After the end of World War II, French engineers returned to developing their own small arms projects. In accordance with the order of the army, among other things, they worked on new submachine guns. The real results of such a program were obtained in the late forties. One of the most interesting French developments of this time was the Hotchkiss Universal submachine gun.
Recall that after the end of the war, the French troops used captured German-made weapons, and in addition, initiated the resumption of mass production of the pre-war MAS-38 product. Also, a technical task was formed for a completely new weapon. For several years, a number of the country's leading arms companies have offered their versions of the submachine guns of the future. It should be noted that the specific requirements of the customer led to the emergence of weapons with a very interesting design.
Hotchkiss Universal submachine gun in firing position. Photo Zonwar.ru
The army demanded to create an automatic weapon chambered for the 9x19 mm Parabellum pistol cartridge, which has sufficient fire characteristics in the range of up to 200 m. One of the main requirements stipulated the ergonomics of the weapon. The submachine gun should have been made convenient for the shooter, not only during shooting. The weapon had to be folded for transportation and occupy the smallest possible volume.
All major arms companies in France were involved in the work, including the well-known company Societe des Armes a Feu Portatives Hotchkiss et Cie. Its specialists, having studied the technical requirements and possible solutions, proposed their own version of a promising weapon with all the desired capabilities. The preparation of the project was completed in the second half of the forties, and by 1949 a finished sample was presented.
The promising submachine gun received the official designation Hotchkiss Universal. Apparently, such a name was supposed to reflect the versatility of the weapon and the possibility of its operation in different types of troops. Thanks to the folding design, this sample could find application not only in the infantry, but also in the airborne or armored forces.
The most successful French submachine guns of the time - to meet customer requirements - received a folding stock and a swivel magazine receiver. The designers of the "Hotchkiss" company went further and, in an effort to reduce the dimensions of the weapon in the transport position, provided additional means of reducing the length. A certain gain in size was obtained due to an unusual barrel mounting system and improved automation.
View of the left side of the weapon. Photo Zonwar.ru
When put into a firing position, the Hotchkiss Universal product had to look like other submachine guns of its time. In particular, one could find a certain similarity with German weapons of the Second World War. It was proposed to use a relatively long barrel, fixed in a large receiver. From below, on the latter, the magazine receiver and the pistol grip for controlling the fire were fixed. At the rear of the weapon there were mounts for a folding stock.
The project involved the use of a 9 mm rifled barrel. The barrel had a length of 273 mm (30 calibers), which made it possible to obtain some advantages over other samples of that time. The outer surface of the barrel was cylindrical. There were two protruding elements in the muzzle of the barrel. The top was a front sight; the lower one was proposed to be used when folding, as well as to fix some elements in the transport position. In the area of the chamber, the barrel had a thickening located inside the receiver. There was a groove on this thickening to hold the barrel in the working position.
The submachine gun received the simplest receiver, which consisted of several main parts. Its main element was an upper tubular casing that contained a bolt and a reciprocating mainspring. A part of a more complex shape, which had a magazine receiver and some other devices, was attached to the front end of such a tube. In front, another elongated part was attached to it, which supported the barrel in the working position. At the back, the tubular box was closed with a glass lid. From below, a polygonal unit was attached to the tube, in the front of which there was a magazine receiver, in the back - details of the firing mechanism.
The tubular element of the receiver had several windows and slots. In its right wall, in front, there was a rectangular window for ejection of cartridges. In the transport position of the weapon, it was closed with a spring-loaded cover. When the bolt was displaced back before firing, the lid opened on its own. Below, under the window for ejection of cartridges, there was a window for receiving a magazine. Outside the window for the sleeves, there was a groove for the bolt handle. At the bottom, we provided slots for the trigger parts.
Close-up controls. Photo Sassik.livejournal.com
The automatic equipment of the Hotchkiss Universal product was distinguished by maximum simplicity and used the principle of a free shutter. The shutter was a massive piece with a cylindrical upper surface and a complex lower part. The shutter had its own drummer on the mirror and was equipped with an extractor. At the back, the bolt was propped up by a powerful reciprocating mainspring. The shutter was cocked using a side handle, made in one piece with a movable groove shutter. During firing, the handle had to remain in one place.
The weapon had the simplest trigger mechanism, which provided locking the shutter in the extreme rear position. Shooting control was carried out using the trigger. To select the fire mode, a switch was used, made in the form of a pair of buttons on different sides of the weapon. Pressing the button on the right made it possible to shoot single, on the left - in bursts.
The ammunition supply of the weapon was carried out using detachable box magazines with a capacity of 32 rounds. It was proposed to place the store in a receiving device of an original design, which made it possible to drastically reduce the dimensions of the product in the transport position. Under the front part of the receiver was placed a receiving shaft U-shaped in terms of shape. At the bottom, on its side walls, there were cutouts that were used as part of the lock when assembling weapons.
A rectangular tubular magazine receiver was installed in the shaft on the axis. He could swing in a vertical plane, taking one of the required positions. In the vertical position, he provided the supply of the store to the weapon, in the horizontal position, it facilitated its transportation. The receiver had a latch to hold the magazine.
The Hotchkiss Universal submachine gun was equipped with an open sight. The front sight was located on a rack above the muzzle of the barrel and was equipped with a protective ring. The sight was placed in the rear of the receiver and equipped with a swing-over sight. Due to the limited capabilities of the cartridge, the sight was rebuilt only at ranges of 50 and 100 m.
Incomplete disassembly of the Universal product. Photo Sturmgewehr.com
The weapon received an interesting butt and pistol grip. The fire control handle outwardly resembled devices of a traditional design, but was made in the form of a hollow U-shaped device without a front wall. The handle was fitted with plastic side plates and mounted on a horizontal axis. She could turn forward and up, while putting on a protective bracket with a trigger.
