History of WWI Primer 099: French CSRG 1915 "Chauchat" Documentary
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 พ.ค. 2019
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Othais and Mae delve into the story of this WWI classic. Complete with history, function, and live fire demonstration.
C&Rsenal presents its WWI Primer series; covering the firearms of this historic conflict one at a time in honor of the centennial anniversary. Join us every other Tuesday!
Additional reading:
The Machine Gun
George M. Chinn
Proud Promise
Jean Huon
Honour Bound: Chauchat Machine Rifle
Yves Buffetaut & Gerard Demaison
Safe range space thanks to Triana Protection
Additional photos thanks to Rock Island Auction
Ammunition data thanks to DrakeGmbH
/ drakegmbh
Visit us at candrsenal.com
Doesn't seem as terrible once you know it was something of a Sten-style emergency mass-arming programme. For a very new idea crash-built by a bicycle company in a war economy, its actually pretty amazing.
th-cam.com/video/yL2hnVLauy8/w-d-xo.html
I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it
A lot of it's reputation is due to negative comparisons to the BAR but that one came 3 years later so it could learn from the mistakes and had a lot more time in development.
@@MrMarinus18 I thought it was the hastily and crudely rechambered Mle1918 version to use Springfield ammo - and that one was a disaster - which gave birth to the rumor it always jammed. Also, the BAR both arrived that late and was barely issued (out of fear the Germans would copy the design) so I doubt most doughboys had experience firing both.
@@McLarenMercedes Many doughboys though went from the Chauchat to the BAR so they would make the comparison.
On a quick side note, when I moved to France I learned there was truth in the expression "The French will never use one word when four or five will do." I quickly determined that a Frenchman with his arms behind his back is rendered speechless. They wave their arms around quite a lot when speaking. I say this with love and affection for France and the French because they became my second homeland and national family for four years in my youth, never to be forgotten.
As a native Frenchman, your assessment is very accurate. You have a keen eye
Rewatching this again I’ve realized the Chauchat is just cool looking. It’s got sheet metal, a crazy banana mag and a vertical fore grip. Looks like something made for a steampunk terminator.
It’s got the most french magazine possible, the croissant magazine
I kind of love this gun's insane feeding system. Just the fact that they had to basically build a robot whose job was to put the cartridges into the chamber one at a time, because the cartridge they had to use is so wildly unsuitable for automatic fire, and they went ahead and _did_ it, makes this thing worthy of a lot more respect than it gets. :)
Yeah. Until you fire it and realize how horrible of an experience it would’ve been to have to use in battle.
@@fromthebackseat4865 Battle is not renowned for its abundance of non-horrible experiences.
@@ZGryphon yeah but if you’re going to experience your comrades being turned into an aerosolized pink paste your gun should at least not feel like you are being bucked by an elephant.
@@fromthebackseat4865 Considering how wanted it was by french soldiers, not that bad, at least, compared to a Lebel.
@@fromthebackseat4865The gun was adequate. The experience U.S. soldiers had with their .30-06 version does not reflect the experience of the french with the 8mm Lebel gun.
Ian is going,
“Oh man, that is were It is...... .”
I bet you anything he did a full mag dump after this video take that as you pls hahahaha
War Were Declared at only 13 minutes in.
Tactical surprise achieved!
Mae: "this gun sucks ergonomicly"
Ian: *TRIGGERS IN FRENCH*
"The world cannot live at the level of Gun Jesus." --Ian Frasier
www.azquotes.com/quote/729695
Even Ian would say the Chauchat has terrible ergonomics. He just likes it despite it's flaws.
Nobody:
Othias: *grunts*
Great video
Stupid meme.
I love the big smile always present on Mae's (sorry if misspelled) face everytime she shoots.
"Fun fact: machineguns were important"
Best quote yet!
"Lemming like doctrine" at first I laughed. Then I thought a little more about it then was saddened by the horror of that.
It is indeed tragic.
There's actually a thing where the French soldiers rebelled against that by going into nomans land while "bahhing" , like sheep, as they were sheep being led to the slaughter. Why the Germans didn't just kill them all I don't know, but there are instances of the opposing forces calling a truce in their areas, no pushes, just sitting in their trenches, without the knowledge of high command of course. There's also some mutinies and stuff that happened, the press wasn't too strong on that kind of stuff then in France, Britain or America. Actually, off-topic (although on topic for today with COVID-19), the Spanish Flu is called the Spanish Flu because the governments involved in the war all wanted the press to repress this additional problem of morale. They said nothing about covering it in neutral Spain though, so it became associated with Spain, although Spain is not the originating country and was not hit harder than any other country and had no real notable connection to it. Just politics, redirecting attention somewhere else. Makes me question someone doing something similar today with the "Chinese virus".
