Chassepot rifle

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Chassepot rifle with associated Jatagan bayonet

The Chassepot is a French infantry rifle M 1866, a drawn breech-loading type of needle gun, developed from the knowledge of the Prussian needle gun , but younger by the design of 25 years, and modern.

development

Chassepot rifle with associated paper cartridge
Principle of the gas seal
on the left: state of rest
right: launch

It is named after its developer, the French Antoine Chassepot (1833–1905). As early as 1840, the breech-loaders by the designer Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse were introduced in Prussia , but they were not well received in France (during the revolution of 1848 needle guns were stolen from the Berlin armory, two of which could not be obtained again by the Prussian secret service, and probably got abroad). Nevertheless, attempts were made to introduce better rifle designs based on a breech loader.

In 1858, Antoine Chassepot, a worker, presented such a construction in Vincennes . The rifle had a cylinder lock with a rubber washer attached to the head of the cylinder , but still had a percussion ignition with an external stopcock. The design was improved and issued to the troops for testing in 1863, but the weapon was not well received. The subsequent attempts came to an end only after the battle of Königgrätz ( Sadová ). On August 27, 1866, Chassepot received his patent and on the same day signed a license agreement with the rifle factory founded by Isaac Cahen-Lyon. By a decree of August 30th, the Chassepot rifle was elevated to the status of a French orderly weapon and production was boosted to such an extent that in 1868 the entire active army was equipped with the Chassepot rifle. Since the French rifle factories could not meet the immense demand, the Cahen-Lyon company was commissioned to manufacture 400,000 Chassepot rifles for the French state. The subcontractors also included Webley & Sons , Potts & Hunt , Hollis & Sons, and Tipping & Lowden . In the battle near Mentana (Latium) on November 4, 1867, according to the statements of the commanding General Pierre Louis Charles Achille de Failly , the Chassepot rifle performed miracles (the battle is said to have stopped for a moment because of the French rapid fire), which is why this new rifle was chosen immediately received great attention all over the world. Every French soldier carried 68 cartridges.

advantages

The advantages of the Chassepot rifle over the Prussian needle rifle consisted of the smaller, ballistically more favorable caliber (11 mm compared to 15.4 mm), the better gas seal, the higher powder charge (85  grains instead of 75 grains) and the more comfortable handling, which on the one hand resulted in greater speed of the projectile (420 meters / second compared to 295 m / s), combined with a higher range (1200 meters compared to 600 meters for the Dreyse rifle), but also a higher rate of fire. A special form, the fusil pour la cavalerie d'Afrique , even had a sight up to 1,600 meters. The Chassepot rifle was loaded with a single paper cartridge in a silk sleeve . In the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), the superiority of the Chassepot rifle was particularly evident when shooting at medium and long distances. Even before the war it was said that 300 Chassepot rifles were as valuable as 500 Dreyse rifles.

Chassepot, lock and lock housing
Chassepot, closure with cartridge inserted for loading

The construction of the chamber and castle was trend-setting. This construction (with variants) can be found both on the later German Gewehr 88 and the Mannlicher rifles derived from it, as well as on the Russian three-line rifle . The barrel of the later (Prussian) M71 was an almost identical copy, only with the opposite twist direction.

disadvantage

In the 1860s, Prussia had still decided not to copy the Chassepot rifle, as it was more easily useless than the Prussian needle rifle due to contamination. In particular, the remains of the paper cartridge and its virtually non-flammable silk cover that remained in the powder chamber caused difficulties and had to be removed after a few shots. The rubber ring made the weapon gas-tight, but it soon became brittle, which is why every soldier carried three replacement rubber rings with him so that they could be replaced in the field if necessary. The locking with the bolt handle tended to block in winter (the Dreyse model did not have this problem). Some technical defects were corrected in a new design in 1874. The metal cartridge was taken over and the mechanism was reshaped according to the system of the French equestrian officer Gras ( grass rifle ). The moisture-sensitive and not very dimensionally stable paper cartridge and its resulting defects disappeared.

Overall, however, the assessment from 1867 did not come true, which read: "After the re-arming of its infantry, the French army will be on a par with, but not superior to, the Prussian army in this respect."

