Saint-Etienne M1907

Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 July 2009 12:00 Written by Administrator Thursday, 02 July 2009 03:19

The St. Étienne Mle 1907, or Mitrailleuse Mle 1907 T as it was known in French, was a medium machine gun that was widely employed in the early years of World War I by the French troops. Several variants of the St. Étienne Mle 1907 such as the Mle 1907 and Mle 1907 Transformee 1916 were also produced in the later years and saw widespread action in various battles and conflicts.

The St. Étienne Mle 1907’s design was based on an earlier machine gun design known as the Puteaux M1905. Earlier, the French military had evaluated the machine guns manufactured by a private French gun manufacturing company called Hotchkiss et Cie. Some numbers of these guns were also purchased and employed following successful tests. However later on, it was decided that guns manufactured only by state-owned manufacturing companies were to be used by the army. The Puteaux M1905 was the result of this decision.

The Puteaux M1905 suffered from design flaws and thus was totally unsatisfactory in the field. The National Arsenal at Saint Étienne undertook the project of completely redesigning it to make it fit for use by the French Army. The Mle 1907 was the end-result of this project and overcame many problems that the M1905 had. On the minus side, the improvements in the design also made the gun more complicated. The Mle 1907 had 64 working parts as compared to only 32 parts that the older design had.

However, the redesign proved to be successful in inculcating many new features to the gun and in improving its reliability. The firing rate of the Mle 1907 could be set anywhere from 8 to 650-round per minute. At the same time, it was also very easy to change the barrel of the gun. The Mle 1907 could be fed with both metal strip belts and fabric belts. Due to these new features, the Mle 1907 was fairly effective in the battlefield.

Despite the numerous advantages the St. Étienne Mle 1907 offered, it suffered from many drawbacks. Most notable of these drawbacks was that the gun was particularly ineffective in the muddy conditions of trench warfare. It suffered from frequent stoppages and needed meticulous cleaning to keep functioning properly. Because of this, it had to be replaced by better and newer machine guns.

By 1917, the St. Étienne Mle 1907 had to be retired from the frontlines of the war and large numbers of the gun were shipped to the rear units. It was replaced by the more robust and effective Hotchkiss M1914. A large number of the guns were also transferred to the various French colonies in Africa and Asia. Some guns were also shipped to the Italian Army. By November 1917, the production of St. Étienne Mle 1907 was completely stopped.

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