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Title:	GUN, MACHINE -  U.S. MACHINE RIFLE BENET-MERCIE MODEL 1909 .30 SN# 515
Maker/Manufacturer:	BENET-MERCIE
Date of Manufacture:	1913
Eminent Figure:
Catalog Number:	SPAR 1792
Measurements:	OL:127CM 50" BL: 59.1CM 23 3/8" 22 lbs.

Object Description:

U.S. MACHINE RIFLE BENET-MERCIE MODEL 1909 .30 SN# 515
Manufactured by Springfield Armory, Springfield, Ma. in 1913 - Standard gas-operated Model 1909 Benet-Mercie machine rifle. This is the Springfield Armory .30 caliber version of the Benet-Mercie. Cyclic rate of fire 400 rpm. Effective range 1,000 yards. Weapon has an overall length of 50", a barrel length of 23 3/8" and weighs approximately 22 lbs. Springfield manufactured 670 Army models and 400 Navy models. Equipped with monopod and bipod. The specimen is also equipped with a Warner-Swasey sight (SPAR-970).

Markings:
Receiver - left side: AUTOMATIC MACHINE RIFLE/CAL..30 MODEL OF 1909/NO.515/SPRINGFIELD ARMORY/PATENTED JULY 30, 1907. B.

SPAR-970 Warner-Swasey sight attached.

ANNUAL REPORTS:
AR, 1910 - "Specifications for the automatic machine rifle, cal..30, model 1909, have also been prepared."
AR, 1911 - "The preparation of tools, fixtures, dies, etc., for manufacture of the automatic machine rifle, cal..30, model of 1909, is now practically completed, and it is expected that the first 100 guns of this model will be completed by October 1, 1911....
Locking device for elevating mechanism of the automatic machine rifle, cal..30, model of 1909' design adopted.... Blank firing attachment for the automatic machine rifle, cal..30, model of 1909."
AR, 1912 - "The preparation of the tools, fixtures, etc., for the manufacture of the automatic machine rifle, cal..30, model of 1909, was completed and 200 of these rifles have been manufactured.
This model of automatic machine rifle has now been issued to the mobile army to replace the Maxim automatic machine guns formerly used. The manufacture of this rifle necessitated the installation of a complete plant for the fabrication of the metal feed strip. The plant installed has a capacity of 1,000 feed strips per day of eight (8) hours."
This model of automatic machine rifle has now been issued to the mobile army to replace the Maxim automatic machine guns formerly used. The manufacture of this rifle necessitated the installation of a complete plant for the fabrication of the metal feed strip. The plant has a capacity of 1,000 feed strips per day of eight (8) hours....
In comparing the costs of manufacturing at this Armory with the cost of similar material purchased from outside establishments, it is interesting to note the cost of the automatic machine rifle, cal..30, model of 1909, as manufactured here as as purchased from civilian establishments both in this country and abroad. A rifle of this model complete in every respect including the royalty and its proportional part of spare parts, accessories and arm chests costs as follows:
Springfield Armory - $559.28
Colt's P.F.A. Mfg. Co. - $746.22
Benet & Mercie - $915.81
...Endurance tests of automatic machine rifle, cal..30, model of 1909, of Colt and Springfield Armory manufacture have been made involving the expenditure of more than 200,000 rounds of service ammunition."
AR, 1913 - "During the year, 250 automatic machine rifles, cal..30, model of 1909, have been proof fired and targeted and 335 telescopic sights have been tested and attached to automatic rifle....
A Maxim silencer was tested on the automatic machine rifle."
AR, 1914 - "A total of 615 automatic rifles have been overhauled, equipped with new parts and proof fired. 245 of these belonged to the Navy and Marine Corps....
A test was made of two Maxim Silencers for the Auto. machine rifle, Cal. .30, Model of 1909. Neither silencer was quite satisfactory but it was recommended that 4 silencers be strengthened and attached to barrels and submitted to the board for testing machine guns for further tests.
Two silencers were presented for test, A and B, the former, containing 10 chambers, designed to allow the gases to be released very quickly and at comparatively low velocity, and the latter, containing 12 chambers, designed to check the gases more than silencer A.
As a result of the test it is believed that silencer A is more satisfactory for the service.
The reduction of sound is abo
Notes: "BENET-MERCIE, MODEL 1909 - The Benet-Mercie machine rifle was adopted as the Model 1909. This was a gas-operated gun of the Hotchkiss type, using a sheet-steel cartridge feed strip holding thirty rounds. The Benet-Mercie and all later caliber .30 types were chambered for the caliber .30 Model 1906 and its various modifications. The gun, with bipod, weighed thirty pounds. These machine rifles were made at Springfield Armory for both the Army and Navy. On June 30, 1915, the Army had 1,236 machine guns in service, including 287 Maxims, Model 1904; 670 Benet-Mercie, Model 1909; 148 Colt-Browning Models 1895, 1902, or 1904; and 131 Gatlings." - Col. B.R. Lewis

