Mitrailleuse

The mitrailleuse was a manually-fired volley gun originally developed in Belgium in the 1850s by Fafschamps and improved during the early 1860s by Christophe and Montigny. The French-designed Reffye mitrailleuse followed soon afterwards and was adopted by the French Army in 1865, with the personal support of Napoleon III. Initially kept under wraps as a secret weapon, it became widely used in battle by French artillery during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). Smaller numbers of other designs, including the Gatling gun, were also purchased by the French government during the latter part of that conflict. The Reffye mitrailleuse had initially been built in small numbers and in secrecy: only about 200 were available for field deployment in July 1870 at the beginning of the conflict. Historically, however, it was the first rapid-firing weapon to be deployed as standard equipment by any army in a major conflict. Although innovative, it failed as a tactical weapon because its operational usage and design were flawed. The word mitrailleuse nonetheless became the generic term for a machine gun in the French language, although the mitrailleuse itself was entirely manually-operated.