The French Chauchat

[Doug Bowser]

AN INCIDENT AT AISNE-MARNE

The Battle of Aisne-Marne (called the Second Battle of the Marne) took place on July 18 thru August 6, 1918. It was a continuation of the Battle of Champagne-Marne. The Germans drove a deep salient into the Allied Lines and the Aisne-Marne is the Battle that drove the Germans back and stopped the threat to Paris. My Father told me about an incident in this action.

The 42nd Infantry Division was involved in this Battle. There were a lot of rapid troop movements and some of our troops were caught out of their trenches and fox holes. My Fther’s unit was skirting a wood line and they came under a heavy counter attack by German forces. The terrain afforded good concealment but not good cover. They set up a hurried defensive position and repulsed several attacks. He said they used their machine guns on the attackers and the casualties among the attackers and defenders were appalling. Of the 80 men that went into the woods, only 28 were able to walk out. It was one time that my father said he was sad about all the young men he stacked up in front of his gun. He hated the job he was given but he did it with determination and skill.

In this battle the French Army gave our forces some Chauchat Fusil Mitrilleur Modele 1915 CSRG Caliber 8x50R Lebel. It was an automatic rifle that was adopted in 1915 and used the same way our Browning Automatic Rifle was used. The main design flaw was a magazine that was open on one side, so the soldier using the rifle could tell how many rounds of ammunition he had left in the rifle. The mud and dirt in the trenches caused the magazine to malfunction. In addition to this, many of the parts used in the rifle were not tempered properly and wore out quickly. The US Troops called this rifle the Sho-Sho. My Father called it the Sho-****. When our troops were issued this weapon, they quickly discarded them and picked up another weapon. The concept of an automatic rifle that could be carried with a long sling and fired from the hip was a great advantage when advancing across No Man’s Land. Some of the Chauchat rifles were also manufactured in .30-’06 during the War. After the War, the French Ordinance Corps manufactured new magazines and improved the internal parts for the Chauchat. They did not have the open slots and the rifles worked much better. In 1939 the French Government donated the remaining Chauchat rifles and a large amount of 8x50R Lebel ammunition to the Finnish Army. They were used a secondary weapons and kept in reserve.



French Chauchat Automatic Rifle Model 1915

 

[Sam1911]

n this battle the French Army gave our forces some Chauchat Fusil Mitrilleur Modele 1915 CSRG Caliber 8x50R Lebel. It was an automatic rifle that was adopted in 1915 and used the same way our Browning Automatic Rifle was used. The main design flaw was a magazine that was open on one side, so the soldier using the rifle could tell how many rounds of ammunition he had left in the rifle. The mud and dirt in the trenches caused the magazine to malfunction. In addition to this, many of the parts used in the rifle were not tempered properly and wore out quickly. The US Troops called this rifle the Sho-Sho. My Father called it the Sho-****. When our troops were issued this weapon, they quickly discarded them and picked up another weapon.

I had a very enlightening conversation this year with a military historian who was demonstrating a variety of continental arms including the Chauchat. He politely upbraided me for my casual dismissal of the Cauchat as unreliable. His contention was that it certainly was unreliable -- in the form in which it was issued to US troops: I.e.: very poorly converted to .30-'06.

He explained (with great patience) that in the original 8mm Lebel round the weapon was fairly good. Certainly as good as anything else being fielded. And, in fact, if converted to '06 with half a care given to some basic engineering, it worked just fine also.

Seems that when converting a rimmed 46K psi cartridge automatic gun to fire 60K psi rimless rounds, it pays to get it just right. Who knew?

 

[Mk VII]

Parts of the trouble was the US-made 8mm which was not loaded to the correct velocity (due to a mistake in translation of the French specifications) that would impart enough energy to the mechanism.

 

[CapnMac]

The small number of .30-06 Chauchats were held in reserve for training purposes. Rather a lot of AEF types formed opinions based on that training.
AEF was formed up as fast as possible. As a result, it was not possible to equip them to US TOE. Which is why they were near-universally armed with P-1917 rifles, the 8mm Chauchat, and Vickers MGs. The Second AEFwould have been fully equipped with US arms, but the war ended before they made it across the pond.
As is often the case, only about half the American troops actually made it to the front lines. Which was about a half million men in Mat 1918. All troops went through training facilities near Verdun. So, many troops remembered the wretched experience of training on the .30-06 Chauchat rather than fighting with a 8mm version. There were only about 1000 BAR with the AEF, and were largely held in reserve (Pershiong was very worried that the desing would fall into the hands of the Germans and held it back deliberately).