Mitrailleuse

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
De Reffye Mitrailleuse (location: Musée Militaire Vaudois, Morges)
Rear view of a mitrailleuse
Use of the mitrailleuse in the Franco-Prussian War in a contemporary representation

The Mitrailleuse (from French mitraille " grapefruit ") is a manually operated volley gun and was originally developed in Belgium in 1850. Some of these firearms were used on the French side in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). The French Reffye , a mitrailleuse variant, was the first rapid-fire firearm to be used as standard equipment in an army in a major conflict. Although the design was innovative , the weapon never became successful because its tactical potential was very low. The word mitrailleuse still stands for a machine gun in French-speaking countries , although the historical mitrailleuse was not an automatic firearm but had to be loaded manually.

technology

construction

Many variants of the mitrailleuse were built, all of which shared the same basic principle. There were assembled several solid runs and a conventional carriage of artillery or placed on a tripod. Each barrel was a breech-loader , so the ammunition was pushed into the barrel from behind. For loading, the ammunition was placed on a special plate that corresponded to the arrangement of the barrels. The rear central shutter was opened and the plate and ammunition inserted. As a result, all the barrels were loaded at the same time and the breech was locked centrally either via a large lever or a large horizontal thread. A second lever had to be moved quickly (on some models, a crank was turned to do this) in order to fire the barrels in quick succession. This gave the weapon the nickname moulin á café ( coffee grinder ). This is how the automatically firing firearm developed in America during the Civil War was called the Union Repeating Gun , which was de facto the first machine gun .

The plate that held the ammunition had to be removed before reloading. In contrast to the Gatling and later automatic firearms, the loading-shooting-unloading process was manual. The great advantage of the mitrailleuse over the handguns of the time was the quick reloading and firing of numerous barrels.

The various versions of the mitrailleuse differ in the number of barrels and their caliber :

variant Runs Arrangement of the barrels caliber Date 1 Remarks
Bollée 30th two concentric circles (18 on the outside, 12 on the inside) 13 mm
(0.5 in )		 ? used by the French army during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871)
Chevalier et Grenier 16 two horizontal rows (2 × 8) 11 mm
(0.4 in)		 ?  
Gabert 04 ??? 11 mm
(0.4 in)		 ? Mounted on a tripod, in contrast to the other variants with a mount
Christophe-Montigny 37 11 mm
(0.4 in)		 1851 developed and used by the Belgian Army
Reffye 25th in five rows (5 × 5) 13 mm
(0.5 in)		 1865 widely used by the French army during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871)
Footnotes: [1] Development date

Most of the mitrailleuse variants were mounted on an artillery mount. With a total weight of around 900 kg, they were too immobile on the battlefield. About a third of the Reffye mitrailleuses were provided with a steel plate to protect the crew from enemy fire. This measure was taken late (1871) - presumably as a reaction to the experiences on the battlefields of the Franco-German War.

Ammunition and rate of fire

Due to the manual loading of the weapon, the cadence was significantly dependent on the skills of the operating team. A trained crew could fire three volleys (25 rounds each) per minute with a Reffye mitrailleuse during normal combat and a maximum of five volleys (125 rounds) in an emergency. The rate of fire was influenced by the shooter who operated the small crank on the right side of the weapon. A normal battery of Reffye mitrailleuses consisted of six guns, all firing more or less in a line.

The Reffye mitrailleuse fired 13mm cartridge ammunition developed by Gaupillat, which was very modern at the time. With center fire , a rim on the brass base and a dark blue hard paper case, it was not unlike a modern shotgun ammunition. The 13 mm (0.512 inch) projectile was propelled by pressed black powder at a muzzle velocity of 475 m / s; the muzzle energy (due to the higher bullet weight) was three and a half times that of Chassepot or Dreyse ammunition. This made it by far the most powerful rifle ammunition of its time.

The cartridges were preloaded in replaceable steel plates. While the mitrailleuse was firing, three were in use: one in the weapon, one being detached from the cases and one being loaded with 25 new cartridges.

