (the Mle 1915/1927) accounted for the remainder.
Origin
Country of origin: France
Designer: Louis Chauchat, Charles Sutter, Paul Ribeyrolles (with Gladiator factory engineers)
Discontinued: 1922
Notes
The Chauchat's reputation as the worst machine gun ever fielded is partially deserved and partially exaggerated. The French-issue 8mm Lebel version, while crude, functioned acceptably for its intended role when kept clean - issues arose primarily from the open-sided magazine admitting trench mud, and from wartime mass-production tolerances. The long-recoil action produced a heavy reciprocating mass that shifted the gun's center of gravity during firing, making sustained accurate fire extremely difficult. The barrel and bolt travelled rearward together roughly 75 mm before separating, producing a pronounced forward-aft impulse that contemporary gunners described as 'the gun trying to jump out of your hands.' The M1918 U.S.-contract variant rechambered in .30-06 was a documented disaster: the higher chamber pressure of the American cartridge cracked receivers, bulged chambers, and jammed after as few as 300 rounds; many had magazine wells cut to the wrong dimensions, preventing magazine insertion entirely. The AEF reportedly scrapped most M1918 Chauchats by 1919, some units simply discarding them in favor of captured German weapons or the Lewis Gun. The semicircular magazine is one of the most visually distinctive features of any WWI weapon, and the reason for it - the severe rim taper of the 8mm Lebel cartridge - makes it a textbook example of how a bad cartridge choice can cripple an otherwise viable weapon. The acronym CSRG stands for Chauchat, Sutter, Ribeyrolles, and Gladiator - the four parties responsible for the design and production.
Background
The infamous acronym CSRG stands not for a military bureau but for four names: Chauchat (the army officer), Sutter (the design engineer), Ribeyrolles (the ballistician), and Gladiator - a bicycle factory in Pre-Saint-Gervais that had never manufactured firearms before being handed mass-production contracts for what would become the most-produced machine gun of WWI. The weapon's curved 20-round magazine was cut with large rectangular openings on the side so that the operator could verify the remaining round count at a glance - a feature that also happily admitted the entire mud content of every French trench directly into the action. AEF soldiers issued the .30-06 M1918 variant learned quickly to discard it when possible: one contemporary account describes doughboys of the 79th Division throwing their Chauchats into the Argonne mud before a charge and simply picking up German MG 08/15s from the casualties instead.