Learn from mistakes and be self-reliant.
World War I ended on June 5438+091811,but the peace was short-lived, and France was afraid of another war. 19 19, a military organization began to study the military needs of the French army in the next few years, and they came to the conclusion that infantry weapons at that time could not meet the needs of modern warfare. 192 1 year, the French army made a new procurement plan for infantry weapons, including a series of weapons such as light/heavy machine guns, submachine guns, pistols, rifles, light mortars and light anti-tank rifles.
Light machine guns were highly sought after because of their outstanding performance in World War I, and France was no exception, and decided to give priority to the development of light machine guns.
During the period of 1920 ~ 1923, various light machine guns were tested by the artillery technical department of the French army, including the M 1922 light machine gun of Chatterley Arsenal in France (firing 0.30-06 rounds), and the St.? M 1922 and M 1923 light machine guns produced by Etienne Arsenal (MAS) imitate Browning light machine guns (firing new 7.5mm machine guns), a Dane M 1923 light machine gun (firing 7.92mm Mao Se bullets) and a Danish Madsen light machine gun. British Levis M 1920 light machine gun (firing 0.30-06 rounds) and Levis M 1922 light machine gun (firing 7.92mm Mao Se rounds), hutcheson M 1922 light machine gun, and American Browning M 1922 light machine gun (firing 0.30
Various tests show that the American Browning M 1922 light machine gun has the best performance among all the machine guns tested. However, things did not develop according to people's wishes. France and the United States failed to reach an agreement on the licensed production of Browning machine guns: the American Colt Company, the manufacturer of Browning machine guns, offered a higher price, so the French army had to give up.
In order not to be controlled by others, Lieutenant Colonel Ribel (1868 ~ 1954), head of R&D department of Chatterley Arsenal, proposed to independently develop a new type of light machine gun, and obtained the consent of relevant parties. Lieutenant Colonel Ribel personally participated in the design of the new machine gun. The troubled Chattler Arsenal soon submitted a sample gun to the Versailles weapon test site in France. Although Chatelet light machine gun claims to be a new type of machine gun, it obviously "copied" the design of other light machine guns, especially the M 1922 light machine gun of Bochtier.
1in June, 923, the first Chatterley light machine gun that fired 7.5×58mm machine bullets came out, and many army tests were carried out. 1924 65438+1On October 24th, the gun was adopted by the French army and officially named as M 1924 light machine gun. In English-speaking countries, this kind of gun is also called Chatterley light machine gun.
M 1924 and M 1924/29
1925 July, mass production of the M 1924 light machine gun began. By the end of the same year 10, * * * had produced 600 guns. 1926 may 1 1 day, the 2nd battalion of the 66th infantry regiment of the French army deployed in Morocco was equipped with M 1924 light machine guns. At that time, the French army was also heavily equipped with German rifles and light machine guns captured in World War I, which fired 7.92mm Mao Se bombs. The French 7.5mm bullet was originally developed with reference to the German 7.92mm Mao Se bullet, which are similar in appearance and easy to be confused. If M 1924 light machine gun misuses 7.92mm Mao Se bullet, it will cause injury. Based on the above reasons, after many practical tests, France shortened the shell of M 1924 by 4 mm-this is the later M 1929.
Due to the replacement of bullets, the French army had to replace the barrels of all active M 1924 light machine guns. Thus M 1929 is deduced. The light machine gun with changed barrel is named M 1924/29 light machine gun or M24/29, and it is still produced by Chatterlet Arsenal, while the barrel is produced by Tila Arsenal (MAT) or Hatkas Arsenal.
From 1925 to 1939, Chatterley Arsenal * * produced 45,530 M 1924 light machine guns and 53,769 M 1924/29 light machine guns. From the full-scale outbreak of World War II in September 1939 to June 1940, Chatterley Arsenal produced another 34,500 M 1924/29 light machine guns. Later, affected by the war, production was interrupted until June 1945. From 1945 to 1957, M 1924/29, 536 13 light machine guns came out again. The total output of Chatelet light machine gun reached 1874 12.
Due to the huge output, except for some reserve troops and special forces (they are still using the Shanchad M 19 15 light machine gun), Chatterley light machine gun was almost the standard weapon of all French troops during World War II, and made great contributions, such as causing heavy casualties to the Germans in the 1940 French Defence War and the English Channel Defence War.
In the 1930 s, France planned to export Chatterlet light machine guns to Yugoslavia and Romania, but did not do so. Chatterley light machine gun has been used for a long time in some French colonial countries (such as Africa and Southeast Asia), and also in Lebanon and Israel. Chatterley light machine guns were also exported to India and Algeria, and even the reserve forces in these countries were still in use until the early 1960s. In 2004, the Chatterley light machine gun of the French gendarmerie came to an end.
List structural features
Chatelet light machine gun adopts air conduction automatic mode, bolt offset locking mode and air-cooled barrel, which can be hit at any time. Most parts of the gun are forged steel and rolled steel, with first-class design, durability and high price.
The biggest feature of the gun is that the magazine is inserted above the magazine and the shell throwing window is on the right side of the magazine. In order to facilitate aiming, the sight and the door are installed on the left side of the gun body. The sight is sheet-shaped and installed at the joint between the muzzle and the flame arrester. Press the door for the hole type, horizontally hinged on the scale, usually press the door can be pulled to the right, easy to carry and store; In wartime, the door will be pulled to the left for aiming. The range of scale is100 ~ 2000m, and the division interval of scale is100 ~ 2000m.
