The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-09-19
ORDNANCE SHOPS !. IN FRANCE MAKE AMERICAN GUNS
Outcome of Entrance of This Country, They Materially Aid in Upkeep of Material Necessary for the Prose cution of the War.

Central France, Sept. 19-(Corres- pondence of The Associated Press)-l Artillery and airplanes are going to be two of the decisive factors in winning { the war, according to the military ex- perts, and here at this little interior town can be seen what the ordnance branch of the American army has bull. up in the last four months to keep up the steady flow of artillery arms, ammunition, machine guns, tanks and all the material of combat toward the fighting front
 It is oneof the mammoth institu- tons which has suddenly sprung up with the coming of the Americans and, since April last, 1t has spread over an area of several miles with two enormous gunshops, two similar shops for tanks and tractors, two more for assembling and repairing artillery of all kinds another for machine guns, rifles and small arms, with huge , foundries and forges for the casting. 7 Along with these are going up four great warehouses for housing of all kinds of ordnance material.
 The big government arsenal at Rock Island, H., is the only thing of the kind that compares in extent with this plant, and yet it is 90 per : cent, completed after four months of existence.
 There are two stages in the steady up-keep of the cannon and all kinds of weapons going forward to the fight ing lines. The first stage is in the zone of the advance, along with the army, where a number of ordnance shops are operated to meet immediate requirements in the field to remount crippled cannon and to get the guns back into use with the least possible delay, The shops move forward with the troops, with machinery tools, and all the stock and parts to do quick work.
 The larger stage of work, which IS not done in the face of the fighting, comes back here to the big shops equipped to do all kinds of extensive i,ordnance work, such as the re-boring of the heavy guns, the remounting Of the gun carriages and all classes or artillery work on a large scale.
 In the heavy and constant artillery actions now going on the big guns are mt to a severe test and there must De frequent re-tubing and re-rihing. The bigger a gun is the shorter IS Its lire for effective shooting. The l2-1nch gun has a life of $50 shoots; the sea- coast 14-inch gun, capable of shooting 21 miles. has a life of about 15O shots. The smaller French 75 is good for some 10000 rounds. But when the limit is reached the gun must come back here tS be made over. Its use as Al gun is in no way impaired, and with a new cylinder in the barrel, ,and new spiral rifling to keep the shell whirllng, the gun is as good as new.
 While this big institution is keeping up the steady supply of guns, large and small, in the fighting now going on, yet the main supply will sooner or later come from America when its vast productive resources get in ful operation. There are cheering reports of how this production Is fast increas- ing. particularly in machine guns. But big guns and their mammoth tractors cannot be turned out in a day ant after that is the problem of shipping such unwieldly monsters across tht Atlantic.
 So. for the present at least, mucf of the vast supply of guns, great an' small. moving forward to the hrlni line is of French pattern or Frenci make. The splendid artillery result in the recent fighting tell how thes guns are operated in American bat teries. And yet it is only fair to tn American fighting force to recognlz that they are not yet fully equippe' with their own arms, and that Iron this time forward there will be |. steady increase of American meta and American high explosive as weI as American airplanes in the crucia phases of the conflict.
 An imposing array of all the type of big guns now in use is to be see \ in the shops here with 4,O00 gun makers advancing them through a stages. On one side are the monste guns mounted on railway truck with inch, 10 inch and 12 inch r fles and the huge inch and 9.2 how ftzers drawn by tractors. Other form of this heavay artillerey are the 15 rnillimetre, the AZ inch, 5 inch and
 inch guns, and the field guns of tn famous French 75 pattern and tt 155 millimetre howitzers. They loo doubly monstrous in their war pain with fantastic camouflage smeare over rifles and huge armored truck
 The smallest field piece in this va
 arsenal is the little French 37 mill metre, or one pounder which, undo
 the Hague convention, is the min
 mum gun firing explosive shells. Eve
 in this worshop where the guns a
 being hurried forward to the fror
 one observes that the same Hagl
 convention which the enemy ignor