The Mitrailleza was created as a special type of salvo cannon capable of conducting dense barrage of fire. The first mitrailleuse in history was invented by the captain of the Belgian army Fafchamps in 1851, but it was used much later. This is how this underestimated machine gun was arranged, which could well have refracted the entire European history of that time.
What it is
The Mitrailleza was one of the earliest prototypes of the modern machine gun. Along with the designs of Gatling, Gardner and Nordenfelt, the mitrailleuse has managed to take part in several wars. In fact, "Mitreleza" is the general name for multiple launch rocket systems that fire in sequence. The tool was invented and implemented by two French engineers, Montigny and Reffi.
Mitralese design
Engineers developed several types of mitrailleis, which differed from each other only in details. 37 rifled barrels welded together were mounted on an artillery carriage, which allowed the gun to provide some mobility. Loading speed remained at an impressive level due to a single ammunition unit that was manually set. The firing was also not automatic: the operator rotated the handle - the faster, the faster the fire was fired. Thanks to the well-coordinated work of the fighters, the gun could fire up to 120 bullets per minute.
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Unreasonable expectations
The Reffi design became the top secret weapon used by the French in the Franco-Prussian War. Unfortunately, the command was never able to use this promising machine gun correctly. Instead of becoming a joker, capable of changing the entire course of the battle, the mitrailleza played with the usual trick. French generals decided to use the machine gun at long distances, considering it to be something like a rapid-fire artillery cannon. At a distance, the gun was inaccurate and ineffective. Krupp's Prussian guns hit much more accurately. Thanks to the mistake of the French command, the whole of Europe treated machine guns condescendingly - and only the First World War put everything in its place.
Closing a project
The truce concluded with Prussia in May 1871 marked the end of not only the war, but also this promising weapon. The Parisians still tried to use the Mitraillese, but the only thing it was good for was the sad execution of the Communards when the Paris Commune was suppressed - the fire was fired almost closely. Germany decided to purchase a small number of mitrailleuses in order to develop its own machine gun on its basis.
Descendants of the machine gun
Realizing the main mistakes, French engineers began to develop new types of rapid-fire guns. The same mitrailleza was taken as a basis, but radically reworked. It was from it that the famous Canon de 75 modèle 1897 "grew", capable of shooting a target at a distance of as much as six kilometers in one minute. The era of light machine guns did not last long, even though many European armies bought them in large quantities. Already in the 1890s, more advanced designs came to the front: the Maxim automatic machine guns, the Colt Browning M1895 machine gun and the Hotchkis machine gun.