Hotchkiss Mle 1914 - West Winfield, NY
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 42° 53.255 W 075° 10.187
18T E 486136 N 4748344
The Hotchkiss was Austria designed, but manufactured in France, Austria, and Belgium. Each country made minor changes to silhouette, but not the weapon.
Waymark Code: WMK29K
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 02/02/2014
Views: 3
County of display: Herkimer County
Location of display: US 20, VFW 2338 lawn, ½ mile E. of West Winfield
This gun, actually, these guns are crosses with some parts (big adjustment wheel behind trigger) from the St. Etienne Mle 1907 and the rest from the Hotchkiss Mle 1914.
"The Hotchkiss M1914
The St. Etienne Mle 1907 was the standard machine gun of the French Army at the outbreak of World War I. However, it performed badly in the field. It had so many deficiencies that although guns were captured by the Germans and given the designation 8mm sMG256(f), they were never used, even in fix fortifications.
"There were several modifications until the gas-operated, air-cooled Hotchkiss 8mm M1914 machine gun was produced in 1914, when gas operation was still a relatively new concept. It was a very distinctive gun, with five large circular cooling fins and a metal strip ammunition feed. The Hotchkiss became the French army's standard heavy tripod-mounted MMG in World War I. Twelve divisions of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in France were equipped with the Mle 1914 Hoitchkiss in 1917-18.
"The gun was heavy at 24g/50lb (44kg/88lb with its mounting) but reliable. The main drawback was the ammunition feed, a cumbersome 24- or 30-round metal magazine strip that fired 8mm Lebel rounds. In 1917 a 250-round belt feed was introduced, enabling effective sustained fire. The Hotrchkiss had a muzzle velocity of 701m/s/2,299ft/s and a cyclic rate of 450 rpm."
- The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guns; Fowler, North, Stronge & Sweeney; © 2012 Metro Books
BELGIAN MADE
FRENCH MADE
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