It's been a year since that comment was made, and now we know that the "Chinese virus" did indeed come from a Chinese virology lab. Well, that comparison aged poorly.
@@johndaniels1197 the spanish influenza came from china aswell, from what i have read.
@@davidmccormick7419 I heard the 1918 influenza came from American farmers who went to the war as soldiers.
My favorite part is how they have holes everywhere in the gun and the magazine just because, but then the ejection port, which is the only of those hole that is actually important for function, has the shape of the casing. Just because you can not afford that extra 2 mm² for dirt to enter the gun.
Othias, we get it. We understand, and we forgive you, because we know that the M1911 episode is being delayed specifically so you can do a cover of Crazy Rap (Colt 45) by Afroman to play on a loop in the background and want to get your legal and royalty bases covered.
LOL
Thanks Othias, I’ll sleep when I’m dead.
I just woke up... uh oh... what's that? Yeaeh - a new one with Othais and Mae!
urin1337 th-cam.com/video/3ToEvz-7trY/w-d-xo.html
urin1337 You’re pretty far off urine, don’t believe everything you read on Vox or Buzzfeed.
@@urin1337 How rude. This is why discourse with you people is futile.
I have been waiting for this episode for a long time. Thanks for all the high quality entertainment you have provided so far. I hope we all be around for another 99 episodes. Cheers!
Not to take anything away from the huge amount of research and awesome presentation of information you do othais, but your french is absolutely hilarious
"Joffray" instead of Joffre cracked me up
Ver-siles?.. ver-sigh is the pronunciation. He gets some right and a lot so very wrong
@@JonTron11 It's the French's fault for tacking on 4 silent letters on the end of Versailles.
I know. Im also American and know very little french but i still find myself laughing at how stereotypical and bad Othias's French is.
@@JonTron11 Yeah, that one got me too, since I used to live there.
Videos like this that goes in depth about the truth of the gun is what gives me a new appreciation for the gun itself. While many of us sit here and look at the Chauchat as one of historys greatest failures in military small arms, it's nice to know there was a point and purpose for the gun being used in such a widespread manner.
I was hoping they'd end the cliff hanger off with the Star Trek: TNG "To Be Continued" screen
They'd have to get permission to.... engage. :)
There’s no way this isn’t Ian’s Chauchat and it makes me happy lol
MrBman956 Ian’s gun is the 30-06 version.
Jack Andersen he also has an 8 lebel (hello from 2020)
@@jackandersen1262 assuming Ian only has one Chauchat was a bold move lol
@@KinoTechUSA69 As an aside and more modern firearms, now Ian has collected both main variants of the FR sniper rifles, the FR F1 and FR F2. Serious Francophile energy (which is cool I think).
Who is Ian?
I wonder how much of the aggressive recoil comes from weakened springs over the past 100+ years and the barrel/bolt assembly smacking into the back of the receiver faster and harder than was originally designed. Of course, unfortunately the Gladiator factory is not still making springs.
It's a function of long recoil operation. You basically have a free moving 7 lb assembly resisting the recoil forces until it crashes to a stop against the buffer system. You then have a 2 step "bang-bang" counter recoil pulling the arm from firm shoulder contact. Following fire then adds the post buffer bang reburial of the butt into the shoulder, repeat until the trigger is released. Sporting long recoil arms tend to "kick" more than locked breech similar models, this after long periods of refinement for commercial tastes. The chauchat had no such "comfort tweaking". It had a single priority, reliable operation. It was crude and brutal, but worked
Completely transform and in particular the magazine, the barrel by FN Herstal, in short nothing remains of the original, no illutions the FN model worked but was very slow all the mechanism was springs and no gas recovery, Fn never claimed the patent he could modestly transform everything, America bought some versions of Fn
Yay!!! I’ve been waiting for this one for so long!!! :) thanks!
always excited to see a new C&R video, among the best channels on youtube. keep it up guys. i hope it lasts till at least you get through WWII.
I hope they do WW2 and beyond later as well. They do a great job of looking at the guns from an engineering and development standpoint only.
