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. S ...

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 one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

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 The Hotchkiss M1909 machine gun was a light machine gun of the early 20th century, developed and built by Hotchkiss et Cie. It was also known as the Hotchkiss Mark I, Hotchkiss Portative and M1909 Benét–Mercié. Design It was based on a design ...

, 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 (bull ...

based on the M1897-M1914 model *

Hotchkiss M1922 The Hotchkiss M1922 was a light machine gun manufactured by Hotchkiss. It was never adopted in large numbers by the French Army; nevertheless, it was exported to many European and Latin American countries under the names Hotchkiss M1926 or Hotchk ...

, light machine gun * Hotchkiss M1929, heavy machine gun * 25 mm Hotchkiss anti-aircraft gun, 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 Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

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 was a light machine gun used by the Imperial Japanese Army in the interwar period and during World War II. History Combat experience in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 had convinced the Japanese of the utility of machine guns in prov ...

*The

Type 92 heavy machine gun was a Japanese heavy machine gun, related to the Hotchkiss machine gun series. It entered service in 1932 and was the standard Japanese heavy machine gun used during World War II. Known for its reliability, it was used after the war by various fo ...

*The

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Breda Model 1931 machine gun *The

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

Ckm wz. 25 Hotchkiss *The

Modified Hotchkiss machine gun Modified may refer to: * ''Modified'' (album), the second full-length album by Save Ferris *Modified racing, or "Modifieds", an American automobile racing genre See also * Modification (disambiguation) Modification may refer to: * Modification ...

, a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

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