The barrel of the mitrailleuse could be moved sideways as well as back and forth for scattered fire using handwheels. However, the angle of the weapon was limited and the sideways movement was not large enough for effective scatter fire over short distances. The range of the weapon was so small that individual Prussian soldiers were often hit by a whole volley. During an early battle in the war, the Prussian general von Francois near Forbach on the Spicherer Heights was shot down by four bullets from a volley on August 6, 1870. According to Prussian statements, these four balls hit a mitrailleuse from a distance of 600 m. The French artillery solved the problem by using special ammunition with three bullets fired from a cartridge for short shooting distances.

development

The mitrailleuse became known through its use in the French army, but was developed and used in Belgium as early as the 1850s. The weapon was designed by Captain THJ Fafschamps in 1851 and manufactured by Joseph Montigny from Fontaine-l'Évêque near Brussels. The weapon was apparently only used as a defensive weapon to protect Belgian fortresses.

The French military began to take an interest in the mitrailleuse and in 1860 commissioned a French artillery commission to test the weapon for their own use. In May 1864, General Edmond Lebœuf sent a preliminary report entitled Note sur le Canon á Balles to the Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, Napoléon III. Series production began in September 1865 under the greatest secrecy under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye . Some parts were assembled and manufactured in Meudon , but most of the parts were supplied by industry. Production was sluggish as most of the five-year budget was spent on the Chassepot rifle . This was Napoleon III. forced to secretly finance the development and manufacture of the mitrailleuse.

The weapon was extensively tested in 1868 in the Satory "Polygon" facility near Versailles in the greatest secrecy. For fear of spies, the gun was fired in a tent while shooting at distant targets. The mitrailleuse, later also somewhat disparagingly called the "shot syringe" by the Germans, showed impressive efficiency and would undoubtedly have been more successful on the battlefield had it not been for the weight, carriage and covering that had required an organizational assignment to the artillery.

A total of 215 mitrailleuses and five million rounds of ammunition had been produced by July 1870, but only 190 of them were ready for use when the war against Prussia broke out.

Application

The French army saw the mitrailleuse as an artillery weapon (and not as an infantry weapon, as the machine guns later were), which is why the Reffye mitrailleuse was called "Canon a Balles" (freely translated: bullet cannon) in the French army . The mitrailleusen were also operated by artillery personnel and used alongside regular four-pounder guns. Each mitrailleuse battery consisted of six weapons, each with a crew of six. One man stood in the front right and fired the gun, a second in the front left aimed the gun. The other four men were responsible for aiming, loading and unloading.

Military use as an artillery weapon was a serious tactical mistake. To avoid enemy rifle fire, the mitrailleuse batteries were usually set up 1,400 m behind the front. Although the maximum range of the mitrailleuse was 3,400 m, in practice more than 2,000 m was rarely reached. This was far less than the range of the conventional French artillery with which the mitrailleuse operated together. The distance was too great for the two simple aiming devices to target and sight. It was also not possible at this distance to observe the impact of the bullets, unless opponents were hit. It should be noted that modern machine guns are used well below their maximum range; the M60 machine gun z. B. is normally used at distances of up to 1,100 m with a maximum firing range of 3,725 m. In contrast, the mitrailleuse was mostly used up to the maximum firing range. This deficiency in the tactical use of the mitrailleuse was shown to be fatal in the war against Prussia.

The mitrailleuse in war

Franco-German War (1870–1871)

The outbreak of war on July 19, 1870 led to chaotic troop movements in the French army in some places. The mitrailleuse batteries sometimes faced significant problems. Although they were already listed on paper, the weapons were still in the camps in Meudon and in the fortresses of Montrouge, Issy and Mont-Valerien near Paris. The operating teams had already been selected but not yet brought together. Many had received little or no training on the weapon. Detailed operating instructions were printed in January 1870, but were not distributed until just before hostilities began. As a result of the strict secrecy, only a few artillery commanders were familiar with the possibilities of the weapon - many knew nothing of its existence. Marshal MacMahon , commander of the Châlons army, complained that he had never seen a mitrailleuse until a mountaineered specimen drove past him at the Battle of Sedan on September 2, 1870 - less than a month after the fighting broke out.

Mitrailleuses were used in all major battles of the war, but their small number (only 190 of the Reffye variant were available) limited their effectiveness in the field. Incorrect tactical use was another problem on the battlefield, as mitrailleuses were too imprecise to be able to engage distant targets quickly enough. Furthermore, the complicated fire mechanism was delicate and could easily be damaged by an inexperienced crew. Powder residue contamination of the mechanism could also become a problem if the fire continued.

In the few cases in which mitrailleuses were used in a tactically correct manner, they showed the weapon’s resounding potential. Captain Barbe's mitrailleusen battery claimed a high number of victims among the Prussians in the Battle of Gravelotte , as they could set the distance to the target quickly enough.

