The Ciężki karabin maszynowy wz. 25 Hotchkiss (Polish for "Heavy machine gun, Mark 1925, Hotchkiss") was a Polish derivative of the

Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun The Mle 1914 Hotchkiss machine gun chambered for the 8mm Lebel cartridge became the standard machine gun of the French Army during the latter half of World War I. It was manufactured by the French arms company Hotchkiss et Cie, which had been es ...

, rechambered for 7.92×57mm Mauser ammunition.

Design

This Polish modification of the Hotchkiss Mle.1914 was designed in late 1924 and speedily pressed into service with the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...

. At least 1249 were bought in France, and subsequently used in the Polish Army since 1926. It was not a successful design, though. Due to a higher velocity of a stronger ammunition, the barrel was warming up quickly, which caused too much barrel wear and, as a result, deterioration of accuracy. The wz.25 had a tendency to jam, and damages of some parts were more frequent, than in the earlier wz.14, especially susceptible was the firing pin. As a result, the wz. 25 was withdrawn from infantry service and relegated to

Border Defence Corps The Border Protection Corps ( pl, Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza, KOP) was a military formation of the Second Polish Republic that was created in 1924 to defend the country's eastern borders against armed Soviet incursions and local bandits. Other ...

and artillery units. Some weapons were further modified in the 1930s and used as the main machine gun in Polish armoured cars. Feeding was provided by a standard 30-round metal feed strip. Some Polish wz. 25 guns were captured by the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

during the German and Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

of 1939 and pressed into German service as ''7,9 mm sMG 238(p)''.

References

Hotchkiss et Cie Machine guns of Poland World War II machine guns Medium machine guns {{Machinegun-stub