The Hotchkiss machine gun was any of a line of products developed and sold by

Hotchkiss et Cie Société Anonyme des Anciens Etablissements Hotchkiss et Compagnie was a French arms and, in the 20th century, automobile manufacturer first established by United States gunsmith Benjamin B. Hotchkiss. He moved to France and set up a factory ...

, (full name Société Anonyme des Anciens Etablissements Hotchkiss et Cie), established by United States gunsmith

Benjamin B. Hotchkiss Benjamin Berkeley Hotchkiss (October 1, 1826 – February 14, 1885) was one of the leading American ordnance engineers of his day. American career Hotchkiss was born in Watertown, Connecticut, and moved to Sharon, Connecticut in childhood ...

. Hotchkiss moved to France and set up a factory, first at Viviez near Rodez in 1867, then at Saint-Denis near

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

in 1875 manufacturing arms used by the French in the Franco-Prussian War.

Variants

At the turn of the twentieth century, the company introduced the gas-actuated Hotchkiss machine gun, a sturdy and reliable weapon which was widely used during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and thereafter by the French Army. Weapons manufactured in the Hotchkiss machine gun line include: *Hotchkiss 1897 machine gun * Hotchkiss M1909 Benét–Mercié machine gun, light machine gun also known as the "Hotchkiss Mark I" in British service and the "Benét–Mercié" in American service. * Hotchkiss Mle 1914, medium machine gun *Hotchkiss 37mm,

autocannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bul ...

based on the M1897-M1914 model * Hotchkiss M1922, light machine gun * Hotchkiss M1929, heavy machine gun *

25 mm Hotchkiss anti-aircraft gun The Hotchkiss 25 mm anti-aircraft gun was an anti-aircraft autocannon designed by the French firm of Hotchkiss. It served in World War II with French, Japanese and other nations' forces. Other than the designer company and the calibre, this ...

, autocannon but sometimes referred to as a machine gun *Hotchkiss Type Universal submachine gun The Hotchkiss design was also used on foreign productions: *The Japanese

Type 3 heavy machine gun , also known as the Taishō 14 machine gun, was a Japanese air-cooled heavy machine gun. Design The Type 3 heavy machine gun was based on the design of the Hotchkiss M1914. Although the Hotchkiss used 8mm cartridges, from 1914 Japan produced the ...

*The Type 11 light machine gun *The Type 92 heavy machine gun *The Italian Breda Model 1931 machine gun *The Polish Ckm wz. 25 Hotchkiss *The Modified Hotchkiss machine gun, a Greek modification used in World War II

References

World War I French infantry weapons World War II infantry weapons of France World War I machine guns Light machine guns Machine guns of France Machine guns of the United Kingdom Machine guns of the United States Hotchkiss et Cie {{Machinegun-stub