The Prussians and other observers were unimpressed by the performance of the mitrailleuse. In the case of the Prussians, however, this opinion was formed by their own propaganda. They had very few automatic weapons or volley guns on their side and kept the morale of their own troops up in the face of a new enemy weapon technology through the propaganda that mitrailleusen were ineffective. Nevertheless, the Prussians saw this as a threat and the artillery switched off the mitrailleuse batteries before anything else. The sound of the weapon, which resembled a “purring rasp”, nevertheless impressed the Prussian troops; they called the mitrailleuse "Infernal Machine".

"Last but not least, when it went uphill and they couldn't go on, they held on to the kisses because otherwise they would have fallen down on their backs, and always the damn things in between that squeak and sound like a coffee grinder."
(Reference to running infantry in the novella Stine by Theodor Fontane )

United States Army General William Babcock Hazen , who was watching the war, said the French mitrailleuse failed to live up to expectations. "The Germans disregarded it, and it will hardly play a permanent role in the military." In a nutshell, hand-operated volley guns like the Reffye mitrailleuse were a technological dead end; they were soon replaced by automatic machine guns.

After the fall of Napoleon III, which followed the catastrophic defeat in the Battle of Sedan , the French military came under the command of the republican government led by Léon Gambetta . He energetically organized national defense and promoted the production of war material. Most conventional weapons were made in the province, however some mitrailleuse were repaired in Paris and more were even produced during the siege of Paris.

Production of the mitrailleuse and ammunition was resumed under the direction of De Reffye in the coastal city of Nantes in western France. 122 mitrailleuses were made to replace the almost 200 pieces that were either destroyed or captured by German troops.

Use against the Yaqui in Mexico

Mitrailleuses are reported to have been used by the Mexican government forces against the Yaqui Indians under the command of Cajemé (José Maria Leyva) from 1874 to 1887.

After the war

After the armistice with the German Empire in May 1871, one of the last deployments of a Reffye mitrailleuse with troops under the command of Adolphe Thiers took place when they executed captured members of the Paris Commune in the Bois de Boulogne . Similar events are said to have occurred in the barracks in Lobau in the center of Paris.

A large number of mitrailleuses (altogether 268) survived the war in the French army. Furthermore, in 1875, Germany returned 122 mitrailleuses captured during the war to France. In the same year, many mitrailleuses were added to French stocks and used as static defensive armament for the flank protection of the fortresses. The last mitrailleuse was removed from a fortress in 1908. The Reffye mitrailleuse was not released for sale either before or after the war. It is often confused with other manually operated rapid-fire (volley) guns, for example the Belgian Montigny Mitrailleuse or even the Gatling .

Influence on other developments

The long-term impact of the poor performance of the mitrailleuse has long been part of much discussion among historians. In Machine guns: An Illustrated History , J. Willbanks argues that the ineffectiveness of the weapon in the Franco-Prussian War is due to the long period of rejection of mechanized weapons by European armies, especially in Central Europe. France did not introduce a machine gun until 1897 with the Hotchkiss machine gun, which later became the standard machine gun as the Hotchkiss M1914 . The armored units later deployed the St. Étienne M1907 next to it . Presumably the resistance to the introduction of automatic weapons in the French army goes back to the bad experiences with the mitrailleuse. This assumption is supported by the fact that the Maxim machine gun for the armored units was extensively tested from the beginning.

Immediately after the war of 1870/71, the French placed a much greater emphasis on improving their conventional artillery. The inferiority of the French artillery during the war was a great incentive, the de Bange - field gun (1877) and finally the famous field gun Canon de 75 modèle 1897 to develop. At a rate of normal 15 rounds per minute, a single 75 mm cannon could fire 4,350 shrapnel balls 6 km in one minute , while the 75 rounds of a Reffye mitrailleuse only flew 2 km.

Notwithstanding these developments in long-range weapon systems, there was still a need for a short and medium range weapon for immediate infantry support. During the years 1871-1890, various types of European and American machine guns were introduced by the European armies. A large number of Gatling machine guns were procured in the United States and used in the Western European colonial wars in Africa, India, and Asia. 25 of these weapons were also used in French hands during the Franco-German War. The weapon performed extremely well in combat operations at Le Mans in western France. In addition, the French military ordered a large number of manually operated multi-barreled rapid-fire cannons in caliber 37 mm (so-called "Hotchkiss revolver cannons") for the navy and fortified systems, which were manufactured in France from 1879 by the American Benjamin B. Hotchkiss were manufactured. In the 1890s, the European armies replaced their Gatlings and other manually operated weapons with automatic machine guns such as the Maxim machine gun , the Browning in 1895 and, from 1897, the Hotchkiss machine gun. These weapons were widely used with the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and proved their worth.

