| Fusil M-1908 "Mondragón" | |
|---|---|
| Type | Semi-automatic rifle Automatic rifle Light machine gun |
| Place of origin | Mexico[1] |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1887-1949 (Mexico) 1932-present (foreign users) |
| Used by | See Users |
| Wars | Mexican Revolution World War I Second Sino-Japanese War World War II Ecuadorian–Peruvian War Chinese Civil War Korean War Vietnam War |
| Production history | |
| Designer | General Manuel Mondragón |
| Designed | 1887 |
| Manufacturer | Dirección General de Industria Militar del Ejército Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft |
| Produced | 1887 |
| Number built | 1,175,400 |
| Variants | Automatic rifle Carbine Sniper rifle Light machine gun. |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 4.18 kg (9 lb 3oz) empty |
| Length | 1105 mm (43.5 in) |
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| Cartridge | 7 x 57 mm Mauser |
| Caliber | 7x57mm Mauser |
| Action | gas-operated, rotating bolt |
| Rate of fire | 750 - 1400 rounds/min depending on variant |
| Muzzle velocity | 710 m/s (2300 ft/s) |
| Effective range | 200 m to 550 m sight marks |
| Maximum range | 900m (984 yd) |
| Feed system | 8 round box, 10 round box, 20 round box, 30 round drum, 100 round drum |
| Sights | Iron sights or Scope |
The Mondragón was a Mexican battle rife and the world's first[2]automatic rifle. It was designed by Mexican general Manuel Mondragón and was the first fully automatic firearm able to be operated by a single rifleman.
Mondragón began his work in 1882 and patented the weapon in 1887. It was gas-operated with a cylinder and piston arrangement, now very familiar but unusual at the time, and rotating bolt, locked by lugs in helical grooves in the receiver; it was also possible to operate it as a simple straight-pull bolt action. The caliber was 7mm (.284 in) Mauser and the rifle was available with either an 8-round or 20-round box magazine, or a 100-round drum magazine (for variants produced after 1910).
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The Mondragón rifle was known for its stopping power and for being very accurate when used as a semiautomatic firearm but suffered from high recoil and poor accuracy[2] when fired on full automatic. In 1910, a light machine gun variant with a heavier barrel and a redesigned mechanism to improve full automatic accuracy coupled to a 100-round drum was manufactured for the Mexican military. The Mexican Army the improved light machine gun variant of the Mondragón up until 1943, when it was replaced with the Mendoza M-1943 general purpose infantry machine gun.
The first versions of the rifle had trouble working in muddy and moist environments, German troops using the Mondragón rifle in Western Europe had difficulties with the rifle jamming while used in trench warfare. Although they did not function well in the thick moist mud and dirt of Central Europe, they proved to work well in hot and arid climates such as the North of Mexico. This meant the Mondragón did not have a problem with dirt trapped inside, instead having more of a problem with moisture, as it would still work well with dry sand and dust in its mechanism, although the Mexican manufactured models fixed his problem with slight improvements to the firing mechanism and the barrel.
Because of the instability leading up to the Mexican Revolution, few facilities in Mexico were able to mass-produce it and those that could were not able to shut down their assembly plants for the required retooling time needed to initiate production of the new rifles. Mondragón attempted to interest a U.S. firm, without success as they thought that semi-automatic rifles were not practical and could not be produced in the numbers that Mexico wanted. He then turned to Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG), of Neuhausen am Rheinfall, who agreed to manufacture the rifle. In 1901, the first rifles were shipped to Mexico and issued to the army as the Fusil Mondragón Modelo 1900 with an 8 round magazine. In 1908, during the Mexican Revolution, a completely Mexican manufactured version was again issued to the Mexican Army as the Fusil Porfirio Diaz Sistema Mondragón Modelo 1908 this time with the 20 round magazine. By 1910 adequate facilities were completed in the Mexican cities of Veracruz, Ciudad Juárez, Guanajuato, Guadalajara and Mexico City where they were produced until 1943.
With World War I, Germany bought the remainder of SIG's stock that had not been sent to Mexico (which was about 3,000 of the 5,000 rifles), issuing them to the infantry, where they proved highly susceptible to mud and dirt in the trenches (a problem familiar even to less complex bolt action rifles such as the Ross). Instead, realizing their potential as portable yet powerful automatic weapons, they were withdrawn by the German high command and reissued to aircraft crews as the Flieger-Selbstlade-Karabiner Mondragon, Modell 1915 (Pilot's Selfloading Carbine Model 1915), until enough numbers of machine guns were available. Many of the Mondragon rifles were used with a 30-round helical magazine, known as Trommelmagazin für F.-S.-K.. This helical magazine was patented by Friedrich Blum; the units were tougher than expected. The 32-round drum magazine used by the Artillerie-Modell Pistole 08 (and later by the MP18) was a direct descendant. Few of the German versions with the helical magazine survive. Other Mondragon rifles appear to have been used by the navy.[3]
In the early 1930s, the Mexican government decided it could make a profit trying to market the weapon on the international stage. At the time the Mondragón was still quite advanced, with its only true rival being the BAR. It was sold to many Mexican allied nations including Chile, Brazil, Perú, and the Republic of China. The Weimar Republic and later Nazi Germany purchased rights to license manufacture the weapon along with Austria and Japan. Japan however, manufactured less than five thousand.
A number of examples rifles made their way into the Lithuanian Army by World War II. Several copies, called Mandragon by the Lithuanian military, could be found in 1936 and 1939 armament lists.