A folding butt was fixed on one axis with the handle. Its front part was in the shape of a fork with holes for mounting on the axle. The butt itself consisted of two tubes interconnected with fasteners and a spring. There was a lock bracket on the butt. The shoulder rest is U-shaped and made of metal and wood.
To fold the Hotchkiss Universal submachine gun, several simple operations had to be done. First, the store had to be folded. To do this, it was proposed to rotate it together with the receiver, using the existing axis. After that, the store could be moved back, all the way into the receiver. In this position, the store was not fixed by anything: other parts had to hold it.
Next, the lever in front of the receiver had to be moved, after which it was possible to press on the front protrusions of the barrel and push it inside the receiver. In this case, the barrel with the bolt went back and squeezed the reciprocating mainspring. In an offset position, all these parts were also fixed with a barrel latch. To fold the butt, it was necessary to pull back its back, opening the existing lock. Further, the butt turned down and forward. Moving, the butt folded the pistol grip, and in the extreme position, its bracket came into engagement with the teeth of the magazine shaft. The back plate, in turn, covered the store. The butt plate and the lower protrusion of the barrel did not allow the magazine to move from its place.
Submachine gun in a firing position. Photo Forgottenweapons.com
The transfer of weapons to a combat position was carried out in the reverse order. First, the butt was unfolded, when moving backward, it lowered the handle to the working position, then the latch released the barrel and the bolt forward, and the store returned to its place. The shooter could cock the bolt, select the fire mode and start shooting.
The product "Hotchkiss Universal" had to have the minimum dimensions in the transport position. This task was successfully accomplished. The full length of the submachine gun when fully unfolded reached 776 mm. With the stock folded, it was reduced to 540 mm. The offset of the barrel made it possible to "save" another 100 mm. The total height of the weapon when folded did not exceed 12-15 cm. At the same time, unlike some other folding models, the development of the Hotchkiss company did not have "intermediate positions". With the stock folded down, the shooter could not work with the trigger, and therefore the weapon had to be fully laid out before firing. The weight of the product without cartridges was 3, 63 kg.
The new free-action submachine gun could fire about 650 rounds per minute. The relatively powerful cartridge 9x19 mm made it possible to obtain an effective range of fire of up to 150-200 m - noticeably more than that of the models in service for obsolete ammunition.
The promising Horchkiss Universal submachine gun was tested in 1949 and soon received a recommendation for adoption. The advantages of this weapon were relatively high combat characteristics and a folding design. The latter, it was believed, could be of interest in the context of the rearmament of paratroopers and crews of military vehicles.
View from the other side. Photo Forgottenweapons.com
At the same time, the project had a number of disadvantages. First of all, the weapon was too complicated to manufacture and, as a result, expensive. To ensure the possibility of folding, a number of new parts of different configurations had to be used, which complicated production. In addition, the presence of only two positions of the weapon could be considered a disadvantage - it could be fully folded or completely unfolded. The Hotchkiss submachine gun, unlike some competitors, could not fire with the stock folded.
In 1949, an order appeared on the adoption of a submachine gun into service with some branches of the armed forces of the French armed forces. Soon enough, Societe des Armes a Feu Portatives Hotchkiss et Cie fulfilled not the largest order of the army, and the future of an interesting project was called into question. Soon, the Venezuelan army showed interest in the "universal" submachine gun. The next few batches of serial weapons were sent to South America.
Venezuela was the first and last foreign customer for Hotchkiss Universal products. No other country was willing to purchase such weapons. Even during the tests, it was determined that, along with the characteristic advantages, such weapons have fundamentally irreparable disadvantages. These features of the project ultimately affected its commercial success. The French gunsmiths received only two orders. In 1952, the development company manufactured and transferred to Venezuela the last batch of submachine guns, after which their production was discontinued.
Not the most numerous submachine guns "Hotchkiss Universal" were limitedly used by the armies both during training events and during real armed conflicts. In the middle of the last century, France, trying to keep the colonies, began a war in Indochina. Airborne units armed with folding submachine guns took part in the battles of this war. As far as is known, such a weapon, in general, proved to be no worse than other samples of its class.
Folded submachine gun. It should be noted that the magazine is not pushed back to the stop and is not held by the protrusion of the barrel. Photo Forgottenweapons.com
The political situation in Venezuela during the same period was notable for instability. The struggle for power and political contradictions led to various consequences, including armed clashes. According to some reports, in a number of battles, Venezuelan soldiers used French-made small arms.
For a certain time, Hotchkiss Universal submachine guns were in service with two armies, but over time they were abandoned. France was the first to write off such weapons. In the fifties and sixties, the French industry created several new models of small arms that differed from existing submachine guns in higher performance and other capabilities. No later than the seventies, the French army abandoned Universal products. In service with Venezuela, this weapon consisted a little longer, but it was also written off due to moral and physical obsolescence.
Like some other examples of weapons of their time, Hotchkiss Universal submachine guns, after decommissioning, were either stored or sent for recycling. A significant part of the collected items was eventually destroyed. The remaining samples were distributed among museums and sold to collectors. In addition, a certain market for used spare parts for such weapons has formed abroad.
One of the main requirements of the French army for promising weapons was to reduce the size and facilitate transportation. Different options for solving this problem have been implemented in several projects at once. Perhaps the most interesting variant of the folding weapon was the Hotchkiss Universal submachine gun. However, the improved ergonomics came at the cost of the complexity and cost of the design, as well as the lack of some of the desired features. As a result, the real prospects of the project turned out to be worse than expected. The weapon gained some distribution, but still could not compete with other samples of its class.
