You Will Shoot Your Eye Out

Machine gun “Hotchkiss” M1909 Infantry model. Next to it is a barrel with trunnions for a tripod, leather ammunition for cartridge cassettes and the cassettes themselves for 14 and 30 rounds

stories about weapons. Creation of an air-cooled machine gun arr. 1900 was a great achievement for both the Hotchkiss company and the French military, who were able to understand that in addition to Maxim machine guns, other systems have the right to exist, and they are in many ways no worse. However, having received this heavy machine gun on a tripod, they immediately realized something else, namely, that they would absolutely need another machine gun – lighter and more convenient for use in cavalry and infantry for fire support in conditions where heavy machine guns are used will be impossible. This is how the idea of ​​a “gun-machine gun” arose, which, however, has already found its embodiment in the Madsen light machine gun. But the French army could not take it into service due to the need to unify weapons.

On the left is a machine for stuffing cartridges into a cassette, on the right – for correcting bent cassettes

That is, the new machine gun had to copy the old one, but at the same time be lighter, more transportable and have the same cartridge supply system with the easel machine gun. To solve this problem was entrusted to the same designers of the Hotchkiss company – the American Lawrence Bennett (or, as he was called in the French manner – Benet) and his French assistant Henri Mercier. And they successfully coped with their task. So a machine gun was born with three names at once: “Hotchkiss” Mk I, “Hotchkiss portable” and the Bene-Mercier M1909 machine gun. In general, Adolf Odkolek could only rejoice, because it was his idea that was also embodied in this machine gun, which, by the way, was mentioned in all British instructions for firing from this machine gun.

The Hundred Day Offensive, August-November 1918. Soldiers of the Royal Horse Artillery, attached to the 1st Cavalry Division, fire at a German aircraft from a Hotchkiss M1909 machine gun mounted on the limber. Transport convoys were favorite targets for German pilots and were provided with such anti-aircraft protection. October 8, 1918 Photo archive. Imperial War Museum

The production of the machine gun began at the Hotchkiss factory in Saint-Denis in Paris in 1909, but in 1914, due to the threat of the capture of the city by the German army, it was transferred to Lyon along with the factory. The next year, the British government decided to produce this machine gun under license at a factory in Coventry. By the end of the war, more than 40 M000s had already been manufactured there.

US Army machine gun platoon

At the same time, the production of a machine gun was launched in the United States at the enterprises of the Springfield Arsenal and at the Colt company. However, total production in the United States was only 670 units. It may not seem like much, but for the US Army of that time it was a significant batch. Here it was named “Bene-Mercier machine gun, caliber .30, model USA 1909”. The American model differed from the British machine guns by the presence of a bipod on the barrel and an emphasis on the butt, as well as an optical sight. Well, he also had his own caliber, American. Also, for Colt machine guns, from the gas valve to the front sight, the barrel had an unusual very small faceted cut, reminiscent of the wall decoration at our Kremlin Chamber of Facets!

TTX English and American machine guns “Hotchkiss” М1909:
Hotchkiss Mk.I and Bennet-Mercier M1909
Caliber: .303 British (7.7x57R); .30-06 (7.62×63)
Weight: 12,8 kg; 15 kg
Length: 1190 mm; 1244 mm
Barrel length: 565 mm; 610 mm
Feed: 9, 14, or 30-round rigid cassette tapes or 50-round semi-rigid tapes; hard cassettes for 30 rounds
Rate of fire: 500 rounds per minute; 550 rounds per minute

During the First World War, it became fashionable in the American army to mount M1919 machine guns on motorcycles.

It is interesting that the Hotchkiss, adopted by the French military in 1909, for some reason, was not first used as an infantry weapon. 700 copies of the machine gun were handed over to the fortresses of Verdun, and after the start of the war they were used on some aircraft, and then … in tanks Mk V* purchased from the UK.

Machine gunners on motorcycles. US Army, 1916

The British .303 Hotchkiss Mk I variant produced in the UK at the Coventry factory was issued to some cavalry regiments, while the Mk I*, with its wooden stock replaced by a pistol grip, was widely used on British tanks.

