Meunier rifle
A pioneering French semi-automatic rifle adopted but never mass-produced.
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Only 1,013 examples were manufactured at the Tulle arsenal before the war began.[1] Most of these rifles were lost during World War I, and surviving examples were later deactivated and placed in museums.[1]
How it changed
In spring 1914, the MAS factory prepared to produce 5,000 Meunier rifles per month.[1] This mass production plan was cancelled because introducing a new system risked instability during rising tensions with Germany.[1] The 1,013 rifles that were built were tested in the trenches of World War I.[1] No further production ever occurred after those initial rifles.[1]
The majority of the rifles were destroyed during the war.[1] The few that survived the war and subsequent military refitting were eventually deactivated.[1]
What the maker and period sources say
A 1995 book by Huon, "Proud Promise: French Autoloading Rifles, 1898-1979", states that MAS tooled up to produce 5,000 Meunier rifles monthly in spring 1914.[1][2] According to the same source, mass production was not started because introducing a new system when conflict with Germany seemed unavoidable was considered too risky.[1][2] Huon's book states that by the start of World War I, the Tulle arsenal had produced 1,013 Meunier rifles.[1][2]
References
- Wikipedia, "Meunier rifle" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Huon, "Proud Promise", Collector Grade Publications, April 7, 1995, p. 216 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Open Library record, ISBN 9780889351868 ("Proud Promise: French Autoloading Rifles, 1898-1979"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Meunier rifle (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Meunier rifle (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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