The
Chauchat, named after its main contributor Colonel Louis Chauchat, was the standard machine rifle or
light machine gun of the
French Army during
World War I (1914–18). Its official designation was "
Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG" (in English: "
Machine Rifle Model 1915 CSRG"). Beginning in June 1916, it was placed into regular service with French infantry, where the troops called it the
FM Chauchat. The Chauchat machine rifle 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)". A total of 262,000 Chauchat machine rifles were manufactured between December 1915 and November 1918, including 244,000 chambered for the
8mm Lebel service cartridge, making it the most widely manufactured automatic weapon of World War I. The armies of eight other nations – Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Serbia – also used the Chauchat machine rifle in fairly large numbers during and after World War I.