The butt of the gun is equipped with a hinged shoulder rest, and the butt of the gun is equipped with a reducer and a buffer. The gun butt is assembled on the chassis through three screws, which is convenient for maintenance. Detachable single support legs are also installed on the butt of the gun, which can reduce the fatigue of soldiers aiming and shooting in prone position. There is a metal plate and an adjusting bolt under the support leg, which can adjust the height.
The puller handle is located on the right side of the chassis. The drawing handle and bolt are not fixed together. When shooting, the gun handle does not reciprocate with the bolt. The air guide system and the piston are located below the barrel. Below the case is the trigger assembly and a small handle. The gun has two triggers, the front trigger is single shot and the back trigger is continuous shot. There is a short section of lower guard wood in front of the trigger guard ring, and there is a circular tube perpendicular to the axis of the barrel in the guard wood, so that the gun can be mounted on the support frame and fired into the air.
The front of the magazine slot is hinged with a dust cover, which is usually covered to prevent dust from entering the magazine. The barrel has four left-handed rifling lines with a lead of 270 mm.
The foldable tripod is installed at the front end of the bucket, and the height of the tripod can not be adjusted, so it can be folded back to the bucket side and is convenient to carry.
Single and continuous firing process
Before shooting, pull the hole to the left of the barrel, adjust the gauge and set the range. Finally, open the dust cover, open the magazine, insert the full magazine, then fasten the magazine, open the safety, pull the handle backwards, and then push forward.
When the trigger is pulled in continuous shooting, the iron is prevented from rotating to release the bolt, and the bolt moves forward under the action of the return spring, pushing a bullet to the court and locking it, and hitting the needle to fire the bullet. When the ignition gas passes through the air guide hole, part of the gunpowder gas enters the air guide hole, pushing the piston/bolt holder backward to drive the bolt to unlock and recoil. In the recoil process of the bolt, the shell shell is pulled out and thrown out, compressing and reloading. Under the action of the reducer and buffer of the big bolt, the bolt speed decays rapidly, and then sits back to its original position. The mountain has been overwhelmed by iron resistance, and it is impossible to fasten the bolt. So, under the impetus of praise, the crossbow moved forward to complete the shooting cycle. As long as you hold the trigger, the iron bar can't be lifted, and the shooting process will continue until the shooter releases the trigger or runs out of bullets in the magazine.
The front trigger is pulled by single shot, and the bolt is rotated by a small angle to release the bolt, and the bolt moves forward to push it into the bore. At the same time, the retaining iron returns to its original position under the action of spring force. After the bullet is fired, the gun will recoil, complete the action of pulling and throwing the shell, and compress the recoil spring. When the bolt is sitting in the back seat, it is buckled by the stopper. If you want to continue shooting, you need to release the trigger, let the trigger and the resistance iron buckle together again, and then press the trigger to fire the bullet.
All kinds of variant guns
7.92 mm Chatterley light machine gun
In order to meet the needs of foreign users, Chatterley Arsenal introduced a Chatterley light machine gun capable of firing 7.92mm Mao Se at 1927 ~ 1928. The gun participated in the selection of light machine guns in Serbia, Poland and Romania, but eventually lost to ZB26 in the Czech Republic and Browning light machine gun in the United States.
Chatterley fortress light machine gun
In A.D. 1930, France built the maginot line on the Franco-German border. In order to enable Chatterley light machine gun to be used in turrets or turrets of chariots, and to fire 7.5mm M 1933D heavy bullet, the rifling lead of Chatterley light machine gun was changed from 270mm to 235mm, and the bipod was removed, so it was called Chatterley fortress after improvement. Light machine gun * * * 25 12 transformed the Chatterlet light machine gun into a "fortress" machine gun. There is also an empty shell collection bag hanging on the gun to prevent the scattered shells from affecting the turret rotation.
7.62 mm Chatterley light machine gun
As the 62mm T65 ammunition was selected as the standard ammunition by NATO, France first considered changing the assault rifle into NATO standard caliber, and considered transforming the old weapons, such as MAS 36-5 1 rifle, Chatterlet light machine gun and MAC 3 1 tank machine gun.
19511017 The French military began to demonstrate the scheme of refitting Chatterley light machine gun from 7.5 mm caliber to 7.62 mm caliber. 1June, 952, test-fired two 7.62mm machine guns. Improvements include replacing the barrel and hook and replacing it with a new magazine. 1956, 10 tested 50 7.62mm Chatterley light machine guns in June, 1957 evaluated the army's service in June. But the 7.62mm Chatterley light machine gun was not installed in the end.
Chatterley light machine gun competition
/kloc-in the 1960s, the French army organized a shooting competition, including pistols, rifles and machine guns. In order to improve the weapon performance, the Chatelet light machine gun was improved, including: using a small arc grip similar to the Burun light machine gun; Adopt a new foldable photo door, which can adjust the height and direction; The portable handle is added, and four gas regulators with adjustable positions, two tripods with adjustable heights, a vision protection cover and a larger flame arrester are adopted.
Inspection of advantages and disadvantages
The shortcomings of Chatterley light machine gun are: the sight is located on the left side of the gun body, and the magazine is located above the box, which hinders the sight of left-handed shooters; Its high fire line is not conducive to concealment; Cannon can't be changed quickly, because the magazine is used to hold ammunition, and the firepower continuity is not strong.
Nevertheless, the extraordinary life experience and excellent design make the Chatterlet light machine gun one of the best weapons in the world and a "strength" weapon that has withstood the test of war. Its accuracy and reliability are high. Especially in the desert environment, its reliability and operability have won the unanimous praise of the soldiers.
Editor Zheng Shuangyan