Huot Automatic Rifle

In 1916, the forces of the Canadian Expeditionary Force desperately lacked light machine guns in the fighting on the Western Front of the First World War ^[3] . By that time, the Ross rifle was finally decommissioned, as a result of which there were a large number of excess rifles.

In the same year, Joseph Alphonse Huot, engineer from Richmond, , Quebec , made an attempt to adapt the Ross sliding shutter mechanism to automatic fire ^{[6] [1] [2]} . Sample model was created on the basis of Ross Rifle Mk. III and was supplemented by 33 new details ^[2] . The barrel of the rifle was shortened, and a special bracket was mounted on it for attaching the gas chamber and piston. The mechanism with a drive superimposed on top of the rifle, located to the left and parallel to the barrel of the gas engine, operated with a standard rifle mechanism with a sliding shutter. Behind the breech of the weapon was a buffer that absorbed the energy of the gas chamber. The whole mechanism was covered with sheet steel. Also on the machine gun was placed a regulator of the supply of powder gases. Huot copied the cooling system from the Lewis machine gun , the then standard weapon of the British Army ^[6] . A drum magazine with 25 rounds was used for the Huot machine gun ^[1] . All summer 1916, Huot worked on a rifle, improving its design. In early September, he turned to the Canadian government in order to license and produce weapons, and after meeting with Colonel Matiche in Ottawa, on September 8, Huot was hired by the Government Office of the Experimental Small Arms ^[6] .

Former Ross Rifle manufacturer Dominion Rifle Factory assembled the final version of the design, led by assistant inspector Robert Mills from the Seafort Highlanders regiment ^[6] . The Huot’s rifle was first tested in Quebec on November 12, 1916, shooting 650 rounds of ammunition ^[6] , the second time, another revised version was tested on February 15, 1917 ^[6] . Field-General-General Robert Blair, demanded a third test, which took place on March 5-6, on which 11,000 rounds were shot (half of the rounds were provided by the Dominion Cartridge Company , the other half by Dominion Arsenal ) ^[6] .

On March 13, 1917, Joseph Huot filed a patent application with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office , numbered #CA 193724 ^[7] and #CA 193725 ^[8] , but patents were received only on November 4, 1919 ) ^[6] , after the First World War II. On October 22, 1917, weapons were tested at the Rockliff Military Base training ground followed by Sydney Chilton Melbourne recommended the British Army Huot rifle ^[5] .

To achieve this, Blair, A. A. Janson and Huot set off for England, arriving on 10 January 1918 at the port of Heath and the city of Sandling for comprehensive UK testing and testing at the Royal Enfield Small Arms Factory . The tests took place on March 19-21, 1918, where the Huot rifle opposed the Lewis machine gun , the Hotchkiss Mle 1909 and the Farquhar-Hill Rifle self-loading rifle. The test results were favorable. “Huot showed himself better than a Lewis machine gun. He behaved excellently when firing from a trench and did not require any preparation for the start of firing ” ^[5] . Even being dirty, after four or five shots ^[5] , it will work again, without the need to completely clean it; Blair noted that this is the only weapon of the tested, able to endure immersion in water and remain in working condition ^[9] .

After the firing of 10,000 rounds of ammunition from Huot in Anfield, contamination of the venting mechanism was detected at 4,000 rounds and traces of barrel wear after 10,000 ^[5] . This is understandable, since before getting into Anfield, about 11,000 bullets in Canada were already fired from this instance of the rifle. The tests used all varieties of .303 British ammunition with the Mark VII bullet type (including K, KN, J and US), which, most likely, would have faced a Huot rifle. It was discovered that Huot did not have serious problems with them, although there were some incomprehensible delays, it also showed that Huot did not require specially selected ammunition, as was the case with the Lewis machine gun ^[5] . In addition, the Huot rifle was able to fire 4,000 shots without lubrication or cleaning, which the Lewis machine gun cannot ^[10] .

