after world war i, the french military sought to replace the 8mm lebel cartridge, which was poorly suited to large-capacity rifle magazines and to automatic or semi-automatic weapons. after considerable delay, a modern 7.5mm mle 1929 rimless cartridge was finally introduced for the fm 24/29 light machine gun. berthier rifles were converted ("fusil mle 1907/15-m34") or newly manufactured ("fusil mle 1934") to make use of the new round. however, this was merely an interim measure, as the french army adopted the mas-36 as its new standard bolt-action rifle. in the end, the production of converted mle 1907/15-m34 berthier rifles was limited to approximately 80,000 units.