The Hotchkiss Universal Submachine Gun: The Folding Frenchman
Ever wished you could fold your gun in half to make it easier to carry? Well, you aren’t the only one. A product of an odd time in firearms history, the folding Hotchkiss Universal Type subgun was an interesting and forgotten piece of the Cold War arsenal.
The French firm of Hotchkiss (officially Societe des Armes a Feu Portatives Hotchkiss et Cie)
was a well-known and reasonably successful maker of machine guns and automobiles in the first half of the 20th Century. Hotchkiss made some of the first machine guns used by the US military in the 1900s.
After WWII however, the once-great company had fallen into decline and gambling on a new series of designs to keep their name relevant. The recently ended Second World War had been one of blitzkrieg, fast movements, and paratroopers. No longer would soldiers arrive on the battlefield on the backs of horses, but would clamber out of armored vehicle hatches, jump from airplane doors, and from the sides of helicopters.
The gun of the future would need to be effective, select-fire, and by all accounts as compact as possible. Enter the Universal.
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