@@tenofprime im a history junkie and love learning about the mechanics of firearms. this channel is like a double dose of greatness for me.
@@jameskazd9951 Same here I loved the history channel back in the day (before it turned into "aliens did maybe?") and the PBS history documentaries. I also like stuff about how machines work in detail so this combines my interests very well.
Holy crap, I can't believe I caught an upload after subscribing so soon! I love this channel so freaking much, I wish I would have caught it far sooner. It kind of makes me wish I could be a Firearms historian, but with your videos out in the open, nobody would be able to top these.
Ive got my last full B-day today. I think I can forego sleep for this highly refined, functional, and reliable piece of history.
@@sickofhobos Care to elaborate?
@@grievouslytired7886 last full bday? You only have one a year. So either you're celebrating a birthday week or you're dying before you're next birthday
@@sickofhobos B-day, as in the the second part of my schools block schedule. It goes from A-day to B-day, with Fridays being a combination of all classes for shorter class periods.
Because right when was about to sleep I get this notification. Yay I love this.
War Were Declared should be on one of your shirts this year. great vid
You guys are freakin awesome, love the detail. Thanks.
Paul Auguste Pierre RIBEYROLLES
Born dec 12 1874 in Paris
Father Auguste Ribeyrolles (dead at the time Paul went through the military selection process)
Mother Pauline Hélène Marchant
He had a posponed military service because he was studying at école des arts et métiers in Châlons ( a town not far from Reims in Champagne) engineering school.
He made one year of military service only because he was the older son of a widow in the 67th infantry regiment from nov 1895 to sept 1896.
He had left knee accident leaving him with arthitis which made him unfit for service in 1904.
During WWI he was recalled on nov 19th 1915, named at the 35th infantry regiment dec 1st 1915 then passed to 13th artillery regiment dec 4th 1915 on ministry decision.
Named second lieutenant temporarily, for the duration of the war, and detached to the ammunition manufacturing inspection in the subdivision of automatic rifle fabrication from fev 2nd 1916 to fev 11th 1919
.
Chevalier de la légion d'honneur feb 16th 1916
Second lieutnant permanent grade july 22 nd 1921
Deceased dec 11th 1947 in Paris.
I forgot how much of a pleasure to watch this videos are!
And man if I love these guns, they make such an intimidating sound, long recoil actions are so cool.
About to watch this episode on my lunch break now..cant wait
This show just keeps getting better and better
I've always noticed the Chauchat seems like a particularly loud when firing, even compared to its contemporaries firing the same or similar ammunition. Seeing how short the barrel actually is, I can see why. It must have been throwing quite a bit of still-unburnt powder behind the bullet which creates a nice loud report and bright fireball as it exits the barrel. Thus the need for the flash-hider/cone as well as the distinctive boom-boom-boom when firing.
Honestly given the use of off-the-shelf steel tubes and the various other techniques, it really does look like it was assembled from bicycle parts.
A dealer had a couple of unserviceable Chauchats for sale, his main selling point was that they were probably more reliable than the functionable ones.
I love the Chow Chat! Such a good gun, the Chow Chat. I'm so glad you guys are reviewing The Chow Chat.
We get it
Nerd
I love the way this gun looks and how it sounds
Thanks for letting us know!!! Good works!!!
Parts of it make my PTRD41 look quality, I would still love one in my collection.
600 guns per day and 10,000 magazines per day (did I recall you saying that?) tells us the magazine was regarded as expendable in action. Loaded clean and put in closed pouches and loaded direct from the pouch so dirt should not be a major issue I would think. As you have mentioned previously the Chauchat is a machine rifle not a light machine gun. IIRC it was used more in semi automatic than full automatic; if only to conserve ammunition. Nice work chaps and chapesses.
10,000 is a huge amount of magazines!
If you had 70,000 active guns at a time (out of the 250,000 produced) that means each gun in action gets one magazine per week.
A few squares of linen or cotton shipped over-seas would have come in handy, just tie them off around those cut-outs to keep out actual grains of soil.
@@jobdylan5782 Or, you know, close the magazines in production
@@mayorgeneralramirez1997 they clearly had no intention of doing that
Great video and that animation was just superb!
Oh boy that War Were Declared snuck up on me good!
When WW1 wraps up I really want a montage of all the "war were declared" clips.
I was asleep and woke up to pee, and this was in my notifications. Thanks a lot it's not like I have class in the morning or anything
JK I'll miss some sleep for this with no ragrets
C&Rsenal episode with no "would you take it into battle?" answer: *STILL* better than Game of Thrones season 8......