Further development

An inventory on July 1, 1870 resulted in a number of 1,037,555 rifles. An enormous number of Chassepot rifles were captured during the Franco-Prussian War (665,327). Partly for metal cartridges M 71, partly converted to carbines , they formed the armament of the German train for a long time , but were never used. By the end of the war, French factories were able to produce 50,000 Chassepot rifles a month.

While the Prussian needle gun served as a model for the French Chassepot rifle, the Chassepot rifle was now the model for the modernized Dreyse needle rifle, because it was made gas-tight like the Chassepot rifle (" adapted from Beck"), then also for the German model 71 , which took over the construction of the barrel with a caliber of 11 mm and four rifles as well as the size and construction of the cartridge chamber from the Chassepot rifle . The first German repeating rifle , the G 71/84, which went into service in 1886, still had the barrel construction of the Chassepot, albeit with a shallower draw depth .

Another Chassepot carbine followed in 1873, but soon had to be converted accordingly due to the development of the Gras Model 1874 and the metal cartridge made for it.

In Prussia, a shortened Chassepot rifle adapted for the M / 71 cartridge, the bolt stem of which was curved, was called the "modified Chassepot carbine".

Although there were proposals for converting the Chassepot rifles for central fire metal cartridges early on, these did not prevail across the board, but remained - with the exception of the Prussian conversions - marginal appearance.

Shooting performance

Heinrich von Löbell wrote in 1867: "The loading capacity of the Chassepot is so important that an ordinary shooter can do 8 rounds per minute and a well-practiced 12 round." (P. 64)

About the distance from the fight and the opening of the fire, Löbell wrote: “... the Chassepot rifle also has significantly larger painted spaces than the needle rifle. These are at 400 paces against infantry at Chassepot 180 paces, for the needle rifle only 115 paces and against cavalry at Chassepot 469 paces, for the ignition needle rifle 449 paces and to 800 paces against infantry at Chassepot 59 paces, with the ignition needle rifle 49 paces and against cavalry at Chassepot 90 Step and with the needle gun 74 step. "(P. 63/64)

Franco-Prussian War : Löbell's statement about the performance of the Prussian needle rifle with "not very fast, its probability of hitting is little different from that of the French rifles at the shorter distances, but is exceeded by this at the greater distances" (p. 57) proved to be true in the Franco-German war in a terrible way: The German troops suffered heavy losses when advancing against the French, who opened fire at 600 m (sometimes even at 1200 m), while the Prussians mostly only at 300 paces (225 m) could start the fire attack. At Gravelotte , the Prussians lost more than twice as many soldiers as France. The Prussians had to "undermine" the enemy fire, that is, lead as many soldiers as possible into the field in the hope that enough would survive the bombardment until the enemy positions were stormed. Paul von Hindenburg experienced this as a lieutenant and reported on the devastating effects of the Chassepot rifle.

The first 100 shots were expected to fail 10%, and up to 30% for further firing.

The bullet

Chassepot cartridges, packaging for nine rounds

The cartridge was assembled from two parts to form a unitary cartridge during manufacture. The rear part comprised the primer and the powder charge, the other the projectile with the paper wrapping: “The [...] temporarily adapted cartridge of the same consists of two strong paper tubes, one with the (5.5 g) powder charge, the other the bullet weighs 24.5 g, is 25 mm long and 11.7 mm thick at the bottom. A lacing holds the two together. ”In the bottom there was a six-winged primer, as it was also used for percussion weapons, so that the ignition needle did not have to pierce the entire powder charge as with the Dreyse rifle and therefore could not burn out as quickly. The initial speed of the projectile was 420 m / s and thus exceeded the Prussian long lead by far.