Ordnance officials were well aware of the deficiencies of the standard army machine gun. In 1908 ordnance personnel had tested three lightweight machine guns - the DeKnight, the Benet-Mercie, and a light Maxim - at the Springfield Armory. The Maxim gun was withdrawn from the competition, but the DeKnight gun and the Benet-Mercie, an air-cooled gun weighing about 22 lbs., was judged superior to the DeKnight and the equal of the Maxim gun in rapidity and accuracy of fire.
Major George W. McIver, the commandant of the School of Musketry, took the Benet- Mercie to the maneuver camp at Atascadero for an assessment of its tactical value. Under his supervision the new gun was put through a series of tests to evaluate its portability, accuracy, and rate of fire. In the last test the Benet-Mercie competed with the Model 1904 Maxim; both guns fired at a group of 110 irregularly mixed prone, kneeling, and standing figures at a distance of approximately 1,000 yards. Each gun was allowed two minutes for firing, which favored the Benet-Mercie, since the air-cooled gun did not have time to overheat. The results of the test - 40.6 percent hits of the standard gun and 43.8 percent hits for the challenger - indicated the Benet-Mercie was as accurate as the Maxim gun at what cavalry officers believed was the maximum range from which the guns would be used. According to General Crozier the Benet-Mercie was "mechanically and tactically suitable for adoption in place of the Maxim automatic machine gun." Captain John Henry Parker reportedly was of the opinion "that the Benet-Mercie machine gun has the most perfect mechanism of any machine gun yet invented."

"Although fairly small the U.S. Army was, comparatively, the best equipped of all. By 1914 it had roughly one thousand automatic weapons for an army of 95,000 men. Some were Maxims but the vast majority were the Benet-Mercie Model 1909. It was not, properly speaking, a machine gun but an automatic rifle mounted on a tripod. The Benet-Mercie was known in France as the Hotchkiss Portative (or portable). It had a knack of performing well in weapons tests and failing completely in action. Troops loved it in peacetime because it was light, hated it in wartime because it was useless." - Geoffrey Perret

"During March of that year (1916), the U.S. Thirteenth Cavalry, under General 'Black Jack' Pershing, was sent down to the New Mexican border to deal with threatening gestures made by the Mexican insurrectionist Pancho Villa. On the night of March 24, Villa led a daring raid across the Mexican border into the town of Columbus, New Mexico, and attacked the Thirteenth Cavalry bivouacked there. The nation was outraged; the United States had been invaded.
Reports came from the border states that during the firefight, the general's (Crozier) machine gun of choice, the Benet-Mercie, repeatedly jammed. The cavalry was almost defenseless against Villa, who was armed with Maxims that didn't jam. For Crozier critics, the inference was clear: this would never have happened if Crozier had armed the cavalry with the Lewis gun.
Actually, the Benet-Mercie was getting bad press. A year later, it was demonstrated that the Benet-Mercie machine guns down in New Mexico had performed fairly efficiently and with few
"The Benet-Mercie remained our standard automatic machine gun until 1917. It saw limited service at the landings at Vera Cruz in 1913 and fell into general disrepute during the border trouble in 1916 with the Mexican bandit, Panhco Villa. The Benet-Mercie failed to operate during Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico. The alibi given by the machine gun squads was that the weapons could not be operated after dark because of their intricate system of loading. Newspapers throughout the United States had a field day with this statement and wrote many sarcastic stories, calling the Benet-Mercie the Army's famous 'daylight gun' and suggested that the rules of warfare be rewritten so that no fighting take place except in daylight in order that our machine guns could participate." - Chinn

"My father was a 2/Lt. at Springfield Armory in 1917, assigned to the Ordnance Board then testing machine guns. In the enclosed photo, he is the one with the silly grin, behind the Benet-Mercie, with 2/Lt. 'Gus' True loading and watching those tricky upside-down Hotchkiss clips....
I have all my father's World War I negatives, including others from Springfield firing the Colt-Vickers and Savage-Lewis guns. He went on to the Coast Artillery School at Fort Monroe to play with 12 & 14 inch disappearing-carriage guns." - Donald B. Webster

"...Meanwhile an American, Laurence V. Benet, son of the respected Civil War-era Chief of Ordnance General Stephen V. Benet, had assumed control of the French firm Hotchkiss et Cie, which had first risen to prominence during the heyday of the hand-operated machinegun.
As noted, Hotchkiss automatic machine guns had also been featured in US trials for many years, and in 1909 a 'simplified' version of the French light Hotchkiss machine gun, designed by Benet and his assistance Henri Mercie, was adopted with slight modifications as the 'Benet-Mercie Machine Rifle Model of 1909' in calibre .30-06. From a design point of view it was not a particularly good weapon, being quite complex with a somewhat fragile 'strip' feed system. It also proved to be difficult to operate in the dark unless gunners were very well trained, as was revealed when Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916. It was reported that some of the US troops were not able to load their Benet-Mercie guns in the dark and did not get to fire, which led to sarcastic suggestions in the press that the rules of war be rewritten to preclude night operations, so the US machineguns could take part." - Goldsmith

On March, 1,500 Mexican raiders under Pancho Villa rode into Columbus, New Mexico, home of the 13th Cavalry Regiment. The regulars were armed with the Benet-Mercie which jammed, misfired, or proved impossible to reload. Villa's raiders killed eight soliders and nine civilians, wounded at least 40 other people, shot up the town and returned untroubled across the border.
The alibi given by the gunners was that the weapon was too complicated to fire after dark. Newspapers had a field day with these remarks calling it the "daylight gun."
According to Colonel George Chinn, "Discontent in the press with our inadequate equipment was further increased when a short time later efficient American-made Colt guns (model '95) chambered for our caliber .30/06 ammunition, as well as medium and heavy Hotchkiss '97 machine guns were captured from the Mexican guerrillas by our troops. The American Army's commander, Gen. John J. Pershing, sent them to the West Point Museum.