A Nonymous oh how right you are!
Really like the close up look at the gun
Ok, we TOTALLY need a poster, and some kind of image of Othais with a huge hammer saying "here's my persuader".
Someone please MAKE IT HAPPEN. Like, NAO!.
Brilliant as usual good job guys!!
The tough that is more then 100 years old is amazing
I love your work with historical weapons, greetings from Austria! :)
BF SIX_SEVEN_NINE_THREE remember the Alamo
Good morning C&Rsenal, I love you, but I need to get some sleep. We can talk about guns once the sun's up. Say hi to Mark.
"Oh hai Mark"
Just have to say you guys are really making some great content only found you guys and ian in the last month or so I have to say mae is the just the best at what she does she seems to have a super naive way about describing the firearms and doesn’t seem to be all clouded up with the prejudice that men have...... thanks again guys for doing this. Oh and not too mention she’s a pretty decent shot
Just got done watching the Vickers episode and this pops up. Nice! (mixes more Gin&Tonic)
(Puts on C&R shirt and waves a penment with Yay! On it)😀
maxim world standard day
Wow, I didn't expect the barrel to be that short.
Dude, you had the perfect opportunity to make another springy snakes gag.
I found this video to be far too harsh on the Chauchat. The weapon is portable, it can be properly fired on the move and was easy to produce and disassemble. Othais mentions that the Germans would not use the Chauchat in the front lines but I have photographs of Germans stormtroopers with the Chauchat; and the Germans would use the Chauchat even in WWII (not that the weapon in itself was that good). The Syrians also used the Chauchat in 1948 against Israel. Othais also does not include the USA in the map of the users of the Chauchat, which is absurd - 75% of the US units in Europe were armed with the Chauchat.
The Chauchat gunners suffered more casualties but that is the fate of the automatic riflemen in the squad. They are also the most decorated and that wasn't different with Chauchat operators. And again, the Chauchat was the first mobile base of fire organic to the infantry, with the creation of the squad as tactical unit, and it is hardly convincing that the German bulky and heavy counterpart was a better option. Most complaints regarding the Chauchat were given to the American version, and that also happened for the lack of training of American soldiers in either version. While the Americans also tend to use the BAR as comparison, the BAR only saw less than 2 months in combat in 1918. The idea that the Chauchat "is crap" is contentious at best.
Hate to burst your fantasy bubble here. The .30-06 conversion of the weapon was a botch job and half. That is why the u.s. troops hated the gun with a passion. The early versions in 8mm lebel even had problems. Also the .30-06 conversions used a more traditional box magazine which in turn made it into a somewhat different firearm.
The weapon was crap, every source can verify that to a degree. Jamming in combat is something soldiers makes note of, because it gets them killed. This weapon has a notorious bad reputation because it got many combat troops killed. A squad automatic weapon that jams constantly degrades fire supiority when advancing. Those gaps in fire would endanger the gunner and the men he was laying down cover for. A squad automatic, that doesn't function is no better than a club.
Nice!
I think mark should retro fit one fix the bipod sights and all that future anvil episode ;)
"We could see an improvement on the grip next episode"
*looks over at the 1918 thumbnail* I THINK I CAN SEE IT
Quite nice close-up video going over the anatomy and disassembly of the gun. Is that due to something new, or am I just imagining the improvement?
Italy also received an unknown number of machine rifles but they were used only on the mountain front due to the problems with the mud
some thoughts about the high bipods. My guess is that the height might have to be seen in conjunction with the muddy terrain of artillery battered no mans land. I guess it's quite easy to imagine that you would often sink in quite a bit with those by pods when you put it on that stirred up soil you'd find on the western front.
Here we go Project Lighting Gun, Nice to it Primmer
Thank you . Othis.
To heck with listening to Othias, I'm here to see Mae! Thanks. I got here in under 1000 likes. It's a miracle.
By the way, I rearranged my office so I could sit on a couch and watch this episode. Didn't feel like an hour-ten!
Hi Othias!
Learned a lot of things of a weapon my grand father used during WWI (I'm french).
In germany there is an old joke which basically goes "French Rifle for sale, never fired, dropped once" ;)
Is an american joke btw but at least you try .. like the two World War you loose
Kinda surprised you guys didn't talk about the failed extraction when Mae was shooting, was that just a rare case? I don't remember if it happened on project lightning.
looking forward to episode 100!! keep up the fantastic work you guys!! ^^
I might be wrong, but there are possibly another 1913 - in France. Saw photos couple years ago, but it could be relocated czech one.
