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TheFusil-mitrailleur Modèle 1924 Modifié 29 (orMAC 24/29), designed in 1924 by theManufacture d'armes de Châtellerault, is a7.5×54mm Frenchlight machine gun, which was the standard issue machine gun of theFrench Army from 1925 until the 1960s and was in use until 2000–2006 with theNational Gendarmerie.
TheChauchat machine gun, hastily developed under the pressure of the events of the First World War, gave way around 1925 to the newFM MAC 1924 which fired the brand new7.5×57mm MAS (7.5×57mm) cartridge. After a series of accidents with reused captured German weapons during training, chambering the7.92×57mm Mauser, too close to the newammunition, theFM MAC 1924 was adapted in 1929 to fire a new7.5×54mm MAS M29 ammunition after some modifications (a change ofmagazine and barrel) to become theFM MAC 1924/29. This model would be calledFM 24/29 in service by the French infantry. The FM24/29 was gradually replaced in the early 1960s by theAA-52.
After the end of World War I, the French Army sought to replace the problematicFusil-mitrailleur mle 1915 CSRG light machine rifle (better known as theChauchat). French commanders considered standardising on the AmericanBrowning Automatic Rifle (BAR), but eventually required the development of a locally built weapon. MAS (Manufacture d'Armes de St. Etienne - one of several government-owned arms factories in France) proposed a direct derivative of the BAR known as FM MAS 1922, the Army also trialled theHotchkiss Model 1922,Lewis Mark I andBrowning BAR M1918 but theManufacture d'Armes de Châtellerault (MAC) won the bid with its weapon, which was partly derived from the BAR action. It had been formulated and designed by a Lieutenant Colonel Reibel assisted by Chief Armorer Chosse.
The FM Mle 1924 entered production in late July 1925 and saw first operational use in Morocco in May 1926. It was immediately well-received and even favorably compared in performance with the much heavierHotchkiss machine gun. However, problems created by the new 7.5mm ammunition did appear. In particular,8×57mm Mauser ammunition which was used in capturedMauser rifles carried by auxiliaries in Morocco during theRif War from 1920 to 1926, could be chambered and fired with disastrous results. This situation led to the development of a slightly shorter7.5×54mm round, which was retained in 1929 as the standard ammunition for all future rifles and light machine guns in French service. The modifiedfusil-mitrailleur modèle 1924 modifié 1929 (FM Mle 1924 M29) was mass-manufactured (187,412), beginning in 1930. In addition to these newly manufactured guns some 45,530 older FM Mle 1924s, already in service after phasing out the Chauchat, were rebarreled in order to accept the newer 7.5×54mm ammunition.
Both the originalfusil-mitrailleur Mle 1924 (rifle machine gun, model of 1924) as well as the modified Mle 1924 M29 have the same overall features: a folding bipod and can accommodate a small levelling stand under the buttstock, an in-line wooden stock, a pistol grip and a top-mounted 25-round detachable magazine. The top mounted magazine necessitates shifting the rear and front sights to the left, which forces the weapon to be fired right handed. The bolt is held open after the magazine's last round had been fired. There are two separate triggers: the trigger in front for using semi-automatic fire only and the rear trigger for firing on full automatic. Protection of all the openings against mud and dust proved excellent. It could be mounted on a motorcycle sidecar or in vehicle weapon ports using a mounting set in the handguard. The leather carrying strap, robust and efficient, has a metal hook allowing the user to switch from the carrying position to a hip firing position. The cyclic rate was controlled at 450 rounds per minute, thus allowing more continuous firing without overheating. In general, this new weapon was accurate and reliable but the barrel was screwed well into the receiver, as in the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), and thus it could not be separated quickly and easily in the field as for the CzechZB vz. 26 and its British variant, theBren gun. The French Army instruction manual (July 1925) recommends not to go beyond 400 rounds of uninterrupted firing since at that point the gun needs to be given a pause of ten to fifteen minutes in order to cool off. But instead, the French instruction manual recommends the following routine for the FM 1924: fire 4 to 5 detachable magazines (100 to 125 rounds), take a short pause, then keep repeating that same restrained fire plus short pause routine which permits steady performance and very extensive firing periods.
The bookLa Manufacture Nationale d'Armes de Châtellerault, a technical history of all the military firearms developed and manufactured at Châtellerault, includes a highly detailed technical chapter dealing with the FM Mle 1924 and Mle 1924-M29.
