Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-09-18

| up keep OF the cannon and all kinds Of
| weapons going forward TO tho fightfng
| lines The first stage 10 In the zone OF
the advance. along with the army
where a number of ordnance shops are
| operated to meet immediate require
ments 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.
Tho larger stage OF work, which is
not done In the face Of the hShtins'
| comes back here to the big shops
equipped to do all kinds OF extensive
| ordnance work, such as the re-boring
OF the heavy guns. tho remountinS OF
| the gun carriages, and all classes OF
| artillery work on q large scale.
In the heavy and constant artillery
actions now going on the big guns are
| put to severe test and there must be
| frequent re-tubinsy and rc-riiiing. The
| bigger a gun Is the shorter IL its life
for effective shooting. The l2-inch gun
has a life of $50 shots. the sea-coast
li.inch gun. rcnpablc OF shooting
twenty-one miles. has a life OF about
! $50 shots. The smaller French - is
good for some 10000 rounds. Bit when
! the limit Is reached tho gun must come
| back here to be made over. It's use as
gun is In no way impaired and with
a new cylinder in the barrel and new
spiral riding to keep the shell 'whirl-
ing. 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 como from America when its
vast productive resources get in full
! operation. There are cheering reports
of how this production is fast increas-
ing. particularly in machine-Suns. But
big guns and their mamoth tractors
can not hc>turned out in day and
after that is the problem Of shipping
such urwieidy monsters across the
Atlantic.
So, for the present at least. much OF
the vast supply of guns. great and
small moving forward to the, firms
line Is Of French pattern or French
make. The splendid artillery results
in the recent fighting tell how these
guns are operated in American batter
les. And yet, it is only fair to the Amer
lean fighting force to recognize that
they are not yet fully equipped with
their own arms. and that from this
time forward there will be a steady
increase OF American metal and Amer
lean high explosive as well as Amer
iccan airplanes in the crucial phases
of the conflict.
An imposing array OF all the types
Of big guns now in use IS to be seen in
the shops here with 1000 gunmakers
advancing them thru all stages. On
ono side are the monster guns mounted
on railway trucks with S-inch, 1o-inch
and i2-inch rifles and the huge S-inch
and % howitzers drawn by tractors.
Other forms OF this heavy artillery
are the l55 millimetre. the 4.7-lnch. s.
inch and S-inch guns. TO the field guns
Of the famous French as pattern and
the 155-millimetre howitzers. They
look doubly rnonstrous in their war
paint. with fantastic caroufiase
srneared over rifles and huge arnored
trucks.
The smallest field piece in this vast
arsenal is the little French 3I-miill-
metre, or one FOUNDER which. under
the Hague convention. is the minimum
gun firing explosive shells. Even In
this workshop where the guns are be-
ing hurried forward to the front, one
observes that the same Hague conven-
ton which the enemy ignores Is oetns
observed by the allies.