The Darne Mle 1918 was a French machine gun produced by Darne.
History[]
The Darne firm of St. Étienne, primarily a manufacturer of sporting shotguns, acquired a license to produce the Lewis gun for aircraft during World War I. However, production of the Lewis proved to be expensive and sluggish, so Darne set about designing a cheaper, simpler aircraft gun that could be mass produced with ease. The resultant weapon was the Darne machine gun. It was trialed by the French Army in 1917 and accepted into service in August 1918 as the Mle 1918. However, full production had barely begun by the time the war ended in November, and thus the Darne was never fielded in large numbers during the war.
The Darne continued to be produced into the 1920s for French aircraft, but saw little actual use. The Darne company therefore turned their attention to the international market and offered the Darne gun to other military forces; many of the existing guns were converted into light machine guns for infantry use, but were commercially unsuccessful. In 1929, a variant in .303 caliber was produced for British Army trials, but the gun arrived too late in Britain to be admitted for testing and was rejected. The Royal Air Force trialed this version in 1934, but found it was prone to stoppages during tests.
In 1935, the Darne was phased out of French service in favor of the MAC 1934. As modern fighter aircraft began to appear, the role of the aircraft observer was eliminated and so was the requirement for the Darne.
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