Montigny had approached the French army for the purpose of a sale. Napoleon III showed personal interest in the mitrailleuse. The 25-barrels Reffye mitrailleuse ("Canon à balles modèle 1866") was adapted from the 37 barrels Montigny mitrailleuse. The Montigny Mitrailleuse was built in numbers and used mostly to defend Belgian forts and other defensive positions. The whole weapon was very heavy, weighing 2,000 pounds (910 kg). Around 150–250 shots per minute could be fired depending on the skills of the operators. With the rotation of a crank, all shots were fired simultaneously, although later improvements used a cam which permitted the progressive firing of the 37 shots. The ammunition had a brass head and thin rolled brass foil body and was fired by needle pins. It was inserted against the breech in one stroke and locked in with a hinged loading lever attached to the rear of the gun. Loading was performed with a loading plate containing 37 cartridges. The weapon consisted of 37 barrels of 11 mm inside a cylindrical protective casing. Magazine plate of a Montigny mitrailleuse, designed to hold 37 cartridges and to be slid into the breech before firing.Ĭhinese Qing Empire officers with Montigny mitrailleuse. 2 Development of the Reffye mitrailleuse.When the weapon was engaged at the Battle of Gravelotte in 1870, in an infantry support role and at shorter distances, it produced devastating effects. Most of the time, they were used quite ineffectively to engage distant targets. The weapon, which was on an artillery carriage, was deployed in six gun batteries and manned by artillery personnel. They were of the 13mm, 25-barrels type, and used elongated shotgun shell style cartridges instead of foil cartridges as in the Montigny mitrailleuse. Altogether 215 mitrailleuses were manufactured for the French Army before the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. Hence the weapon is usually known as the " Reffye mitrailleuse". Manufacture began at Meudon in 1866 under the direction of Verchères de Reffye and the undisclosed assistance of Montigny. Experiments to evaluate the weapon began in 1863 in a French facility near Paris but the decision was made to build a similar weapon by sole French means.
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