[request] French Chauchat Mle15 detailed photos

[bolas]

Hello, can anyone share some good quality pictures of french Chauchat Mle15 machine gun ? My buddy is trying to make a replica to use it in historical reenactment. Unfortunatelly we do not have an original one to compare. Chauchat looks simple but to make a good replica good photos of details are essential. Can anyone help ? We need good photos of every part details and also every stuff from this rifle (magazine pouches etc.)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Machine_gun_Chauchat.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/French_Alpine_Chasseurs_training_US_soldier_on_Chauchat_machine_gun.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/MWP_Chauchat.JPG

[mas-36]

Interesting weapon. I believe it was the first mass produced light squad machine gun to be issued in large numbers. These guns gained the reputation as being the worst weapon ever produced.
Actually, the first production runs made very good guins that were reliable and fired well. It was when it was decided to mass produce that wuality became very shoddy and the weapon earned a reputation as being unreliable. Parts were ever non-interchangeable it was so bad. Nevertheless, it soldiered on. It's biggest weakness was the fact that it fired a fat rimmed cartridge, complicating feeding of the weapon. It jammed almost constantly. It was also very unstable.

I've only seen two examples, both in a war museum in Paris. The very early example was beautifully made and almost flawless. The later example looked like absolute crap.

[DeltaWhisky58]

It's amazing what you can turn up with a simple search:

Google images (http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&lr=&rls=GEUA%2CGEUA%3A2006-02%2CGEUA%3Aen&q=Chauchat+machine+gun)

Google.com (http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GEUA,GEUA:2006-02,GEUA:en&q=Chauchat+machine+gun)

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauchat)

Those three took me about 30 seconds.

Wiki gives these references:

References

Demaison, G. (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=G._Demaison&action=edit) and Buffetaut, Y. (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Y._Buffetaut&action=edit) (1995). The Chauchat Machine Rifle. Collector Grade Publications Inc.. ISBN 0-88935-190-2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=0889351902).*
(1917) Handbook of the Chauchat Machine Rifle, Model of 1915. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C..
Bruce, Robert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bruce) (1997). Machine Guns of World War 1: Live firing classic military weapons. Windrow and Greene. ISBN 1-85915-078-0 (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=1859150780).
Canfield, Bruce N. (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bruce_N._Canfield&action=edit) (2000). U.S. Infantry Weapons of the First World War. Andrew Mowbray Publishers. ISBN 0-917218-90-6 (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=0917218906).
Stallings, Laurence (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Laurence_Stallings&action=edit) (1963). The Doughboys - Story of the AEF, 1917-1918. Harper and Row, New-York.
Major General William Crozier (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Major_General_William_Crozier&action=edit) (1920). Ordnance and the World War. Charles Sribner and Sons, New York.* ABE Books (http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&y=10&isbn=0889351902&x=37) - $33.95 should give you all the info you need!!!

Must try harder C-

[bolas]

DeltaWhisky58 be sure that we have spend a lot of time searching images on net, and also reading specifical books, articles etc. but this is not enough that's why i decided to post this request here. This is no "i dont want to loose my time to search" post but the real need. We've been searching the net almost from 3 months and know almost everythinig what can be found there. Found not enough thats why i posted this topic on militaryphotos.net. I was counting that maybe here i will found someone who simply have one of those and also have a camera and some of free time :)

This weapon was used in Polish Army between 1918-1939, and even got conversion to 7,92x57 mm cartridge (loaded from BAR magazine) ;)

I think this infraction is a little too fast and totaly unfair

[DeltaWhisky58]

;)

I think this infraction is a little too fast and totaly unfair

Stop whining like a baby. We get dozens of similar reeusts from people to damned lazy to do their own research - do you think you are the only one who has ever made such a request?

[bolas]

OK DeltaWhisky58, you're the boss here ;)

[spirit]

http://armesfrancaises.free.fr/FM%20Chauchat.html

[getl0st]

^^^ Check out the link above...

It's amazing what you can find on Intardnet, I did a 5 minute search and found an extensive article here ==> http://www.answers.com/topic/chauchat

Also, if your anywhere near Poland, you can go see one in the Museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw, and I'm sure if you contacted the Museum they will probably send you heaps of pictures from every possible angle.

Stop being so f^cking lazy

[bolas]

Thx for links and info guys ... :)

Unfortunatelly i'm living far away from Warsaw and in my area there's no Chauchat in museums. Like i said before - most important are detailed photos of parts, and museums are usually not so happy when someone ask them "please, can you disassemble this rifle and make 1000 of good photos ?" ...

Thanks a lot again ;)

[DeltaWhisky58]

museums are usually not so happy when someone ask them "please, can you disassemble this rifle and make 1000 of good photos ?" ...

Thanks a lot again ;)

You may be pleasantly surprised. On the whole I've found museum staff to be incredibly helpful with research projects.

To give an example, I recently had cause to contact one of the military museums at Edinburgh castle regarding a research project I was working on. As a result, I was able to handle and photograph the French Imperial Eagle captured at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 by Sgt. Charles Ewart of the 2nd Dragoons, and also to photograph and handle his sabre - seek and ye shall find.

[bolas]

That's a really suprising news for me ;) I used to the "dark side" of museums.

Well by the way. I was trying to find information about Chauchat squad. I dont really know french language so i have problems with reading french manual. How many soldiers was in squad ? I assume two at least (gunner and ammo-guy), but is it enough ? In those times such weapons used to have bigger squad with 3-4 people.

I'm very curious how does it looked originally in french army. For example in Polish Army which used many Chauchats another LMG - Browning wz.28 (polish license of BAR) got four soldiers as a squad (squad leader, gunner and 2 ammo-guys).

[spirit]

The most striking feature of the new French system of attack is the
team-work of the infantry, artillery, and airplanes. The former
advance to the assault in successive waves, each made up of several
lines, the men being deployed at five-yard intervals. The first wave
advances at a slow walk behind a curtain of artillery fire, which
moves forward at the rate of fifty yards a minute, the first line of
the wave keeping a hundred to a hundred and fifty yards, or, in other
words, at a safe distance, behind this protecting fire-curtain. The
men in this first line carry no rifles, but consist exclusively of
grenadiers, automatic riflemen, and their ammunition carriers, every
eighth man being armed with the new Chauchat automatic rifle, a
recently adopted weapon which weighs only nineteen pounds, and fires
at the rate of five shots a second. Three men, carrying between them
one thousand cartridges, are assigned to each of these guns, of which
there are now more than fifty thousand in use on the French front. The
automatic riflemen fire from the hip as they advance, keeping streams
of bullets playing on the enemy just as firemen keep streams of water
playing on a fire. In the second line the men are armed with rifles,
some having bayonets and others rifle grenades, the latter being
specially designed to break up counter-attacks against captured
trenches. A third line follows, consisting of "trench cleaners,"
though it must not be inferred from their name that they use mops and
brooms. The native African troops are generally used for this
trench-cleaning business, and they do it very handily with grenades,
pistols and knives.
From http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19074/19074-8.txt

AFAIK a Chauchat team consisted of gunner, 1st assistant, 2nd assistant and team leader and a squad could have 2 such teams.

[mas-36]

One of my books states that at one point, the Chauchat was even rechambered for 30-06!! The results wa as dangerous for the user as his target. In other words, not succesful at all.