Fusil Gras mle 1874
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The Fusil Modèle 1874 or Gras was the French Army's primary service rifle from 1874 to 1886. Designed by Colonel Basile Gras, the Gras was a metallic cartridge adaptation of the single-shot, breech-loading, black powder Chassepot rifle. It was developed from 1872 to 1874 as a response to the German adoption of the Mauser Model 1871 metallic cartridge rifle.
Modified in 1880 as the M80 with an improved breechblock and in 1914 as the M14 to accommodate the 8×50mmR Lebel smokeless powder cartridge, the Gras was replaced as the standard-issue service rifle by the Lebel in 1886.
DescriptionEdit
Converted from the Chassepot, the Gras<ref>"11x59R French Gras" in Barnes, Frank C. Cartridges of the World (DBI, 1972), P.199.</ref> was in Template:Convert caliber and used black powder centerfire metallic cartridges with a Template:Convert bullet over a Template:Convert charge. It was a robust and hard-hitting single-shot weapon. Additionally it had a triangular-shaped Model 1874 "Gras" sword bayonet. The Gras rifle was replaced from 1886 by the Lebel rifle.
DevelopmentEdit
The Gras was manufactured in response to the development of the Boxer cartridge in 1866, and the British 1870 Martini–Henry rifle which used it.<ref name="Headrick">The Tools of Empire by Daniel R. Headrick p.98</ref> Those were soon emulated by the Germans with the 1871 Mauser.<ref name="Headrick"/> The French Army set up a study group in September 1872 that chose the metallic over the paper cartridge. A second study group in 1873 looked at various metallic cartridge adaptations. Colonel Gras proposed a modification of the Chassepot to accept metal cartridges and on 7 July 1874, the French Army chose his design over the M1871 Beaumont rifle.
HistoryEdit
The Hellenic Army adopted the Gras in 1877, and it was used in all conflicts until the Second World War. It became the favourite weapon of Greek guerrilla fighters,<ref name="Greek-Turk">Template:Cite book</ref> from the various revolts against the Ottoman Empire to the resistance against the Axis, acquiring legendary status. The name entered the Greek language, and grades (γκράδες) was a term colloquially applied to all rifles during the first half of the 20th century. It was manufactured by Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne, one of several government-owned arms factories in France. However most of the Gras rifles (60,000) used by the Hellenic military were manufactured under licence by Steyr in Austria.
The Gras rifle was partly the inspiration for the development of the Japanese Murata rifle, Japan's first locally-made service rifle.Template:Citation needed It was also among the rifles copied in the arms industry of the Wassoulou Empire in the 1880s and 90s.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
According to the Vietnamese historian Phạm Văn Sơn, a Vietnamese general in the Cần Vương movement, Cao Văn Thắng, managed to copy the design of "an 1874 type fast-firing rifle of French". However, the Vietnamese version did not have a rifled barrel, and the range was limited.<ref>Phạm Văn Sơn, Việt sử tân biên (quyển 5, tập trung). Tác giả tự xuất bản, Sài Gòn. 1963. p. 147</ref>
In 1915, 450,000 Gras rifles were sent to the Russian Empire.
After 1918, Mle 1874 rifles were exported to Yugoslavia, Poland and Greece.<ref name="Gander2000">Template:Cite book</ref>
Modifications during World War IEdit
Modified rifleEdit
In 1914, the French Army modified 146,000 rifles to fire 8 mm Lebel by using the barrel of a Lebel or Berthier rifle. They were used by second-line troops. In 1940, after the French defeat, although receiving the designation Gewehr 361(f), most of these rifles were destroyed by the German occupiers.<ref name="Gras M14">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Grenade launcherEdit
Gras rifles and the 11x59mmR cartridges were also widely used by front line troops as converted grenade launchers, known as Bombardes DR (grenade throwers) these conversions had cut down barrels and butts of varying workmanship and fired blank cartridges to propel the grenade, and were used as a crude form of trench mortar.Template:Citation needed
Greek modified bayonetsEdit
The period 1932-1939 Greece manufactured the M1939 bayonet, it was a modification of the Gras Model 1874 bayonet and was used by Greek soldiers in World War II.
UsersEdit
- Template:Flag<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Template:Flag: In use by the Quebec Home Guard and Papal Zouaves in both 11mm and 8mm Lebel.
- Template:Flag: 15,000 rifles bought by the Force Publique during World War I,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> still in service with second-line units during World War II.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
- Template:Flag: During the War of the Pacific.
