Darne 1923 Mitrailleuse Legere Darne Mle 1923 Machine Gun- Manual

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The Darne machine gun is a machine gun of French origin.

The French gun-making company Darne, which became famous for its innovative shotguns, entered the world of military weapons in 1915, when it was contracted by French government to manufacture Lewis machine guns. In 1916 this same company announced development of its own machine gun of indigenous design. This belt-fed weapon was designed especially for rapid manufacturing techniques, and without any unnecessary refinements typical for most contemporary small arms. External finish and appearance of the Darne machine gun was crude, but worked well and its price was much lower than of any contemporary weapon of compatible combat characteristics.

The Darne machine gun is gas operated, firing from open bolt in full automatic only. Breech is locked by tilting the rear part of the bolt up into the mortise cut in the roof of receiver (A la M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle). The Darne machine gun has an unusual belt feed between the gas piston and barrel, using the two-stage cartridge feed system (cartridge withdrawn from the belt to the rear, and then pushed forward into the barrel). The weapon usually has provisions to attach a belt box directly below the receiver to improve handling characteristics of the gun.

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