page_title: Mitrailleuse
section_title: Preserved mitrailleuses
hierarchical_section_title: Mitrailleuse / Preserved mitrailleuses
caption_attribution_description: English: A Mitrailleuse on display at the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr in October 2011. This weapon was produced in 1869, and captured by Saxon troops in either 1870 or 1871.
context_page_description: A mitrailleuse is a type of volley gun with barrels of rifle calibre that can fire either rounds at once or in rapid succession. The earliest true mitrailleuse was invented in 1851 by Belgian Army captain Fafschamps, ten years before the advent of the Gatling gun. It was followed by the Belgian Montigny mitrailleuse in 1863. Then the French 25 barrel "Canon à Balles", better known as the Reffye mitrailleuse, was adopted in great secrecy in 1866. It became the first rapid-firing weapon deployed as standard equipment by any army in a major conflict when it was used during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71.
  A steel block containing twenty-five 13 mm centre-fire cartridges was locked against the breech before firing. With the rotation of a crank, the 25 rounds were discharged in rapid succession. The sustainable firing rate of the Reffye mitrailleuse was 100 rounds per minute and its maximum range was about 2,000 yd; a distance which placed their batteries beyond the reach of Prussian Dreyse needle rifle fire. Reffye mitrailleuses were deployed in six gun batteries and were manned by gunners as a form of special artillery.
context_section_description: Musée de l'Armée in the Hotel Des Invalides. Two mitrailleuses long mounted outdoors thus severely affected by rust.
  Musée royal de l’Armée et d'Histoire Militaire in Brussels
  Musee Militaire Vaudois, 1110, Morges, Switzerland. Complete Reffye mitrailleuse in exceptional like-new condition.
  Dreiecklandmuseum, 79423, Heitersheim (near Freiburg im Breisgau), Germany.
  Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden, Germany. See figure to the right.
  Polish Army Museum in Warsaw, Poland—mittrailleus named after general Louis Pailhou.
caption: A mittrailleuse in the Bundeswehr Military History Museum, Dresden, Germany.
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