FM 24/29 light machine gun

Lore & Background

The FM 24/29 was developed to replace the problematic Chauchat light machine rifle after World War I. French commanders considered standardizing on the American Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) but eventually required a locally built weapon. MAC won the bid with a design partly derived from the BAR action, formulated by Lieutenant Colonel Reibel and Chief Armorer Chosse. The original FM Mle 1924 entered production in July 1925 and saw first operational use in Morocco in May 1926, where it was favorably compared to the heavier Hotchkiss machine gun.

Problems arose when 8×57mm Mauser ammunition used in captured rifles could be chambered and fired with disastrous results. This led to the development of a slightly shorter 7.5×54mm round, adopted in 1929. The modified FM Mle 1924 M29 was mass-manufactured from 1930, and many earlier guns were rebarreled. The weapon featured a folding bipod, in-line wooden stock, pistol grip, top-mounted 25-round magazine, and two triggers—one for semi-automatic and one for full automatic fire. The barrel was screwed into the receiver and could not be quickly changed in the field.

The FM 24/29 was the standard squad-level automatic weapon of French infantry and cavalry at the start of World War II. After the French surrender in 1940, the Germans captured large quantities, using them under designations MG 115(f) and MG 116(f) on the Russian front. From 1943, as the French army re-equipped in North Africa, the FM 24/29 was kept in service, as French troops considered it superior to the BAR.

Reader's Guide

The FM 24/29 served as the workhorse squad weapon in the First Indochina War and remained in service through the Algerian War. It was gradually replaced in frontline service by the AA-52 general-purpose machine gun in the 1960s, but continued as the squad weapon for regiments of the General Reserve of the French Army until the mid-1980s. The National Gendarmerie regional brigades used it until 2000–2006, when 7.5mm ammunition was no longer supplied.

Large numbers were ceded to former French colonies in Africa during decolonization, including Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Seychelles and Chad. At least 200 examples were used by Israeli Defense Forces in the 1947–1949 Palestine war. It was supplied to auxiliaries in Cambodia, Laos and the State of Vietnam during the Indochina War, and later saw use with the Viet Cong, People's Army of Vietnam, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and during the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia up to 1989. The FM 24/29 also saw limited use by Finnish Defence Forces during the Winter War and Continuation War.

Did You Know?

• The FM 24/29 was designed by Lieutenant Colonel Reibel and Chief Armorer Chosse at the Manufacture d'armes de Châtellerault.
• It had two separate triggers: the front for semi-automatic fire and the rear for full automatic.
• The weapon was still in use with the French National Gendarmerie until 2000–2006.