"As summarized by a young General Staff officer, Capt. Douglas MacArthur, the replies to the War Department questionnaire did not favor the Benet-Met-Mercie. The army had adopted a weapon of radical design with capabilities that promised exceptional military usefulness; its performance, however, did not match design capabilities. In the wake of the failure of the Benet-Mercie, the Ordnance Department would proceed with deliberation in selecting a replacement." - David A. Armstrong

"Shortly after the Army had adopted the Maxim Model 1904 they began to look for a second lighter machine gun which could accompany infantry units anyplace they went and complement the heavy Maxim gun in general service. Laurence Benet and Henri Mercie of the French Hotchkiss Co. had designed a gun whick looked like it could fulfill the requirement, so the Army tested it and subsequently adopted it in 1909. Although these and any other Army trials are open to anyone who wants to get in them, nobody but Hotchkiss submitted a gun which the Army considered worth serious consideration.
The Benet-Mercie Model 1909 was a 33 pound air-cooled, gas-operated machine gun chambered to fire the U.S. cal..30 Model 1906 cartridge. It was fed with the metallic strips of cartridges used in all the Hotchkiss machine guns. This was one of the first light machine guns adopted by any army, and its infantry accompanying tactical role was very advanced for the time. It was also was of the first machine guns designed to be fired from the shoulder off a bipod mount, although the gun also has a tripod mount that could be used when desired. (The tripod weighed over 50 pounds and was not used very much because it was mechanically impractical and weak.) The Army purchased the right to manufacture the Benet-Mercie, and Springfield Armory made 670 of these guns for the Army and another 400 for the Navy and Marine Corps.
The Benet-Mercie was in general use in the Army during the 1916 border trouble with Mexico, but reports of its combat use there indicated the gun was not functioning properly. Investigation revealed the chief problem was that the 30 round metallic feed strips used in the gun which were supposed to be fed into the with the cartridges down were causing nasty jams when inexperienced gunners put them in the gun with the cartridges up. Lt. Julian S. Hatcher, (later a Maj. Gen.) was sent to the border to find out what was basically wrong, and he immediately saw the problem was that the gunners were almost untrained. Right then and there Lt. Hatcher set up the U.S. Army's first machine gun schools, and a little intensive instruction quickly corrected all the Benet-Mercie's problems. In the hands of trained crews the Benet-Mercie proved to be a very effective weapon.
The first U.S. Army troops sent to France in World War I took their Benet-Mercie light machine gun with them, but they were withdrawn as soon as they got to France because they were considered unsuitable for use in the trenches. It was also believed that there would be insurmountable spare parts and other supply problems if the guns were used. There guns were shipped back to the United States and they, along with all the other available Benet-Mercies, were used as training weapons. The Regular Army and Marine Corps stationed outside the war zone continued to use their Benet-Mercies until the end of the war s
"6. The barrel should be cooled by means of a cooling sponge after 300 rounds of continuous firing. The rifle may be fired 1000 rounds without cooling, without serious injury to the barrel, but this should be avoided as far as possible." - Colvin

References:
Armstrong, David A. BULLETS AND BUREAUCRATS: THE MACHINE GUN AND THE UNITED STATES ARMY, 1861-1916. Greenwood Press. Westport, Ct. 1982.
Chinn, George M. THE MACHINE GUN. Vol. I. Department of the Navy. Washington, D.C. 1951.
Colvin, Fred H. & Ethan Viall. UNITED STATES RIFLES AND MACHINE GUNS. Wolfe Publishing Co., Inc. 1984.
Goldsmith, Dolf. THE GRAND OLD LADY OF NO MAN'S LAND: THE VICKERS MACHINEGUN. Collector Grade Publications. Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. 1994.
Hallahan, William H. MISFIRE: THE HISTORY OF HOW AMERICA'S SMALL ARMS HAVE FAILED OUR MILITARY. Charles Scribner's Sons. N.Y., N.Y. 1994.
Lewis, Col. B.R. MACHINE GUNS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1895-1944. The American Ordnance Association. Washington, D.C.
Schreier, Konrad F. GUIDE TO UNITED STATES MACHINE GUNS. Normount Technical Publications. Wickenburg, Az. 1975.

See, Bart Skelton, THE BENET-MERCIE REVISITED. Guns and Ammo. April, 2007.

DESCRIPTION AND DIRECTIONS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE BENET-MERCIE AUTOMATIC MACHINE RIFLE, MODEL OF 1909, CALIBER .30. Paris, France. 1910.