| Mle 1914 Hotchkiss 8mm MG 257(f) (German) | |
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| General Historical Information | |
| Place of origin | France |
| Type | Machinegun |
| Effective range | 4300 metres |
| Rate of Fire | 450 round/min |
| Magazine | 24 round strip |
| Ammunition | 8 x 50 mm R Lebel |
| General Ingame Information | |
| Used by | France |
| Used in vehicles | Renault FT-17 |
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The Modèle 1914 Hotchkiss, was a French machine gun that was used by the French, Belgian, Brazilian, Japanese, American, Mexican, Spanish, Norwegian and Polish armies during the First World War and still used by a few countries during World War Two. During the outbreak of World War One, the French army was equiped with Mle 1907 St. Etienne machine guns, but they were a lot of problems with the machiengun and they were replaced by the Hotchkiss. The Hotchkiss was quickly produced in large numbers, so that the deficit of the French army had to supplement because the St. Etienne machine guns now were sent to Italy, which had a great need of guns. The air cooled machiengun weights 24.5 kg. It was a very reliable machine, with the only disadvantage that the feed system, a strip consisting of 24 Lebelpatronen (8 mm) so that the high rate of fire could not pick and had a range of up to 4300 meters. From 1917, also could use of a metal belt with 250 rounds. The Hotchkiss was deployed during the First and Second World War by the French army. It was also used in the French and British tanks during World War One but also on French aircrafts during World War One. The Hotchkiss was used until 1945. The Japanese Type 92 Nambu machinegun was based on this design.
Ckm wz. 25[]
| Ckm wz. 25 7,9 mm sMG 238(p) | |
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| File:Ckm wz35.jpg | |
| General Historical Information | |
| Place of origin | France |
| Type | Machinegun |
| Effective range | 4300 metres |
| Rate of Fire | 450 round/min |
| Magazine | 40 rounds |
| Ammunition | 7,92x57mm |
| General Ingame Information | |
| Used by | Poland |
| Used in vehicles | Renault FT-17 TKS wz. 29 "Ursus" wz. 34 |
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The first Hotchkiss machine guns arrived with the Polish Blue army that had fought with France in WW1. As the Polish army standardized on the 7,92x57 mauser cartridge in 1920s the 8 mm Mauser export model of the mle 14 was bought and adopted as the Ckm wz. 25. The guns had issues such as rapidly heating up, a tendency to jam and some parts were quickly worn down. It was withdrawn from infantry service though it would still be used in the eastern Border Defence Corps and artillery units, they kept being used in armoured fighting vehicles up and until the second world war. Before WWII these machine guns were being replaced in newer vehicles with the Browning M1917 derivative Ckm wz.30. These were fitted for trials on the TKS but in the end kept Ckm wz. 25, but all the 7TP tanks and the planned 14TP had the Ckm wz.30 by default. While it was a more effective machine gun and had already replaced the wz. 25 in the infantry the large water-cooled barrel was quite a large surface to armour leading to concerns of weight.
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