And in this photo the armor plate is removed

It was also used in the armies of Belgium, Sweden and Mexico. And in the armed forces of France and Great Britain, the M1909 machine gun was used not only during the First, but also during the Second World War. They armed the Australian Light Horse, the New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade, the Camel Corps and parts of the Duke of Lancaster’s Yeomanry. In 1915-1917. it was used in the Sinai and Palestine campaigns. And in the same 1916, the American army unsuccessfully tried to use four M1909 machine guns against Pancho Villa’s Mexican rebels during the latter’s raid on the city of Columbus, New Mexico. Initially, the press said that they refused to work due to design flaws, but later it turned out that the machine gun crews simply were not trained to handle them.

British Royal Navy in 1942. A machine gunner on an escort vessel is on watch during the passage of a British convoy across the Atlantic. Ammunition machine gun “Hotchkiss” M1909 from the drum shop. Photo archive. Imperial War Museum

So, American machine guns often broke drummers and extractors. Due to the difficulty of replacing broken parts at night, the press began derisively calling the M1909 “daylight weapons”, because in the dark, soldiers often inserted one important detail upside down. Major Julian Hatcher was assigned to study the problem, and he found that almost all cases of delays in firing and machine gun failures were caused by … human error, that is, poor training of machine gunners.

A warrant officer at a Hotchkiss machine gun on a USS. US Library of Congress

After the soldiers learned a little, the M1909 began to be considered a completely effective weapon. That’s just the production of this machine gun in the United States was discontinued before the First World War. Only a small part of them ended up in the army, because of which, after entering the war, their release had to be urgently resumed.

Sir Edward Patrick Morris, Prime Minister of Newfoundland, visits the Panzer Corps Ordnance School at Merlimont, July 2, 1918. Photo archive. Imperial War Museum

Experts note that, although, in general, Hotchkiss portable machine guns during the war years were in the shadow of other, more commercially successful systems (for example, the Lewis machine gun), they themselves were simple in design and fairly reliable samples. An important advantage of these machine guns was massive barrels, which allowed (in case of emergency) to conduct effective continuous fire up to 1000 shots without changing the barrel or cooling down (and usually the shooters were recommended to pause in firing after 200-300 shots).

Machine gun “Hotchkiss” M1909 with an L-shaped butt, cartridge cassette and tripod support, which is fixed not on the pins of the barrel, but on the barrel itself. Used by the British Army. Photo morphyauctions.com

What were the design features of this machine gun, which, in fact, became a reduced copy of the Hotchkiss machine gun, but at the same time retained its high fire performance?

The machine gun consisted of the following main parts: (1) a barrel with a gas tube; (2) a gas regulator that screwed into the gas tube from the front; (3) bolt box; (4) forearm, which is the casing of the gas piston; (5) gate nut; (6) handles for fastening the bolt box to the butt; (7) cocking handles; (8) trigger stock; (9) bipods (on American machine guns); (10) stock supports

Machine gun completely disassembled. Noteworthy is the exceptionally massive gas piston, which passes into the bolt carrier. Their diameter made it possible to place a return spring inside. And although the piston was hollow, the significant weight of this part helped to significantly reduce the recoil and thereby increase the accuracy of fire, which was especially emphasized in the manuals for using the machine gun. Lightweight stock used by the British Army

Scheme of the Hotchkiss M1909 machine gun (below in the version of the tank machine gun)

The machine gun had a fairly short, but at the same time, a massive barrel with fins up to the gas chamber, which consisted of twenty-five flanges that created a large cooling surface. Under the barrel was a T-shaped gas valve with two holes: front and rear. Through the rear hole, the powder gases from the barrel after the shot pressed on the cup-shaped piston head and threw it back, but the front one served to divert part of the gases into the regulator chamber. It was available with graduated positions of the piston screwed into the chamber, and the rule was this: more space inside, less gas pressure force; the enclosed space is smaller, the gas pressure force is greater.

