Landships II

James H · Legend

Caesar WWI French Infantry Machine Gun. Wrong I.D?

11th Armoured · Sergeant

It looks to have at least a hint of the cooling fins at the base of the barrel, which the St. Etienne lacks, so I suspect it is meant to be the Hotchkiss M1914, but Caesar haven't realised the nomenclature doesn't necessarily match the date of introduction.

Having said that, it appears that earlier "almost identical" Hotchkiss designs were at least trialled by the French army from 1901 & "600 M1900 guns were also purchased by the French military for use in overseas colonies" (if Wikipedia is correct), so at a stretch it might be possible for infantry to have a combination of the earlier uniform and a Hotchkiss MG.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotchkiss_M1914_machine_gun

Pzkpfw-e · Commander in Chief

They're wargame models, so complete, historical accuracy isn't a given.
Looks like there were several variants, going back to 1895.
www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp

James H · Legend

Happy New Year, Citizens!

"If Wikipedia is correct . . . "

I have conferred with PSR, and we are agreed that it can't be the M1914 - too early. I think the problem was with PSR's initial comment that the the gun was "the standard Hotchkiss Model 1914." The comment now reads, "the standard Hotchkiss Model 1914 . . . . but since the set is dated to 1914 this must be the virtually identical Model 1900."

The story of the French Hotchkiss, St Etienne, and Puteaux machine guns is a bit convoluted, and it isn't crystal clear which were issued to front line troops and which to reserve or colonial units, in what numbers, and how they were used. Funny that all the talk about the Great War is of "German machine gunners," with comparatively little mention of the British machine gunners and hardly any that I can find of the French. If anyone knows of a good source, I'd be most interested.

BTW, I think it's fair to say that the detail on all these French mgs is pretty good. The Revell and Pegasus M1914s are very recognisable and distinguishable from the HaT St. Etienne.