Berthier rifle

Berthier rifle
fusil mle 1907-15
Type	Bolt-action rifle
Place of origin	France
Service history
In service	1902-?
Used by	France
Wars	World War I, Rif War (1920), World War II.
Specifications
Cartridge	8 x 50R mm 7.5 x 54 mm
Action	Bolt-action
Muzzle velocity	1,950 ft/s (594.51 m/s)
Feed system	3- or 5-round magazine, clip fed

The Berthier rifles and carbines were a family of bolt-action small arms in 8mm Lebel, used in the French Army from the 1890s to the beginning of World War II (1940). Furthermore, due to their diminutive size and good handling characteristics, Berthier carbines (Mle 1890 M16, 1892 M16 and Mle 1916 "mousquetons") did survive in some French law enforcement units (e.g. the "Compagnies Republicaines de Securite" or "CRS") until the 1960s.

Developed from the cavalry and artillery carbines issued in 1890-92 and known in the French army as the "mousquetons Berthier", two full length Berthier rifles had also been introduced during the years preceding World War I. They were the fusil Mle 1902 ("rifle, model of 1902") and the fusil Mle 1907, which were issued respectively to Indochinese and Senegalese Tirailleur troops. Like their shorter carbine counterparts, these Berthier rifles also featured a Mannlicher-type 3-round clip and 8 mm Lebel ammunition. They were made on special order and in small numbers (altogether about 5,000 rifles) by the Manufacture d'Armes de Châtellerault. The sights were wider, higher and more substantial, a distinct improvement over those existing on the Lebel rifle.

During World War I, a modified version of the Mle 1907 rifle called Fusil Mle 1907-15 was manufactured in very large quantities ( altogether 435,000 rifles ) and issued to colonial troops, to the French Foreign Legion and to some allies (e.g. Russian Legion in France, American Expeditionary Force African-American regiments detached to the French Army). It was also issued to some French regular infantry regiments after 1916 in order to bring relief to an endemic shortage of the Lebel rifle. Both the Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne and the MAC (Chatellerault) were the principal state contractors for the Mle 1907-15 rifle. Remington UMC also took on a large order of Mle 1907-15 rifles. Although very well finished, the Remington Mle 1907-15s were incompletely accepted by the French Government which invoked barrel rifling accuracy problems near the end of the production run. French civilian contractors (Delaunay-Belleville and Continsouza) also participated massively in the manufacture of the Mle 1907-15 rifle. In general, infantrymen found the small magazine capacity of the Berthier Mle 1907-15 to be a disadvantage, which led to the adoption of a 5-round clip Berthier rifle in 1916. It was officially designated Fusil Mle 1907-15 M16 but generally called the 1916 rifle ( Fusil 1916 ). The 5-round Mle 1916 Berthier rifle appeared rather late and only in small numbers on the front lines during the summer of 1918. It was immediately better received than the Mle 1907-15 rifle with its insufficient 3-round clip . However after World War I, the French Foreign Legion, which carried the 3-shot Mle 1907-15 during most of its wartime operations after 1916, insisted to be re-equipped with the older but more accurate Lebel rifle which could also be fitted with a telescopic sight. The most successful version of the Berthier system was the short and handy Mle 1916 5-shot carbine version, called "mousqueton Berthier", which was still in service with some French law enforcement units as late as the 1960's .

After World War I, the French military sought to replace the 8 mm Lebel ammunition which was poorly suited to large-capacity rifle magazines and to automatic or semi-automatic weapons. The barrel lengths of the Lebel/Berthier rifles (80 centimeters) were about the same as the barrel lengths present on the World War I German Gewehr 98 infantry rifles (74 centimeters). In both the French and German infantry rifles, these barrel lengths had been designed to extend the reach of bayonets not to marginally increase muzzle velocities. The experiences of World War I demonstrated that the casualties inflicted by bayonets amounted to less than 1% of the overall casualties suffered by both sides. Consequently Germany, France, Russia, Italy and Switzerland adopted shorter infantry rifles during the post-war years. After considerable delay the modern 7.5 mm mle 1929 rimless ammunition was finally introduced for the FM 24/29 light machine gun. Berthier rifles were converted (fusil mle 1907-15 M34) or newly manufactured (fusil mle 1934) to make use of the new round. However, the French Army finally adopted the MAS-36 as its new standard bolt-action rifle. Hence the production of converted 7.5 mm Berthier rifles was limited to approximately 40,000 units only.

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