1885 Mannlicher Self-Loading Rifle
In 1885 Ferdinand Mannlicher made an experimental self-loader based on work begun in 1883 in both semi-automatic and fully automatic modes. It was an impractical failure due to fouling by its black powder ammunition, but it influenced later designs. Furthermore, Mannlicher produced smokeless powder automatic rifles from the early 1890s onwards until his death in 1904.[1][2][3]
Cei-Rigotti
One of the world's first automatic rifles was the Italian Cei-Rigotti. Introduced in 1900, these 6.5mm Carcano or 7.65×53mm gas-operated, selective-fire carbines attracted considerable attention at the time.[4][5] They used 10-, 20- and 50-round box magazines.[5] The Cei-Rigotti had several failings, including frequent jams and erratic shooting.[5] In the end, no Army took an interest in the design and the rifle was abandoned before it could be further developed.[5] Although the rifle was never officially adopted by any military, it was tested extensively by the Italian Army during the lead-up to the First World War.[6]
Chauchat
The Chauchat, designed in 1907, was the first automatic rifle to be adopted by a military. Its official design was the Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG. It was placed into French Infantry in 1916, and was used by the French army in the First World War. The Chauchat in 8mm Lebel was also extensively used in 1917–18 by the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.), where it was officially designated as the "Automatic Rifle, Model 1915 (Chauchat)".[citation needed]
Lewis Gun
The Lewis Gun was invented in 1911 by Isaac Newton Lewis and first mass-produced in Belgium in 1913 for the .303 British cartridge, and widely used by the British army in the First World War, both by infantry and fitted to aircraft. Pan magazines are secured above the breech, holding either 47 or 97 rounds. Cooling fins surround the barrel. The weapon is gas operated and fires automatically at 500-600 rounds per minute.
More than 50,000 Lewis guns were produced during WW1, becoming the most common automatic weapon used by British and American troops. Although superseded by the Bren gun by 1939, nearly 60,000 Lewis guns were refurbished and reissued to British forces after the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940.
Fedorov Model 1916 Automatic Rifle
The Fedorov Avtomat (also anglicized as Federov, Russian: Автомат Фёдорова) or FA was a select-fire, crew-served automatic rifle and was one of the first practical automatic rifles, designed by Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov in 1915 and produced in the Russian Empire and later in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. A total of 3,200 Fedorov rifles were manufactured between 1915 and 1924 in the city of Kovrov; the vast majority of them were made after 1920. The weapon saw limited combat in World War I, but was used more substantially in the Russian Civil War and in the Winter War. In 1916, the Weapons Committee of the Russian Army made a decision to order no less than 25,000 Fedorov automatic rifles. In the summer of 1916, a company from the 189th Izmail Regiment was equipped with 8 Fedorov Avtomats. Trained in tactics with the new weapon, they concluded that the Fedorov worked best as a crew served weapon. The gunner armed with the Fedorov and an ammo bearer armed with an Arisaka rifle. As both weapons used the same ammo and same 5 round stripper clips, this allowed for the greatest flexibility. It also allowed for the ammo bearer to fire defensively, while the gunner reloaded. It was also recommended that the primary mode of fire be in semi-automatic, as the Fedorov's would rapidly overheat in full-auto. Some consider it to be an "early predecessor" or "ancestor" to the modern assault rifle,[7][8][9][10] while others believe that the Fedorov Avtomat was the world's first assault rifle.
M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle
The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) was one of the first practical automatic rifles. The BAR made its successful combat debut in World War I, and approximately 50,000 were made before the war came to an end.[11][12] The BAR arose from the concept of "walking fire", an idea urged upon the Americans by the French who used the Chauchat light machine gun to fulfill that role.[11] The BAR never entirely lived up to the designer's hopes; being neither a rifle nor a machinegun.[11] "For its day, though, it was a brilliant design produced in record time by John Browning, and it was bought and used by many countries around the world. It was the standard squad light automatic of the U.S. infantry during World War II and saw use in every theater of war."[11] The BAR was praised for its reliability and stopping power. "The US forces abandoned the BAR in the middle 1950s, though it was retained in reserve stocks for several years; it survived in smaller countries until the late 1970s."[11]
