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The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 1:55 am
by Karl Heidenreich
Been doing some research of WWI weapondry, in order to address some of John Mosier´s statements in his great book about "The Myth of the Great War" or how the Germans won all the battles and the USA saved the Allies and found very interesting this:

It is the french design and made machine gun, the Chauchat, the worst machine gun ever. The American Expedicionary Force soldiers hate it and had to be replaced by the vastly superior BAR.

It´s funny because somehow it confirms a lot of Mosier´s afirmations.

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 2:34 am
by Kyler
Ahhh... the Chauchat, the biggest piece of shit machine gun ever sent into battle.

The gun itself was okay, but it was it's magazine the really made it a horrible gun. It was extremely prone to being clogged with debris since it has open holes throughout the magazine.

My grandfather told me about the gun when I growing up. His father who served with the American Forces during WW1 had no love what so ever for that weapon.

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:58 am
by RF
On the subject of the worst machine gun ever, I have heard an account of an attachment made to German machine guns in WW2 on the Russian Front which enabled the gun to shoot round corners by putting the bullets on curved trajectary. The problem was what the Australians would understand by the ''boomerang effect.''

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:18 pm
by Karl Heidenreich
RF:

Once I heard about that too and think History Channel showed it also. But did not recall it exactly. My interest in the Chauchat starts and ends with with my research on Mosier´s afirmattions.

Best regards,

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:59 pm
by marcelo_malara
The "round the corner" attachment was used in the assault rifles, AFAIK not in machine guns. I don´t think that the attachment would take the stress of a full powered 7.92x57 round.

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:35 pm
by José M. Rico
marcelo_malara wrote:The "round the corner" attachment was used in the assault rifles, AFAIK not in machine guns. I don´t think that the attachment would take the stress of a full powered 7.92x57 round.
Yes, I remember seeing an MP40 with a "round the corner" attachment and even a mirror!!
I think the movie was Triple Cross. :D

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 2:15 pm
by lwd
I think the grease gun may also have had one. However I'm pretty sure the bullets still flew in relativly straight lines.

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:33 pm
by marcelo_malara
Yes Jose, it was used in SMG too. What I saw once was a MG34 with a mirror sight, so the gunner hadn´t to expose his head to aim, don´t think was much succesfull either.

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:47 pm
by Bgile
I imagine it would be difficult to control recoil with such a device. You don't have gravity to help you, and there would be more motion imparted due to the curvature of the barrel as well.

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:43 am
by RF
There was also the risk that firing the gun would result in the firer being shot in the back of the head if there was nothing to stop the bullet flying for full circle....

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:01 pm
by marcelo_malara
Robert, we have already discussed this....the bullet takes a straight direction after it lefts the barrel, in the direction in which the end of the barrel is pointing.

Regards

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:53 pm
by RF
Sorry Marcelo, I didn't recall.

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:13 pm
by hammy
The thing is called "Krumlauf" and was developed for street fighting in Russian cities .
There is a "bent" smoothbore extension to the weapon barrel and a an angled mirror sight in a black wedge-shaped box attached to the barrel for sighting .
I think it was made principally for the machinepistolen Mp38 + Mp40 , ( popularly known as "Schmeissers" in Britain ), the low velocity 9mm pistol round that these fired being the only ones suitable , certainly a rifle and MG cartridge would be far to powerful , unless you reduced the propellant charge right down .

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:31 pm
by Byron Angel
Kyler wrote:Ahhh... the Chauchat, the biggest piece of shit machine gun ever sent into battle.

The gun itself was okay, but it was it's magazine the really made it a horrible gun. It was extremely prone to being clogged with debris since it has open holes throughout the magazine.

My grandfather told me about the gun when I growing up. His father who served with the American Forces during WW1 had no love what so ever for that weapon.

..... Interesting. My grandfather served in the Greek army during WW1 on the Salonika front. His company was equipped with Chauchats as well, judging from photos. I regret that I never discussed his service with him while he alive.


Byron

Re: The worst machine gun ever

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:46 pm
by hammy
Byron , was he in the mikras asias katastrofia thing afterwards too ?