A little bit of both, as long as it was operated by a competent operator and used in the proper 8mm cartridge it was usable and functional although it could never really be considered the most reliable gun available.
Dude I love your name! If I ever have a son. I'm gonna name him after you.
I'm curious, the selector has those grooves ground to it by use on the top, but there are also faint grooves on the bottom. Was that due to some part of the disassembly I missed?
I need an Othais grunt compilation.
I think the bipod is meant more to handle the berm of a trench than level ground
Thanks...
BTW, what's up with the higher rate of fire seen in old films? Was it higher with new springs, making it a little bit more controlable? Or is it just a thing with old film framerates?
I have always genuinely wondered, "How would history have differed if the 8mm Lebel was properly engineered and properly dimensioned?".
Small arms dont have a really huge impact like logistics, doctrine, heavy industry capacity, etc, But a good rifle can sometimes change a war like the m1 garand, its just very rare to see that happening
not much would change
@@krzysztofkolodziejczyk4335
Yes & no. With a straight-sided, rimless bullet cartridge from the get-go, a huge number of 20th Century French designs would likewise change. Logistics would be simplified, a lot less time & resources would be wasted adopting & then re-engineering chambers & receiver mechanisms. Which means more time, material, & man hours dedicated to cheap finished products as opposed to expensive conversions.
Would it have saved the French in 1940? Mnyeh, that much is arguable, granted.
The Lebel is considered to be the 1st true military rifle because of smokeless gun.powder
The rifle would probably have received a box magazine, because any less-tapered cartridge is reliably going to put the tip of the bullet on the primer in front.
Are those grooves on the mag release there for the bipod legs to rest in when they are folded back?
When I look at the Chauchat with it's ridiculously tall bipod, my tactical mind says you should be firing it from a standing position in a trench or behind a parapet. Then you set your bupod on the lower section of parapet and fire over the taller, or through an embrasure.
yeah, that was my thought as well. It's more meant to be fired from a trench than prone.
Impressive how quick you can build a gun designed for the assembly line.
Like the sten in WW2, if you need it you make what you can.
HA HA Joke's on Othias this time because I'm off tomorrow!
i feel like when everyone complains about the bipod being too tall i feel like they're using it wrong i think the spikes stick into the ground and you pull the thing toward you not the setup used by everyone
`That's guu i'v been wanting to know about for years...
I spat my beer on the key board when I hear "user inter face device."
GAH! You left me hanging. Would Mae take this into battle?
6:13 Wow, this is some high definition imagery! Kudos for that!
Um, that beautiful french accent you've developed. Did you ask if I wanted cheese with that?
Monsieur has ordered a deep-fried baseball, n'est-ce pas? And for the soup?
I wonder how much more pleasant the Chauchat would be to shoot if it operated with short-recoil rather than long-recoil. Short-recoil could potentially make it a little bit simpler too.
6:35 I have that exact shotgun! Love that bugger!
One of my favorite weapon in World War Heroes ❤
tbh I'm waiting more for the Winchester 1897 than the 1911.
Well that and more .32s and Othais' wardrobe tour.
Looking forward to the Webley Fosbery episode! And the 1911!
A question not relating to the chauchat. What kind of bike do you ride Othias? I remember you mentioning it but I can't remember what video. Great videos all, but that's alot of material to find one line lol.
According to quick google-fu France donated 5000 m/1915s to Finland during the Winter War. That arrived in late January-early February of 1940, and did not get issued during that war. They were issued during the Continuation War to artillery (coastal or field depending on the source) troops, possibly home guard and bicycle troops, and also some infantry.
I deduced from what my great grandmother and gtandmother knew about my great gteat great grandfather (a Serbian soldier awarded the Serbian Order of The White Eagle) that he was issued this LMG on the Macedonian (or Salonika) front of WW1.
It's not a machine gun, its a semi-auto gun that just so happens to be also a machine gun lol. Great video, and the gun sounds awesome.
10:08 You mean "Assistant _to_ the General Manager"
XD
Underrated profile picture.
Looks like it's gonna be a good day
13:09
*_WAR WERE DECLARED!_*
Could you make one on the siamese bolt action and or landstad revolver
I just woke up to chauchat c&r video. Holy fuck.
RSC next pls?