- Template:Flag<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Template:Flag: Several thousand were bought at the end of the 19th century. They were used during the Thousand Days' War,<ref name="Colombia">Template:Cite book</ref> against the Panamanian rebels<ref name="Banana">Template:Cite book</ref> and various civil Colombian conflicts from the 1920s to the 1950s.<ref name="Colombia"/>
- Template:Flag: the Gras was used by the Ethiopian Army during both Italian invasions, being popular among irregular soldiers. Most were acquired from French. <ref>Г. В. Цыпкин, В. С. Ягья. История Эфиопии в новое и новейшее время. М.: «Наука», 1989. стр. 217</ref><ref name="Adowa">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Template:Flag
- Template:Flag: the Gras was used by the Hellenic Army<ref name="Gander2000"/> as late as 1941 in the Battle of Crete.
- Template:Flag: Haitian army used Gras rifles until its disbandment by occupying American forces. The army's successor force, the Gendarmerie of Haiti, used old Gras rifles until replaced in 1916 by Springfield Model 1892–99 rifles.<ref>Hermle, L.D. History, Military Department of the North, Garde d'Haiti, 1934, p. 2.</ref>
- Template:Flag: Used by Irish rebels in 1916.<ref name ='Whytes History and Literature - 9 MAY 2015'>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name ='Adams 19th April 2016 - 9 MAY 2015'>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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- Template:Flag: Bought from Greece at the end of the 19th century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Template:Flagcountry: 1300 were smuggled in by liberal rebels during the 1904 Revolution, and later used by the Army.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Template:Flag<ref name="Gander2000"/>
- Template:Flag: Due to firearm shortages in World War I, the Russian Empire received 450,000 Gras rifles from France in 1915.<ref>А.А. Игнатьев. Пятьдесят лет в строю. том 2 (кн. 4-5). М., 1989. стр.127</ref><ref>"Во время первой мировой войны царская Россия испытывала недостаток в стрелковом вооружении, поэтому в армии кроме винтовок русского образца были также и иностранные - японские Арисака обр.1897 и 1905 гг., австро-венгерские Манлихера 1889 и 1895 гг., германские "88" и "98". Кроме этих винтовок использовались также и устаревшие образцы, стрелявшие патронами, снаряженными дымным порохом - Бердана № 2 образца 1870 г., Гра 1874 г., Гра-Кропачека 1874/85 г., Веттерли 1870/87 г."
А. Б. Жук. Энциклопедия стрелкового оружия: револьверы, пистолеты, винтовки, пистолеты-пулеметы, автоматы. М., АСТ — Воениздат, 2002. стр.587</ref><ref>А. А. Маниковский. Русская армия в Великой войне: Боевое снабжение русской армии в мировую войну. М., 1937</ref> - Template:Flag: passed on to Yugoslavia following purchase during World War I.
- Template:Flag: Some were purchased in the 19th century, during World War I, the Siamese Expeditionary Forces were equipped by the French with Gras rifles chambered in 8mm Lebel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Template:Flag: Smuggled in for use with Republican forces during the civil war.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Template:Flag: Vietnamese insurgents of the Hương Khê uprising managed to create copies of the Fusil Gras mle 1874. However, they did not have rifled barrels.
- Template:Flag: Still used in Yemen in 2002.<ref name ='SAS 2003'>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Template:Flagcountry<ref name="Gander2000"/>
- Template:Flag: fighting the Mandingo Wars against France<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
ConflictsEdit
- French colonial expeditions
- Sino-French War
- War of the Pacific
- Argentine Civil Wars<ref name=":0" />
- Chilean Civil War of 1891
- First Italo-Ethiopian War
- Thousand Days' War
- Greco-Turkish War (1897)
- Macedonian Struggle
- 1904 Paraguayan Revolution
- Balkan Wars
- World War I<ref name="Gras M14"/>
- Irish revolutionary period
- Greco-Turkish War (1919–22)
- Second Italo-Ethiopian War
- Spanish Civil War
- World War II<ref name="Gras M14"/>
Comparison with contemporary riflesEdit
Template:Comparison of 1880s rifles
GalleryEdit
- Fusil Gras M80 1874 culasse.jpg
Fusil Gras M80 1874 breech portion
- Fusil Gras M80 1874 metallic cartridge.jpg
Fusil Gras M80 Mle 1874 metallic cartridge
- Fusil Gras M80 Mle 1874 with 10 cartridge magazine 1883.jpg
Fusil Gras modified in 1883 with 10-cartridge gravity hopper
- Chassepot-Gras cart.jpg
R: 11×59.5 mm R metallic cartridge for Fusil Gras mle 1874
- Gras Bayonet.jpg
1875 Gras bayonet
- 111-SC-19301 - NARA - 55198526 (cropped).jpg
Bombardes DR
See alsoEdit
NotesEdit
External linksEdit
Template:S-start Template:Succession box Template:S-end Template:French weapons of the 19th century