France - Forgotten Weapons

L’Arbalete la Sauterelle Type A D’Imphy

May 13, 2014 Ian McCollum 25

This post started as just a quickie, because I happened to find a vintage photo of a couple French WWI soldiers using a crossbow/ballista type device to throw grenades. I realized, looking at the photo, […]

Ammunition Documents

April 29, 2014 Ian McCollum 10

Courtesy of reader Robert, we have a couple documents for you today. First up is a British 1918 manual on identifying different types of ammunition by projectile, case, and packaging markings. Given the variety of […]

Vintage Saturday: On Maneuvers

April 12, 2014 Ian McCollum 28

Zouaves on maneuvers with M1886 Lebel rifles, in 1909.

Vintage Saturday: A Long Way From Home

December 14, 2013 Ian McCollum 26

Malagasy soldier from the French army, World War I. Armed with a M1886/93 Lebel rifle and early style bayonet with hooked quillion.

Book Review: Allied Rifle Contracts in America

November 21, 2013 Ian McCollum 6

One of the characteristics that often leads me to be particularly interested in a given gun is a long and convoluted history. I really enjoy finding firearms that have found their way across the world […]

Vintage Saturday: Three or Five?

September 28, 2013 Ian McCollum 25

Members of the French resistance in Paris, August 1944. Interesting to see that the shooter has an M-16 Berthier with a 5-round magazines, but the window sill has a pile of three-round clips. Also interesting […]

Book Review: Honour Bound – The Chauchat Machine Rifle

July 25, 2013 Ian McCollum 17

I’ve discussed the much-maligned CSRG machine rifle (the Chauchat) previously – it was not the utter disaster that common knowledge would lead you to believe. You won’t find much literature on the Chauchat, but fortunately […]

Hotchkiss M1922 LMG

May 24, 2013 Ian McCollum 47

Many people are unaware of just how many different firearms were produced by the Hotchkiss company over the decades – not many of them received the worldwide acclaim of the more well known arms companies. […]

French MAS-38 SMG

May 17, 2013 Ian McCollum 39

In the early 1930s, France adopted a new standard pistol and a new cartridge to go with it – the MAS 1935 and the 7.65x20mm, closely patterned on the us M1918 Pedersen Device cartridge. They […]

Book Review: A Gun For All Nations

May 9, 2013 Ian McCollum 3

I ran across a mention of this book while trying to find some information on this 37mm Hotchkiss machine gun – and this book was the only reference I could find any mention of it […]