Comments by "COL BEAUSABRE" (@colbeausabre8842) on "Berthier Carbine with Chauchat Magazine" video.

  1. What is the year on this conversion? Because the Chauchat began being issued in mid-1916, by which time machine guns mounted on aircraft were common. "As aerial warfare developed, the Allies gained a lead over the Germans by introducing machine-gun armed types such as the Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus fighter and the Morane-Saulnier L (the type L was introduced in 1914 and armed starting in December of that year). By early 1915, the German Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL, Army supreme command) had ordered the development of machine-gun-armed aircraft, to counter those of the Allies." "The Fokker Scourge (or Fokker Scare) occurred during the First World War from August 1915 to early 1916, when the Imperial German Flying Corps (Die Fliegertruppen), equipped with Fokker Eindecker fighters, gained an advantage over the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the French Aéronautique Militaire. The Fokker was the first service aircraft to be fitted with a machine gun synchronised to fire through the arc of the propeller without striking the blades. The tactical advantage of aiming the gun by aiming the aircraft and the surprise of its introduction were factors in its success." So why bother with a conversion in 1916, when the magazines would be available, when machine guns had been in use for 18 months or so? The "survival rifle" idea sounds rather far fetched to me. WW1 aircraft couldn't carry much, so every pound was precious and virtually every airman carried a pistol as a personal defense weapon (the RNAS had some Colt 1911's chambered in .455 Webley, for example. "Numbers of Colt M1911s were used by the Royal Navy as sidearms during World War I in .455 Webley Automatic caliber.] The pistols were then transferred to the Royal Air Force where they saw use in limited numbers up until the end of World War II as sidearms for air crew in event of bailing out in enemy territory") Were "Chauchat" magazines developed and manufactured before the gun?
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