Lebel Model 1886 rifle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lebel Model 1886 rifle | |
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 A Model 1886 Lebel rifle |
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| Type | Service rifle |
| Place of origin | France |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1887 to 1940 |
| Used by | France |
| Wars | Boxer Rebellion, French colonial expeditions, First World War, Second World War |
| Production history | |
| Designed | 1886 |
| Produced | 1887 to 1920 |
| Number built | 2,880,000 |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 9.73 lb (4.41 kg) (loaded with 10 rounds) 9.21 lb (4.18 kg) (unloaded) |
| Length | 4.28 ft (1.3 m) |
| Barrel length | 2.62 ft (0.8 m) |
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| Caliber | 8 mm Lebel 4 grooves, right to left twist |
| Action | Bolt-action |
| Muzzle velocity | 2,000 to 2,300 ft/s (610 to 700 m/s) |
| Maximum range | 3,500 to 4,500 yd (3,200 to 4,100 m) |
The Lebel Model 1886 rifle (French: Fusil d'Infanterie Modèle 1886) is a French bolt action rifle, and which has the distinction of being the first military rifle designed to use smokeless powder-based cartridges. It was adopted as a standard infantry weapon by France in April 1887, and remained in official service until the Second World War. The Lebel M1886 rifle had a 10-round capacity (comprising eight rounds in the forestock tube magazine, one round in the transporter, and one round in the chamber) and also mounted a bayonet.
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[edit] Development
The Lebel rifle was developed as a result of the first successful smokeless gunpowder, invented by French chemist Paul Vieille in 1884. The nitrocellulose-based Poudre B (Powder B) was three times more powerful than black powder for the same weight and left no residue after firing. In January 1886 the War Minister, General Boulanger, requested the urgent application of this breakthrough to the design of a new infantry rifle. He instructed General Tramond to complete the project within less than a year, and it was decided to redesign the Gras cartridge case into an 8 mm case, which was carried out by Captain Desaleux. The bolt was designed by Col. Bonnet to include dual opposed front locking lugs, and the overall appearance and design of the new rifle was proposed by Col. Gras and some of the details, such as a magazine cutoff, were designed by Controllers Close and Verdin at the Chatellerault arsenal. The 8mm full-metal-jacket projectile for the new cartridge was designed by Lt. Colonel Nicolas Lebel, who led the infantry's marksmanship school, and after whom the rifle (and the calibre) are named.
Colonel Lebel protested during his lifetime that Gras bore more responsibility than he did in the new rifle, but to no avail- his name, which was used to designate the bullet (Balle Lebel), stuck to the entire weapon. Later, in 1893, the Lebel rifle's bolt was modified, and the designation of the Mle 1886 rifle was changed to Fusil Mle 1886-M93. The Lebel rifle followed the 11mm Mle 1874 Gras rifle and the 11 mm Mle 1878 French Naval Kropatschek rifle designed by an Austrian, Alfred von Kropatschek, and shared the latter's tubular magazine in the forend. Two transitional repeating infantry rifles, still chambered for the 11mm Gras black powder cartridge, followed after the Mle 1878 (Kropatschek): the Mle 1884 and the Mle 1885. Over 20,000 Mle 1884 rifles had already been issued when the decision to adopt the Mle 1886 Lebel rifle closed down their production line.
The Lebel rifle was manufactured by three government arsenals: St-Etienne, Chatellerault and Tulle, and featured a two piece stock and a massive receiver to accommodate the higher pressures developed by the new smokeless powder-based cartridges. The latter arsenal continued to produce Lebel rifles during WWI and closed the last Lebel assembly line in May 1920. A limited-run version made by shortening surplus Lebel rifles to carbine size was introduced in 1935: the "Mle 1886-M93R35". The total number of Lebel rifles produced between 1887 and 1920 exceeds 2.8 million units. The Chatellerault arsenal alone produced 906,760 Lebel rifles.
When it first appeared, the Lebel's smokeless ammunition allied to its longer range and flatter trajectory brought a revolution in infantry armament. A soldier equipped with a Lebel could outrange troops with black powder rifles and could carry more, lighter ammunition. The early full-metal-jacket, flat-nosed, lead-cored, Balle M bullet (231 grains) had a maximum range of 3,500 yards and a muzzle velocity of 2,000 ft/s. The solid brass spitzer, boat-tailed, Balle D bullet (197 gr) was adopted in 1898 and placed in generalized service after 1901. Desaleux's "Balle D" had an extreme range of 4,500 yards with a muzzle velocity of 2,300 ft/s and necessitated a re-calibration of the Lebel's sights. It also became the first boat-tailed bullet adopted for infantry service by any army.
In order to safely accommodate the sharply pointed Balle D bullet in the Lebel's tube magazine, the base of the case was redesigned with a deep circular groove around the primer pocket. Furthermore, the primer was also protected against accidental percussion by a thick, convex primer cover that was also crimped in after 1912 (Balle D "a.m."). The letters "a.m." stand for "amorcage modifie", meaning "modified primer". There is no military record that accidental firings ever took place inside a Lebel's tube magazine because of Balle D "a.m." or other government issued ammunition, despite beliefs to the contrary by some. The last type of Lebel ammunition to be introduced was the Cartouche Mle 1932N—using a cupro-nickel-jacketed, lead-cored, spitzer boat-tailed bullet—which was only suitable for Lebel and Berthier rifles marked "N" on top of the receiver. Manufacture of this ammunition, which had originally been designed to increase the range of the Hotchkiss machine gun, ceased in France in the late 1960's.
