Hotchkiss Machine Guns

From Verdun to Iwo Jima

Hotchkiss Machine Guns cover

Hotchkiss Machine Guns

From Verdun to Iwo Jima

Description

Created by a long-forgotten Austrian nobleman, Adolf Odkolek von Augezd, the air-cooled Hotchkiss machine gun was the first to function effectively by tapping propellant gas from the bore as the gun fired. Although the Hotchkiss would be overshadowed by the water-cooled Maxim and Vickers Guns, it proved its effectiveness during the Russo-Japanese War. The gun, quirky though it was, was successful enough to persuade Laurence Benét and Henri Mercié to develop the Modèle Portative: a man-portable version which, it was hoped, could move with infantrymen as they advanced. Later mounted on tanks and aircraft, it became the first automatic weapon to obtain a 'kill' in aerial combat.

Though it served the French and US armies during World War I (and also the British in areas where French and British units fought alongside each other), the Odkolek-Hotchkiss system was to have its longest-term effect in Japan. Here, a succession of derivatives found favour in theatres of operations in which water-cooling could be more of a liability than an asset. When US forces landed on Saipan, Guam and Iwo Jima, battling their way from island to island across the Pacific, it was the 'Woodpecker' – the Type 92 Hotchkiss, with its characteristically slow rate of fire – which cut swathes through their ranks. Supported by contemporary photographs and full-colour illustrations, this title explores the exciting and eventful history of the first successful gas-operated machine gun.

Table of Contents

Introduction /Development /Use /Impact /Conclusion /Bibliography /Index

Product details

Published 28 Nov 2019
Format Ebook (Epub)
Edition 1st
Extent 80
ISBN 9781472836151
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Series Weapon
Short code WPN 71
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

John Walter

John Walter is among the world’s most prolific wri…

Illustrator

Adam Hook

Adam Hook studied graphic design, and began his wo…

Illustrator

Alan Gilliland

Alan Gilliland, a contributor to more than 70 Ospr…

Resources

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