{"product_id":"hotchkiss-machine-guns","title":"Hotchkiss Machine Guns","description":"\u003cp\u003eCreated by a long-forgotten Austrian nobleman, Adolf Odkolek von Augezd, the air-cooled Hotchkiss machine gun was the first to function effectively by tapping propellant gas from the bore as the gun fired. Although the Hotchkiss would be overshadowed by the water-cooled Maxim and Vickers Guns, it proved its effectiveness during the Russo-Japanese War. The gun, quirky though it was, was successful enough to persuade Laurence Benét and Henri Mercié to develop the \u003ci\u003eModèle Portative\u003c\/i\u003e: a man-portable version which, it was hoped, could move with infantrymen as they advanced. Later mounted on tanks and aircraft, it became the first automatic weapon to obtain a ‘kill’ in aerial combat. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Though it served the French and US armies during World War I (and also the British in areas where French and British units fought alongside each other), the Odkolek-Hotchkiss system was to have its longest-term effect in Japan. Here, a succession of derivatives found favour in theatres of operations in which water-cooling could be more of a liability than an asset. When US forces landed on Saipan, Guam and Iwo Jima, battling their way from island to island across the Pacific, it was the ‘Woodpecker’ – the Type 92 Hotchkiss, with its characteristically slow rate of fire – which cut swathes through their ranks. Supported by contemporary photographs and full-colour illustrations, this title explores the exciting and eventful history of the first successful gas-operated machine gun.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57310329241982,"sku":"NW9781472836168","price":12.78,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781472836168.jpg?v=1778552360","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/hotchkiss-machine-guns","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}