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July 3, 2012
The Worst Gun Ever
Posted by gerardvanderleun at July 3, 2012 10:19 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
Hey, nothing's a bad design... 'til it doesn't work.
Posted by: ed in texas at July 3, 2012 11:05 AM
"If it looks right, it is right". Chauchats allways looked clumsy, half-assed and with wrong proportions.
Posted by: Mike James at July 3, 2012 11:42 AM
It looks like a gun designed by people who had never actually SEEN a gun and had to rely on third and fourth hand descriptions.
Posted by: Mumblix Grumph at July 3, 2012 1:52 PM
If you read the article and the comments, you'll see that it's actually not that bad, and is actually a favorite gun for some.
Posted by: Etienne at July 3, 2012 2:46 PM
I make no claim that it is the worst gun ever, just that the decent model (in 8mm Lebel) gets a bad rep from the lousy one (in .30-06). The idea that French weaponry is all junk is a huge misconception - the French were on the leading edge of firearms design for a long time.
Posted by: Ian at July 3, 2012 3:57 PM
Too fine for the field.
That's all the "bad" any weapon needs to be useless.
Posted by: TmjUtah at July 3, 2012 9:57 PM
...the French were on the leading edge of firearms design for a long time.
Then came Agincourt...
Posted by: BillT at July 4, 2012 12:54 AM
The AEF ended up with Chauchats because the far superior Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) wasn't ready in sufficient quantities until the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in September 1918, where it saw its first action. The BAR became very popular with the troops at that time, but it really earned its stripes as the standard squad automatic weapon in WW2 and Korea, by which time it had acquired a built-in bipod that the WW1 model lacked.
Posted by: waltj at July 4, 2012 12:34 PM
USMC showed up in France with Navy Lewis guns. Whereupon the US Army, which ran the AEF, made the Marines turn them in for the Chauchat, supposedly to ensure uniformity of equipment within the division, although some maintain it had more to do with bad blood between US Army Ordnance and John Lewis.
Unforgivable, whatever the reason. Combat deaths surely can be attributed to the POS Chauchat and its' stupid open magazine. The Lewis was at the least serviceable, and the German army rated it highly.
Posted by: Mike James at July 4, 2012 6:36 PM
My Grandfather carried the Chauchat, but said every time the Germans came it jammed. Fortunately, Pershing made sure every doughboy had a .45, and my Grandfather said his never let him down.
Grandfather was, however, a staunch admirer of the French 75(mm cannon).
Posted by: Jose at July 8, 2012 6:58 PM