Concept of mitrailleuse in modern times

Modern machine guns are still referred to as mitrailleuse in France, following the trend-setting Mitrailleuse Hotchkiss from 1897. The designation of the Minimi is derived from the term mini mitrailleuse (in German: mini machine gun).

The term is also used in Norway. Although mitraljøse is written there, the pronunciation is identical. The name is used today in Norway for the MG3 machine gun (declared as mitr-3 ) mounted on a tripod mount . In German, this corresponds to the heavy machine gun as a designation of a MG on a mount.

In Portuguese the word metralhadora is used. Although it is derived from the French mitrailleuse , it is pronounced differently. It denotes an automatic weapon.

The word lives on in Romanian too, where an automatic weapon is called a mitralieră . In Slovenia and Serbia it is called mitraljez , in Italy mitragliatrice .

Exhibited mitrailleuses

An original Reffye mitrailleuse can be seen in the Paris Musée de l'Armée in the Hôtel des Invalides . A better example is on display in the Musée royal de l'Armée et d'Histoire Militaire in Brussels . Another very well-preserved Reffye mitrailleuse can be seen in the Dreieckland Museum in Heitersheim near Freiburg im Breisgau. A mitrailleuse in the best condition is in the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden. It is a prey weapon of the (2nd Royal Saxon) Jäger Battalion No. 13 from the Franco-German War . Before the First World War, it stood in front of the Altstädtischer Hauptwache (between the Hofkirche and Zwinger) built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in Dresden and found its way into literature in the fall of Ludwig Renn's nobility . Another very well-preserved Reffye mitrailleuse is on display in the Berlin-Spandau Citadel in the parade hall, and another is in the Bismarck Museum in Friedrichsruh .

See also

photos

  • Front view of a mitrailleuse

  • Rear view of a mitrailleuse

  • Mitrailleuse at the MHM Dresden

  • Mitrailleuse in painting

literature

  • Mitrailleuse. In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon. Volume 13. Leipzig 1908, p. 913.
  • Richard Holmes: The Road to Sedan. London 1984, ISBN 0-391-03163-5 , pp. 206-208.
  • Thomas Adriance: The Last Gaiter Button. New York, 1987, ISBN 0-313-25469-9 .
  • Frederic Reboul: Le Canon a Balles en 1870 {The Reffye mitrailleuse in 1870}. Librairie Militaire Chapelot, Paris 1910.
  • Jean Huon: Military Rifle and Machine Gun Cartridges. Ironside International Publications, 1986, ISBN 0-935554-05-X .

Web links

Commons : Mitrailleuse  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Mitrailleuse  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Terry Gander: Machine Guns. Crowood Press, 2003, p. 13.
  2. ↑ S. Shann: The French Army 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War. Osprey Publishing, 1991, p. 39.
  3. ↑ Jean Huon: Military rifle and machine gun cartridges. Arms & Armor Press, 1988.
  4. ^ McCormick, Dr William: On the Surgical Practice of the War. ( Pall Mall Gazette. 1870).
  5. ↑ S. Shann, L. Delperier: French Army of Franco-Prussian War. Imperial Troops. Osprey Publishing, 1991, pp. 35-36.
  6. ↑ J. v. Pflugk-Harttung: War and Victory 1870–1871. Verlag Schall & Grund, Association of Book Lovers, Berlin 1896, p. 78.
  7. ↑ David Nicolle : Gravelotte -St. Private 1870. Osprey Publishing, 1993, p. 25.
  8. ^ Geoffrey Wawro: The Franco-Prussian War. The German Conquest of France in 1870–1871. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
  9. ^ Theodor Fontane: Stine, in: Theodor Fontane, Gesamtausgabe, WBG 1971, Vol. 2, p. 545.
  10. ^ Stig Forster: On the Road to Total War. The American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification. 1861-1871. Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 602.
  11. ^ HH Bancroft: History of Mexico. Vol. VI., The History Company, San Francisco 1888.
  12. ^ John Walter: Allied Small Arms of World War One. Crowood Press, 2000, p. 47.