literature

  • Wolfgang Finze: Chassepot-Zündnadelgewehre , BoD, 2018, ISBN 978-3-7528-2913-6 . ( Google book preview )
  • Wolfgang Finze: Service with the hereditary enemy. Chassepot needle guns and carbines in Germany. In: Visier 9/2015, pp. 74–80.
  • Hans Dieter Götz: The German military rifles and machine guns 1871-1945. Stuttgart, 4th edition 1985.
  • W. Greener: Modern Breechloaders. London 1871.
  • Heinrich von Löbell: The needle gun history and competitors. Berlin 1867, pp. 63-64.
  • R. Michels: The Chassepot carbine for instruction for NCOs set up with questions and answers and fully explained by 12 picture panels. On the basis of the Königl. War Ministry issued regulations on this. Paderborn 1874.
  • H. Meinecke: The Chassepot rifle of the French infantry. A detailed description of the individual parts of the weapon, as well as their treatment according to the official French. Instruction. Darmstadt 1867.
  • Dieter Storz: German military rifles. From the Werder rifle to the 71/84 model. (Catalogs of the Bavarian Army Museum Ingolstadt 8) Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-902526-43-4 .
  • Dieter Storz : stopgap from France. Chassepot rifles for German riders. In: DWJ 1/2012, pp. 82–87
  • Frank Wernitz: The Dreyse and Chassepot ignition needle systems or the birth of the Franco-German rivalry on the rifle issue . Ed .: Förderverein Militärmuseum Brandenburg-Preußen e. V (=  series of publications “Military Museum Brandenburg-Prussia” . No. 1 ). 2008, p. 2-3 .
  • Dirk Ziesing: Captured French. The bayonet for the Chassepot rifle, in: DWJ (formerly Deutsches Waffen Journal) 5/2016, pp. 82–87.
  • Allgemeine Militair-Encyclopädie Volume 3: Chassepot rifle - fencing. Leipzig 1869, ( online preview )
  • Anonymous: About the Chassepot rifle. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 189, 1868, Miszelle 2, pp. 510-511.
  • Anonymous: The patented Chassepot rifle. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 184, 1867, pp. 50-54.
  • Anonymous: The Chassepot rifle - France's position thereby fixed in the matter of rear-loading rifles; Conduct of other governments and especially of North America towards the same. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 183, 1867, pp. 510-511.
  • Chassepot rifle made by Webley & Scott . In: DWJ (formerly: Deutsches Waffen Journal) 2011, issue 1, page 92.
  • Chassepot-Gras-Lebel. Collected publications on French infantry armament 1866–1886. Zurich 1980.
  • The chassepot has six handles, but the needle gun has seven handles. Lippstadt 1870.
  • Chassepot rifle and Chassepot-Yatagan made in Brescia with German troop stamp. In: DWJ (Deutsches Waffen Journal) 1997, issue 1, p. 8.
  • Acid test. Chassepot rifles, not only suitable for collecting. In: Visier 1992, No. 10, pp. 108-112.
  • Paperwork. It takes scissors, a ruler and string to bring a Chassepot rifle to life. In: Visier 2005, Issue 8, pp. 114–118.
  • Ignition needle against chassis pot. around 1870.

Web links

Commons : Chassepotgewehr  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Sellier, Beat P. Kneubuehl: Wound ballistics: and their ballistic basics . Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-662-10980-9 , pp. 48 ( limited preview in Google Book search - 295 m / s is the value for the 13.6 mm projectile of the older unitary cartridge ).
  2. ^ Dieter Storz : German military rifles. P. 125.
  3. ^ Henry Darapsky: The Chassepot Rifle. France thereby fixed position on the issue of rear-loading rifles; Conduct of other governments and especially of North America towards the same. In: Polytechnisches Journal 1867, Volume 183, No. XXX. (Pp. 131-134), pp. 134.
  4. ↑ Ziesing, Erbeutete Franzosen., P. 83.
  5. ↑ Namslauer Stadtblatt, June 7, 1873. (PDF) Accessed March 20, 2017 .
  6. ↑ So z. B. by Chassepot itself. In: Engineer, August 1868, p. 160, then by James Kerr, Practical Mechanic's Journal, September 1868, p. 178 or Henry Darapsky: Suggestions for setting up the Chassepot rifle for the Boxer cartridge. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 193, 1869, pp. 280-282.
  7. ^ Dieter Storz: German military rifles. From the Werder rifle to the 71/84 model. P. 239.
  8. ^ Karl T. von Sauer: Outline of the weapon theory. Tübingen 1869, p. 284.