I am almost finished with treatment for cancer and had the time to put together a post. Today for Gus’ Gear, I have another weapon that the German Army had to face. France was a great innovator in firearms design. Germany was always trying to play catchup and suffered the consequences. France was the first to field a small bore smokeless powder main battle rifle with the 8mm Mle 1886 Lebel, this caused Germany to scramble to throw together the Commission 1888 Gewehr in 8×57 with smokeless powder, then The French developed a crude but serviceble selective fire assault rifle, the Germans countered by making a lighter version of the MG 08, even the development of the tank was something the Germans were slow to develop. This rifle was another development that was a first. The concept of an autoloading battle rifle was something that was even resisted by the Germans in the next conflict as it could cause soldiers to waste ammunition.
The RSC Mle 1917 rifle was designed by Ribeyrollas, Sutter and Chauchat, the same men who developed the CSRG Mle 1915 selective fire assault rifle, the Chauchat. The RSC 1917 has a gas operated action and is chambered for the same 8x52R cartridge that was used by all French standard issue rifles. It used a unique 5 round Mannlicher clip. The clip was two of the weaknesses of the rifle, first, it was fragile and second it differed from the 5 round Berthier clips, making interchangeability impossible. This last issue was corrected when the Mle 1918 was developed, but it came out too late to be used in the war. The lack of interchangeability of clips was a problem because only one soldier in a squad was issued the Mle 1917 as it was a fairly complex action that required a trained rifleman, and his ammunition would be issued in the Mle 1917 clips while the other soldiers would have theirs issued in 8 round paper packages if they were armed with a Lebel rifle and 3 or 5 round clips if they were armed with Berthier rifles or carbines.
After Col Chauchat was able to get the CSRG Mle 1915 production running smoothly in mid 1916, he turned his attention to the auto loading rifle. It was designed to utilize as many parts of the Mle 1883/96 Lebel rifle as possible with the idea that upgrading all battle rifles could be done with the minimum of added expense. As it turned out, only the stock, barrel and barrel bands were interchangeable. By April 1, 1917, production started and continued until August of 1918 with about 85,000 produced. The rifle had problems with reliability, with the issue of breaking bolts and gas pistons. This was caused by the violent movement of the gas piston. To correct this a regulating screw was designed to adjust the amount of pressure that was released from the gas port in the barrel just behind the muzzle. Another problem was fouling of the gas system due to the corrosive primers still being used, this required the rifle’s gas system to be cleaned after firing to keep corrosion from damaging the piston and cylinder. The rifle utilized the same bayonet as the Lebel and Berthier rifles
The photo of the right side shows the safety lever, a full 180 degree movement with forward safe and to the rear ready to fire. The markings on the receiver show that it was manufactured at Manufacture Nationale d’Armes de Tulle. Parts were made at all national arsenals and the rifles were mostly assembled at Châtellerault. It is interesting to note the serial number, on the receiver shows it was manufactured in the latter half of production, yet the date on the barrel shows this was assembled in 1917 at Tulle.
This photo shows a close up of the magazine housing in the lowered position to allow for the insertion of the 5 round clip. It is placed up into the rifle in the rectangular well and then the magazine cover is rotated up to close, this brings the follower into place to feed the cartridges. Another problem with the development of this rifle is the need to utilize the Lebel cartridge. The French military was in the process of fielding a new and more modern cartridge before the war, but the worry about Germany’s increasing belligerence encouraged them to stay with the existing cartridge. This turned out to be a wise move as Germany declared war shortly after. The Lebel cartridge is a tapered cartridge with a pronounced rim. This made a very good cartridge for easy extraction in a bolt action rifle with a tubular magazine, but made it difficult to incorporate a stacked magazine. With the development of the Berthier rifles and carbines, this was dealt with by a 3 round clip, and later with the 5 round clip. The Chauchat machine rifle had the same problems with the 20 round magazine. It had to be a full half circle to accommodate 20 rounds and often had problems feeding due to the cartridge design. The bolt is shown in the open position with the hold open catch engaged. This must be done manually. The open area behind the bolt was a problem in muddy conditions as dirt and mud could enter the action behind the bolt causing feed problems. This would normally be covered with a canvas action cover, but it needed to be removed to fire the rifle
