Speaking of the French army during World War II, many people will have pictures of their hands holding their heads in their minds. In fact, France is also one of the most powerful army powers in Europe. The strength is not weak, but they He was only good at sit-in (positional warfare) and relied on the Maginot line infinitely. As a result, when the German army interspersed from the Alden area, the French army was caught off guard and did not know what to do.
France and Germany went to war in September 1939, and France announced its surrender in June 1940. The speed was jaw-dropping. Not only that, after the surrender of the French army, all weapons were received by the German army. Many of the weapons were very new, not even a few bullets.
MAS36, a standard rifle equipped by the French Army in World War II. French weapons basically start with "MAS", which is actually the abbreviation of "Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne". Since the mid-19th century, Saint-Étienne has been the weapon arsenal used by the French army. , Has a high status. As for "36", it represents the finalized year of the rifle, that is, it was finalized in 1936.
Because the surrender is too early, the French weapons are far less famous than German, Soviet or American (French Free Resistance Organization uses American and British weapons), but the French have contributed to the field of firearms It is not small, the smokeless ammunition and Lebel M1886 rifle needless to say, the MAS36 rifle is also a very good weapon.
At that time, the length of a water hydrant rifle was more than 1200 mm, while the total length of the MAS36 rifle was only 1020 mm, which is its advantage.
Because on the battlefield, people found that the actual combat distance was much lower than the effective range of the rifle, and the too long barrel would only hinder the soldiers' actions. So in the later period of the war, the Soviet Union and Germany shortened the rifle Length, and MAS36 itself has good portability, it can play an excellent effect without modification.
MAS36 compared with 98k rifle.
On the other hand, the designers of Saint-Etienne put a lot of effort into developing MAS36. You can see that the pull handle is on the upper left of the trigger, which is very close. This means that the bomb can be changed faster, which helps increase the rate of fire.
Because the distance between the pull handle and the trigger is close enough, the French army has developed a special operation mode, that is, the thumb and index finger push the pull handle, and the ring finger is responsible for pulling the trigger. Under normal circumstances, the combat rate of fire of the MAS36 is 15-20 rounds per minute, while the skilled soldier can reach 25-30 rounds per minute. It can be regarded as the highest rate of fire bolted rifle in France in World War II. It has a very obvious improvement in combat effectiveness.
In general, the MAS36 is indeed a very good rifle. The actual combat effect should not have been lost to other weapons of the same time. It is a pity that the wrong country was born.
At that time, the French had to cite a country’s resources to build the Maginot Line. The cost of manufacturing other weapons was already tight. Therefore, mass production began in 1936 until France surrendered in 1940. The output of the MAS36 rifle was only 25%. Ten thousand teams can't reverse France's defeat.
The picture shows the German army carrying a MAS36 rifle. The German army stationed in France was equipped with a large number of captured French weapons.
When the Germans confiscated the weapons of the French army, they found that many of the MAS36 rifles had brand new guns except for the surface wear caused by falling to the ground during surrender. The old saying goes that the army was defeated like a mountain. France was indeed defeated too fast. It was almost that the soldiers had no chance to shoot. Isn't the rifle brand new? -20
