Page "Chauchat" Paragraph 19

While the performance of the M1915 Chauchat in 8 mm Lebel was considered acceptable at the time, the performance of the M1918 Chauchat in. 30-06 was soon recognized as abysmal ( and in large part the reason for the gun's bad reputation ): the most common problem was a failure to extract after the gun had fired only a few rounds and became slightly hot.

A modern-day firing test of the M1918 30-06 Chauchat was performed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in July 1973 but no particular problem was described in the official report which is preserved on open file.

Conversely, an exhaustive firing test of the M1918 Chauchat in. 30-06 was also carried out in 1994 near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, by R. Keller and W. Garofalo.

Their testing, which is reported in " The Chauchat Machine Rifle " volume, did expose severe extraction problems caused by incorrect chamber measurements and other sub-standard manufacturing.

During World War I, in 1918, the preserved U. S. archival records also document that the American inspectors at the Gladiator factory had rejected about 40 % of the. 30-06 Chauchat production while the remaining 60 % proved problematic whenever they reached the front lines.

Supplies of the newly manufactured and superior Browning Automatic Rifle ( BAR ) were allocated sparingly and only very late, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive which begun in late September 1918.

Therefore about 75 % of the U. S. Divisions were still equipped with the Chauchat-in its original French M1915 version in 8 mm Lebel-at the time of the Armistice of November 11, 1918.

It is also well documented that General Pershing had been holding back on the BAR until victory was certain, for fear it would be copied by Germany.

However, it is also known that the very first BARs delivered had improperly tempered recoil springs and had these guns been prematurely introduced during the summer of 1918, their employment may also have been problematic.