There was even a considerable use of captured war stock with German K98 rifles in 8mm Mauser serving alongside French rifles in 7.5 and 8mm Lebel and American rifles in. 30 M2, and huge assortment of smaller units forming or reforming from resistance groups and soldiers released from captivity.
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Its military structure contained 13 Foreign Legion and Free French divisions rapidly re-equipping with and initial American donation of 50,000 Garand rifles and 75,000 M1 Carbines, 6 Colonial divisions equipped with approximately 60,000 Berthier and M1936 rifles and carbines, tens of thousands of Enfield and M1903 rifles in.
In the winter 1945 the French military had a military establishment that was rapidly trying to rebuild and re-equip itself. French tactics differed by issuing grenade launchers in much larger numbers than other armies, but these were not available in anything like the numbers needed. As a result the French forces were left to use US tactics but without the rapid fire reliability of a semi-automatic work. While on paper many French units were built around standard US Army division packs, in reality weapons such as the Garand were in short supply and even the M1 Carbine, used the by French as a frontline weapon, was not received in sufficient numbers. This was a reasonable request and many small contract orders from manufacturers directly before the war (and before American involvement) had served to cause considerable confusion in the 'Cash and Carry' and 'Lend Lease' programs. American supply commands had requested that the Free French avoid purchasing weapons on the open market to avoid disrupting supply chains. This left the French in a desperate situation. In particular they stole all of the MAS M le 1940 prototypes. Unfortunately the resistance ransacked the plant, causing more damage in a single day then the Germans did in four years. The MAS armory was left untouched by retreating Germans in 1944 and was captured by French resistance. The MAS M le 40 could not re-cock a hammerless striker like used on the MAS 1936 (the rotary action reduces reliability in autoloaders and requires considerably more gas power to actuate) so it used a traditional hammer. Hammer-fired and open-bolt weapons could, if dropped with a loaded chamber, go off. French weapons also had (at that time) the advantage of being all hammerless designs. This doctrine was based on two facts: that soldiers using weapons with safeties tended to depend on them rather than good training, causing injuries when the safety failed or when it was not deployed, and that early rifle safeties tended to fail when the weapon was in poor repair. Instead they would close the bolt of their weapon on an empty chamber with a loaded magazine. According to French doctrine, soldiers were not suppose to carry their weapons with a loaded chamber. Previous French rifles did not use any form of safety as a matter of policy.
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The M le 1940 was unique for French weapons in that it was equipped with a manual safety.