The French designed Hotchkiss machine gun was officially adopted by the British Army as a light machine gun to serve alongside the Lewis gun. However, the Lewis went to infantry units, whilst the Hotchkiss was issued to cavalry and armoured units. This book is extremely well illustrated with photographs and line drawings, covering all aspects of the weapon. The gun is described completely, and anyone who has read the pamphlet will be able to use a Hotchkiss gun. The interesting feed mechanism is shown in the photographs as is the ammunition strip and its box. Care and cleaning are prescribed so that the weapon remained able to fire under all conditions. There is also detailed instruction on all possible stoppages and the immediate action to clear such problems. An important section in this book gives a tactical insight into the use of the weapon as experienced during the First World War and shows how machine guns should be viewed in the mind of the user.

The French designed Hotchkiss machine gun was officially adopted by the British Army as a light machine gun to serve alongside the Lewis gun. However, the Lewis went to infantry units, whilst the Hotchkiss was issued to cavalry and armoured units. This book is extremely well illustrated with photographs and line drawings, covering all aspects of the weapon. The gun is described completely, and anyone who has read the pamphlet will be able to use a Hotchkiss gun. The interesting feed mechanism is shown in the photographs as is the ammunition strip and its box. Care and cleaning are prescribed so that the weapon remained able to fire under all conditions. There is also detailed instruction on all possible stoppages and the immediate action to clear such problems. An important section in this book gives a tactical insight into the use of the weapon as experienced during the First World War and shows how machine guns should be viewed in the mind of the user.

Created by a long-forgotten Austrian nobleman, Adolf Odkolek von Augezd, the air-cooled Hotchkiss machine gun was the first to function effectively by tapping propellant gas from the bore as the gun fired. Although the Hotchkiss would be overshadowed by the water-cooled Maxim and Vickers Guns, it proved its effectiveness during the Russo-Japanese War. The gun, quirky though it was, was successful enough to persuade Laurence Benét and Henri Mercié to develop the Modèle Portative: a man-portable version which, it was hoped, could move with infantrymen as they advanced. Later mounted on tanks and aircraft, it became the first automatic weapon to obtain a 'kill' in aerial combat. Though it served the French and US armies during World War I (and also the British in areas where French and British units fought alongside each other), the Odkolek-Hotchkiss system was to have its longest-term effect in Japan. Here, a succession of derivatives found favour in theatres of operations in which water-cooling could be more of a liability than an asset. When US forces landed on Saipan, Guam and Iwo Jima, battling their way from island to island across the Pacific, it was the 'Woodpecker' – the Type 92 Hotchkiss, with its characteristically slow rate of fire – which cut swathes through their ranks. Supported by contemporary photographs and full-colour illustrations, this title explores the exciting and eventful history of the first successful gas-operated machine gun.