French Kiss

Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update.

Today we have a render of the main heavy machinegun used by the French in 1940, the Hotchkiss Mle 1914.

The operating principles of what would become the Mle 1914 were patented by Austrian Captain Baron Adolf Odkolek von Ujezda in 1889. Looking for a manufacturer for his design he approached the Hotchkiss company. Rather than build his design, the company bough out his patent and set American Laurence Benét and Frenchman Henri Mercié to work on improving the concept. What followed was the model of 1897, sold widely in South America and most notably to Japan. The addition of barrel cooling fins led to the model 1900.

In the first half of the 1910s, the gun was tested by the French Army, but would ultimately be rejected in favour of the Puteaux Mle 1905 and St. Étienne Mle 1907. However, a handful were purchased for use in the French colonies. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, it soon became clear that St. Étienne was unable to manufacture sufficient number of their Mle 1907 and the Hotchkiss design was adopted as a second line replacement. This had a couple of changes from the commercial design and became the Mle 1914.

By 1916 it was clear that the Hotchkiss was the superior weapon, and by late 1917 the St. Étienne design was completely replaced in production. Over 47000 guns were delivered to the French during the war, and they would remain in service all the way through World War 2. Our Hotchkiss Mle 1914 was made by Seth Soldier, with ammunition box statics made by Cpt Bocquier and Luacha 2000.

That's all for this week, but be sure to come back next time for another update. Until then, feel free to visit our Discord, our public forums, and/or our Twitter and Facebook pages to discuss this update and other news.