10. World War I’s Worst Weapon?
During World War I the French Army introduced an innovative new light machinegun, the Chauchat, but the new weapon backfired. The Chauchat gained infamy as one of the worst firearms to have ever gone into mass production and been inflicted upon an army as a standard-issue weapon. Introduced in 1915, it immediately began presenting problems stemming from both a defective design and poor workmanship. The defects were worsened by reliance on poor and low-quality metals during production.
On the positive side, the Chauchat was revolutionary. It was the world’s first truly light (20 lbs) portable automatic firearm, that did not require a team of machine gunners and a heavy mount or tripod. It was light enough to be carried around the battlefield by a single soldier. It could be fired from the hip during assaults in suppressive marching or walking fire to pin down enemy defenders while the attackers closed in. It was also inexpensive and featured a detachable magazine and a selective fire capability. From that perspective, the Chauchat set the template for subsequent light machine guns, from the BAR to the SAW.