October 22, 1917 in a letter to the British Minister of Arms Blair said that the Dominion Factory in Canada already has the necessary equipment and is ready to start manufacturing Huot's automatic rifles using parts of decommissioned Ross rifles ^[5] . Having talked in France with Lieutenant General Arthur Curry , commander of the Canadian Expeditionary Force , he said that every soldier who tried the Huot rifle was pleased with it and on October 1, 1918, a request was made for the purchase of 5000 copies ^[9] , arguing that front soldiers have nothing to oppose a large number of German light machine guns ^[9] . The cost of making one Huot rifle, cost $ 50 Canadian dollars , which is much cheaper than the original cost of a Lewis machine gun at C $ 1000 ^{[5] [c. 1]} .

One of the drawbacks was that the Huot product was fully automatic , without the ability to fire semi-automatic fire . The store could be emptied in 3.2 seconds ^[4] (a similar drawback is found in the Browning automatic rifle M1918 ), but the firing speed was low (like the Bren machine gun), which made this problem not critical. On average, it took 4 seconds to reload a store, and an empty store could be equipped with cartridges in about 30 seconds ^[5] . For faster charging of the drum magazine, a special detachable clip of 25 rounds was used. In addition, the Huota rifle functioned without problems when firing in an upside down position ^[4] . The Royal Small Arms Factory in Anfield noted 13 flaws ^{[5] [2]} , all of which were easy to fix, as “converting the Ross rifle was not a difficult matter” ^[5] , a number of improvements were also recommended, for example: add additional wooden overlays for forend ; reducing the size of the breech lid; a drum magazine should be made of thinner metal in order to reduce its excessive weight (2.7 kg with cartridges); removing 8 new parts and more ^[11] . Also, after field trials in France, there were reports from several specifically documented breakdowns and interruptions ^[9] .

The First World War ended before the Huot automatic rifle was put into operation, and its release was delayed ^{[1] [2]} . Joseph Huot lost a total of about C $ 30,000 Canadian dollars from his pocket ^[12] .

Five units of the Huot rifle were produced, however, the existence of a sixth model is also mentioned. For 2015 , there are 4 surviving specimens stored in various museums in Canada .

• Serial number 1 - stored in the Museum of the Army in Halifax , Nova Scotia ;
• Serial number 2 - is stored in the Museum-Archive of the Canadian Regiment of the Seafort Highlanders in Vancouver , British Columbia . It was a personal souvenir of Colonel Robert Blair, complete with a removable store and a heavy leather case for transportation. The emblems of the companies on the shipping case indicate that it was one of the Huot rifles that had been and tested in Britain and France in 1918 . 30,000 rounds were shot from it, with almost no malfunctions;
• Serial number 3 - the prototype was lost, its location and fate is unknown;
• Serial number 4 - stored at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa , Ontario ;
• Serial number 5 - as well as an instance of Serial No. 4 , is kept at the Canadian War Museum.

In computer games

The Huot rifle was shown in the Battlefield 1 computer game as a machine gun, unlocked for level 10 of the Support class ^[13] .

• Charlton automatic rifle - a model of a light machine gun, developed in 1941 on the basis of the Lee-Metford rifle .

Comments

Sources

• Phillips RF; Dupuis F .; Chadwick J. The Ross Rifle Story . - Sydney : James A. Chadwick, 1984. - 475 p. - ISBN 0-9691-9060-3 . - ISBN 978-0-9691-9060-8 . (eng.)
• Fitzsimons B. Huot // The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare . - 1st Edition. - New York : Columbia House 1977. - Vol. 13: Holt / Inva. - 1385 p. - ISBN 0-9067-0400-6 . - ISBN 978-0-9067-0400-4 . (eng.)
• Dupuis FJ The Huot Automatic Rifle // The Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting: Journal. - Amherst : Arms Collecting Publications, Inc. 1976. - May (vol. 14, no. 2 ). - P. 39-52 .

• Light Machine Guns - Huot Automatic Rifle // Forgotten Weapons (eng.)
• Huot Automatic Rifle on the Canadian War Museum website
• Photo by Huot-Ross Automatic Rifle Serial No. 2 at Imgur from the Seafort Museum in Vancouver