Manufacture d'Armes de Chatellerault Berthier M1916 Mousqueton d'artillerie Complete Specs and Full Gun Specifications

The Berthier was originally introduced as a supplement to the Lebel rifle, which, though revolutionary, was slow to reload and operate, and, thus, relatively unpopular with soldiers. Attempts were made to make the Lebel into a carbine, but this rendered its tube magazine to have too small of a capacity, so other designs were sought, and the Berthier was chosen, primarily due to its ease of reloading while on horseback. The Berthier weapons were invented by a French civilian engineer in the Algerian railways, named Emile Berthier, whose first short carbine designed to arm cavalry troops was adopted by the French Army on March 14, 1890. As the high Command appreciated the performance of the Mle 1890 Berthier carbine, a second version was specifically produced for artillery service, the " Mousqueton Mle 1892" which could mount a short blade bayonet and thus had a re-designed forend stock. However it continued to feature the 3-round En-bloc clip of the Model 1890 carbine.