Variants of stocks for a machine gun. Photo morphyauctions.com

A barrel lock nut attaches to the front end of the receiver and screws onto the barrel to lock the barrel to the receiver. An external spring steel lug provided with undercuts or teeth that fit into the teeth or teeth on the receiver and prevent accidental rotation when fired. Front two recesses for dismantling key for disassembly and assembly. To the left of the indentations, you will find the arm guard that hooks onto the right shoulder of the arm guard and holds the arm guard in position. The barrel stop restricts the movement of the barrel in the lock nut. Inside the lock nut are three sets of interrupted flanges; they fit into matching flanges on the breech, and the deep threads on the inside fit into matching threads on the receiver.

Muzzle, front sight and head of the piston-regulator. Photo morphyauctions.com

The barrel was locked by a rotating clutch, which was put on the breech of the barrel and could turn on it. On its inner surface there were three strips of intermittent threads, and exactly the same threaded strips were in front of the shutter. When the shutter moved, the protrusion on the coupling moved in the figured groove of the gas piston rod. At the same time, the clutch turned and, depending on the direction of movement of the piston and the bolt back and forth, either locked the barrel with the bolt or unlocked it. In the latter case, the barrel moved back, extracted the empty cartridge case and at the same time pulled out the next cartridge from the cassette for the next shot.

A set of tools for servicing a machine gun. Photo morphyauctions.com

Shooting was carried out, like many other machine guns of that time, from an open bolt, single shots or bursts. The choice of fire mode is carried out in an unusual way: by turning the L-shaped cocking handle around its axis. At the same time, when shooting, she remained motionless, which, of course, was convenient.

Three positions of the shutter handle: “A” – fire bursts; “R” – single shots; “S” – on the fuse. On the left, a lever with a threaded head is clearly visible. By unscrewing it, you can easily separate the stock from the receiver

Sight shifted to the left and feed mechanism cover. Due to the presence of a handle, an overheated barrel could be replaced relatively easily. The machine gun sight was also shifted to the left and graduated in yards, from 100 to 2000 yards – even numbers were on the right, odd numbers on the left. The normal firing range was 900 meters. Photo morphyauctions.com

On the right side of the receiver is the housing of the cassette feeding mechanism with cartridges, which is closed from above with a lid on spring hinges; a flat spring keeps it closed. Its main detail was an L-shaped vertical rod with a “tooth” at the end and two V-shaped cams placed on it, which fit into the cutouts on the body and at the same time fall into the corresponding grooves of the bolt frame.

Cartridge feeding mechanism. Photo morphyauctions.com

Due to this, when the frame moved back and forth, the vertically standing lever made movements perpendicular to the axis of the barrel and with its “tooth” (at the same time it fell into the cutout on the cassette with cartridges) shifted it in the direction from right to left. The lever is spring loaded. Therefore, in order to insert the cassette into the receiver, it was necessary to lift it by pressing on the protruding end from below so that it itself rose up. The cassette was inserted on the right. In this case, the cartridges should have been under the cassette.

Machine gun “Hotchkiss” M1909 British production. Export version 1934. Total length: 1010 mm. Total weight: 12,5 kg. Barrel length: 597 mm. Caliber 7,92 mm. Royal Arsenal, Leeds

TTX machine gun “Hotchkiss” Mk I
Weight: 12 kg
Length: 1,23 m
Barrel length: 64 cm
Ammunition: .303 British (British), 8mm Lebel (French), .30-06 Springfield (USA), 7×57mm Mauser (Brazil and Spain)
Calibers: .303 (7,7mm), 8mm, .30 (7,62mm), 7mm
Firing Rate: 400-600 shots per minute
Maximum range: 3800 m
Power type: 30-shot cassette

PS This machine gun is more difficult to see in the cinema than the same “Lewis”, but there are still films where it is present. These are the following films: “La Bandera” (1935), “All is calm on the Western Front” (1979), “The Seventh Satellite” (1968), “Dauria” (1972), “My Destiny” (1974).