This weapon was well liked by the soldiers of the French army who would use it for the first time in combat on May 11, 1926, during theRif War. The FM 24/29 was the standardsquad-level automatic weapon of the French infantry and cavalry at the start ofWorld War II. After the French surrender in 1940, the Germans captured large quantities of this weapon, which they used operationally until the end of the war, under the designations of MG 115(f) and MG 116(f).
Those weapons were used on theRussian front by supplementary units of the German army which were partially equipped with them. Some examples of the FM 24/29 are displayed in the ex-Soviet museums devoted to theGreat Patriotic War. The MAC 24/29 was also used in limited numbers by theFinnish Defence Forces during theWinter War and the "Continuation War".
From 1943 on, as the French army was re-equipped and reorganized in North Africa with Allied support, the FM 24/29 was kept in service, as French troops considered it superior to the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR).
The FM 24/29 was the workhorse in theFirst Indochina War, as the infantry squad weapon and mounted in jeeps in the SAS style. The FM 24/29 served in the armed forces until after the end of thewar in Algeria.[1] The FM 24/29 was replaced by theAA-52general-purpose machine gun in the 1960s in frontline service, but would remain for a long time as the squad weapon for the regiments of the General Reserve of the French Army, stored in the Mobilizing Centres across the country until the mid-1980s.[2] The FM 24/29 was still in use with the National Gendarmerie regional brigades until 2000–2006.[2]
Withdrawn from active military service around 1965, the FM 24/29 became the squad support weapon in the general reserve, as it did in theNational Police (mainlyCRS) and theNational Gendarmerie. Thus all thedepartmental gendarmerie brigades were to be equipped with the FM 24/29 at the rate of one weapon per 10 to 15 non-commissioned officers, and its withdrawal from service with them would only take place in 2006 (the 7.5 MAS ammunition no longer being supplied), including in the reserves of theMobile Gendarmerie squadrons.
Large numbers of MAC 24/29 would be ceded to former French colonies in Africa during the decolonization process (Algeria,Benin,Cameroon,Central African Republic,Comoros,Congo,Ivory Coast,Djibouti,Gabon,Guinea,Guinea-Bissau,Madagascar,Morocco,Mauritania,Niger,Senegal,Seychelles andChad). At least 200 examples were used by theIsraeli Defense Forces in the1947–1949 Palestine war.
Likewise, it was supplied to the auxiliaries raised inCambodia,Laos and in theState of Vietnam during the Indochina War. It thus found itself in the hands of theViet Minh. During theVietnam War, the MAC 24/29 continued its Indochinese military career in the ranks of its former enemies of theViet Cong and thePeople's Army of Vietnam, as well as with theArmy of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and its paramilitary units. The FM 24/29 kept soldiering on during theVietnamese occupation of Cambodia up to 1989.
TheFM 24/29D, with a longer, thicker barrel, fired a heavy bullet variant (7.5mm 1933D cartridge) of its original ammunition. It was intended for thecasemates of theMaginot Line[3][4][5][6] where it was quickly replaced in this role by theReibel machine gun. After the armistice of June 1940, the German occupiers recycled a good number of examples on theAtlantic Wall.[7][8][9][10][11]
A derivative of the gun, theMAC Modèle 1931, with a heavier barrel and 150-round side-mounted pan magazine, was produced as aheavy machine gun for installation in tanks and fortified emplacements, particularly theMaginot Line. It is also sometimes known as the JM Reibel, which actually stands for Jumelage de mitrailleuses Reibel (Reibel twin-mounted machine guns). The Reibel was mounted in jeeps in the SAS style during the Indochina War.
Algeria: Captured weapons[12]
Benin[13]
Central African Republic[13]
Republic of the Congo[13]
Djibouti[14]
Finland: 100 received from France and used during theWinter War[15] and theContinuation War.
France
French Third Republic: First adopted by French Army in 1924.[16]
Free FranceVichy FranceFrench Fourth Republic: Also saw service with theNational Gendarmerie.[17]
Italian Partisans: Examples captured by Fascist Italy following the fall of France were later captured and used by partisans.[18]
Ivory Coast[13]
Kingdom of Laos: Received by French Government duringFirst Indochina War.[19]
Lebanon[13]
Nazi Germany: Captured weapons. The mle 1924/29 served as Leichtes MG 116(f).[20] The few surviving Mle 1924 models were given the designationLeichtes MG 115(f).[21]
Niger[22]
Poland
Spanish Republic[23]
North Vietnam (Viet Minh andViet Cong) Captured weapons,[24][25] known asTrung liên Vĩnh Cát, from the Frenchvingt quatre (24).[26]
South Vietnam (Vietnamese National Army andArmy of the Republic of Vietnam) Captured weapons.[27]
