Editing Chauchat (section)

====Chauchat in American service====
[[Image:American Infantry Chauchat.jpg|thumb|alt=Two soldiers are warmly greeted by civilians – and elderly woman and man. A parked ambulance is behind them|Soldiers of the American [[308th Infantry Regiment (United States)|308th]] and 166th Infantry Regiments liberate a French town in 1918. The soldier on the left is carrying a Chauchat slung over his shoulder.]]
After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the [[American Expeditionary Forces]] (AEF) arrived in France without automatic weapons or [[field artillery]]. Consequently, it turned to its French ally to purchase ordnance. General Pershing chose the [[Hotchkiss M1914]] machine gun and the Chauchat machine rifle (designated as "'''Automatic Rifle, Model 1915 (Chauchat)'''" by the AEF and nicknamed the "Sho-Sho" by the troops) to equip U.S. infantry. Between August 1917 and the November 11, 1918 [[Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)|Armistice with Germany]], the Gladiator factory delivered to the AEF 16,000 Chauchats in 8&nbsp;mm Lebel and, late in 1918, 19,000 Chauchats in .30-06.<ref name="nra"/>

While the performance of the M1915 Chauchat in 8&nbsp;mm Lebel was combat-effective, judging by the numbers of decorated U.S. Chauchat gunners found in the U.S. Divisional Histories, the performance of the M1918 Chauchat in .30-06 was soon recognized as abysmal (and in large part the reason for the gun's bad reputation). The most common problem was a failure to extract after the gun had fired only a few rounds and became slightly hot. A modern-day test firing of the M1918 .30-06 Chauchat was performed at [[Aberdeen Proving Grounds]] in July 1973, but no particular problem was described in the official report, which is accessible on open file. Conversely, an exhaustive firing test of the M1918 Chauchat in .30-06 was also carried out in 1994 near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, by R. Keller and W. Garofalo. Their testing, which is reported in "The Chauchat Machine Rifle" volume, did expose severe extraction problems caused by incorrect chamber measurements and other substandard manufacturing. During World War I, in 1918, the preserved U.S. archival record also documents that American inspectors at the Gladiator factory had rejected about 40% of the .30-06 Chauchat production,<ref name="nra"/> while the remaining 60% proved problematic when they reached the front lines. Supplies of the newly manufactured and superior [[M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle]] (BAR) were allocated sparingly and only very late, during the [[Meuse-Argonne offensive]], which began in late September 1918. Therefore, about 75% of the U.S. Divisions were still equipped with the Chauchat – in its original French M1915 version in 8&nbsp;mm Lebel – at the time of the Armistice of November 11, 1918. It is also well documented that General Pershing had been holding back on the BAR until victory was certain, for fear it would be copied by Germany.<ref>{{harvnb|Ayres|1919|p={{page needed|date=October 2018}}}}</ref> However, it is also known that the very first BARs delivered had improperly tempered recoil springs, and had these guns been prematurely introduced during the summer of 1918, their employment may also have been problematic. One of the most significant accounts of the Chauchat's poor performance was from then-lieutenant [[Lemuel Shepherd]], who was quoted saying:

{{blockquote|I spent the last few weeks [of World War I] back in the hospital, but I'll tell you one thing the boys later told me: The day ''after'' the Armistice they got the word to turn in their Chauchats and draw Browning Automatic Rifles. That BAR was so much better than that damned Chauchat. If we'd only had the BAR six months before, it would have saved so many lives.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/the-five-worst-light-machine-guns-lmg/5/ |editor-last=Oldham |editor-first=Chuck |title=The Five Worst Light Machine Guns (LMGs) |website=Defense Media Network |date=2013-09-04 |access-date=2017-12-07}}</ref>}}

As documented by World War I veteran Laurence Stallings (in ''The Doughboys'', 1963) and by U.S. Divisional Histories, the [[Medal of Honor]] was awarded to three American Chauchat gunners in 1918:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.army.mil/cmh/html/moh/worldwari.html |title=Medal of Honor Recipients: World War I |date=16 July 2007 |website=U.S. Army Center of Military History |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071212022816/http://www.army.mil/cmh/html/moh/worldwari.html |archive-date=12 December 2007}}</ref>
# Private [[Nels Wold]] (35th Division, 138th Infantry, [[Killed in action|KIA]], posthumous)
# Private [[Frank Bart]] (2nd Division, 9th Infantry) 
# Private [[Thomas C. Neibaur]] ([[42nd Infantry Division (United States)|42nd Division]], 107th Infantry)