Following the adoption of the Lebel rifle by the French Army, most other nations switched to small bore infantry rifles using smokeless ammunition. Germany and Austria adopted new 8 mm infantry rifles in 1888; Italy and Russia, in 1891; the U.S., in 1892 with the Krag rifle. The British upgraded their .303 Lee-Metford with smokeless cartridges in 1895, resulting in the .303 Lee-Enfield. The Lebel was never sold for export as a military rifle until it became declassified as a surplus weapon after WWII. Conversely a sporting version of the Lebel was offered on the catalogs of the private mail-order firm Manufrance until 1940. It had a shorter barrel,a turned down bolt handle, a slimmed down stock and several finishes to choose from. Finally a Belgian firm even transformed surplus Lebel rifles into shotguns under the brand name of "Centaur".
[edit] Service use
The Lebel was a reliable and sturdy service rifle assembled from oversized parts showing a high degree of finish. The Lebel's durability served as a pretext to keep it in service far too long, actually into the late 1930's . For instance, it remained the rifle of the French Foreign Legion, rather than the Berthier rifle, until the adoption of the MAS 1936 rifle. During World War I, it was the preferred weapon for firing the VB rifle grenades. It was also quite accurate at long distances with standard "Balle D" ammunition. APX Mle 1916 and Mle 1917 telescopic sights issued in quantities at the end of WWI were designed to fit mostly the Lebel rifles. Conversely, the iron sights were small and left much to be desired for fast target acquisition. The Lebel rifle was slow to reload as a repeater because of its tube magazine. Therefore, in terms of rapid fire capability in combat, the Lebel was widely outclassed by rifles like the British Lee-Enfield and the German Mauser of 1898. One could say that its tube magazine had made the Lebel rifle obsolete by 1900. The negative legacy of the Lebel was, above all, the shape of its rimmed bottle-necked ammunition which adversely affected functioning in vertically stacked magazine firearms (first the Berthier rifles, and later the Chauchat machine rifle). The problem was well known to French ordnance as early as 1900, and consequently, at the eve of the First World War, the French military was planning to replace the Lebel rifle and its ammunition by an entirely new 7x59mm semi-automatic rifle, the "Meunier Rifle" or "Fusil A6". It was officially adopted in 1910 but its manufacture was placed on hold because of impending rumors of war. Later, during WWI, a small series (1,000 units) of the Meunier rifle was manufactured in 1916 at Tulle arsenal. However, French ordnance finally chose to adopt in 1917 a "modification" of the Lebel rifle into a gas operated semi-automatic rifle: the Fusil Mle 1917 RSC, in 8mm Lebel calibre, which was issued during 1918 but was far from satisfactory.
[edit] Replacement
The slow pace of the French Army to modernize its infantry rifles persisted after WWI: the 7.5x54 French bolt action MAS-36 rifle was adopted a full seven years after the official switch (in 1929) to rimless 7.5mm ammunition. Furthermore, a modern and thoroughly tested 7.5 mm semi-automatic rifle (the MAS 38-40) was ready for mass production just before the German invasion of France in June 1940. It should otherwise have entered field service in 1941, but France fell under German Occupation . Thus the MAS 38-40 semi-automatic rifle configuration was shelved and finally placed in production at St Etienne after World War II, albeit in a modified form with a detachable 10 round magazine. The French Navy adopted it under the name of MAS 44, while the French Army finally adopted it as the MAS 49, which remained in service with the French Army and French Foreign Legion until 1979.
[edit] References
- "French autoloading rifles. 1898-1979 (Proud promise), by Jean Huon ,1995,Collector Grade Publications. ISBN 0-88935-186-4.This volume ( in English )contains a detailed technical chapter describing the Lebel rifle and its ammunition. This volume primarily describes all French semi-automatic rifles since 1898, notably the Mle 1917 and Mle 1918 semi-automatic rifles, the Meunier (A6) rifle as well as the MAS 38-40 to MAS49 and 49/56 series.
- "La Manufacture Nationale d'Armes de Chatellerault(1819-1968)", Claude Lombard,1987,Brissaud,162 Grande Rue, Poitiers,ISBN 2-902170-55-6 . This illustrated volume ( in French ) contains the production statistics for the Lebel rifle as well as complete technical accounts on the Gras, Kropatschek, Lebel and Berthier weapons and how they came to be designed and manufactured. This is regarded as the fundamental research volume on the subject.The author is a retired armament engineer who spent most of his career at Chatellerault and had full access to all the archives and the prototypes.
- "Military rifle and machine gun cartridges", Jean Huon,1988,Ironside International Publishers,Alexandria,VA,ISBN 093555405X . This volume ( in English ) provides a detailed description of all the types of 8mm Lebel ammunition,including the Balle D (a.m.). The 7 X 59 mm Meunier cartridge ( for the semi-automatic A6 Meunier rifle ) is also illustrated and described in detail.
- "Standard Catalog of Military Firearms",Ned Schwing,2003,Krause Publications,ISBN 0-87349-525-X. Contains an informative and detailed page dedicated to the Lebel rifle ( by David Fortier).
- "The Chauchat Machine Rifle (Honour Bound) , Gerard Demaison and Yves Buffetaut,1995,Collector Grade Publications,ISBN 0-88935-190-2, The 10 pages illustrated appendix at the end of this volume ( in English) exhaustively describes all the 8mm Lebel ball ammunition types, plus the less well-known blank,tracer,armor-piercing,incendiary,dummy and proof rounds. This appendix was documented and authored by internationally-known cartridge expert Dr Ph.Regenstreif.
- Bolt Action Rifles,Frank de Haas and Wayne Van Zwoll,2003,Krause Publications,ISBN 0-87349-660-4. An illustrated chapter in this volume reviews in depth the Lebel and Berthier rifles (and carbines).
