Chauchat

The Chauchat ("Show-sha", French pronunciation: [ʃoʃa]) is a gun. It was the standard light machine gun or "machine rifle" of the French Army during World War I (1914–18). Its official designation was "Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG" ("Machine Rifle Model 1915 CSRG"). Beginning in June 1916, it was placed into regular service with French infantry, where the troops called it the FM Chauchat, after Colonel Louis Chauchat, the main contributor to its design. The Chauchat in 8 mm Lebel was also extensively used in 1917–18 by the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.), where it was officially designated as the "Automatic Rifle, Model 1915 (Chauchat)". A total of 262,000 Chauchats were manufactured between December 1915 and November 1918, including 244,000 chambered for the 8mm Lebel service cartridge, making it the most widely manufactured automatic weapon of World War I. The armies of eight other nations—Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Serbia—also used the Chauchat machine rifle in fairly large numbers during and after World War I.

Chauchat Media

• 

  Bolt of the Chauchat machine gun.

• 

  French soldiers with an FM Chauchat, Somme, 1918.

• US Chauchat.jpg

  US .30-06 version (top) and French 8mm version (bottom).

• 

  Soldiers of the American 308th and 166th Infantry Regiments liberate a French town in 1918. The soldier on the left is carrying a Chauchat slung over his shoulder.

• 

  French Chauchat gunner (left) and VB grenade launcher (right), 1918.

• 

  A Belgian machine gunner armed with a Chauchat, guarding a trench

• 

  Greek soldiers with a Chauchat LMG (center) during the Battle of Dumlupınar, 1922.

• 

  US soldiers practicing marching fire, Fort Custer Training Center, 1919.

• 

  French cavalrymen with a Chauchat machine gun during the occupation of the Ruhr, 1923.

• 

  Crown Prince Carol of Romania firing a Chauchat