Many of these made their way to the U.S. via Francis Bannerman and Sons, the famous early military surplus dealer. You should find them in the old catalogs which abound both in original and reprint form. I don't know what Bannerman said of them, but a US dealer I asked told me they were used in the bows of small landing boats when conducting an amphibious assault. They are supposedly of French or Belgian manufacture. I've seen enough of them at U.S. antique gun shows to think that Bannerman must have imported at least several, if not dozens of these odd weapons.
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