This video provides a detailed look at the St Etienne Mle 1907, France's domestic heavy machine gun. It explains the gun's development stemming from French dissatisfaction with the Maxim gun and the flawed gas trap system of its predecessor, the Puteaux Mle 1905. The Mle 1907 incorporated a gas piston system and was the primary machine gun for France at the start of World War I, with over 40,000 produced. Despite its sophisticated Victorian-era engineering, including a rack-and-pinion system and hydraulically adjustable rate of fire, it proved ill-suited for the muddy conditions of trench warfare. The French eventually replaced it with the more reliable Hotchkiss Mle 1914, though the video laments the sidelining of such a well-crafted weapon.
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