The Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 191?-19??, 1919-06-11
WAS TURNING OUT
Guns BY MILLION
United States Producing Arms at
High Speed When Fight
ing Ended.
WORK OF WINNING THE WAR
History Of Rifle Production SHOVE
Great Reeord-Many Tanks Under
Construction When Armistice
came-PlstoIs Efficient.

|
Washington, D. C.-Machine guns
and small arms produced by the mill
lions, ammunition turned out by tho
billions Of rounds and tanks built by
thousands when the armlstice ended
hOstilItles, furnish the subject Of chap
tiers just made public OF the war de-
partment's history Of the material"
side Of winning the war.
In regard to machine gun production.
about which such a hot controversy
waged In congress as a result Of the
failure Of the American army to adopt
for standard general use the Lewis
weapon used successfully abroad. the
report says manufacturing facilities
for machine guns In this country were
much more limited in extent than the
public had any notion of when the
United States entered the war or to-
day, and that there were at the out
break Of the war only two factories
which were actually producing ma
chine guns In any quantity at all.
Dearth Of Aircraft Guns.
The report says there was great
dearth Of heavy machine guns for air
craft work, to be synchronized with
prOpellers. The Browning aircraft gun
would have met the requirements but
1t would be long time before 1t could
be produced in quantity. In seeking
stop gap weapon until the Browning
could be ready, the ordnance depart
ment, by zone Of those surprising and
almost accidental successes" some
times encountered, found that a modl-
fed Marlin gun which could be quick
ly produced met all requirements.
The work of the BrownIngs is de-
clared to have been spectacular as
compared with any existing weapons
Of this character. Up to November IL
the production Of Browning rifles was
1928, majority Of which were In
France. In addition $4,000 Chauchat
guns had been purchased, so that
enough light automatic rifles were on
hand to supply 100 divisions, or an
army Of 100000 men. In the same
time 41,804 heavy Brownings and
enough Vlckers guns had been pro-
duced to make. with the HOtchziss
weapons purchased from the French,
total Of 54,627 Of this type, or
enough to equip 200 divisions, or an
army Of 100000.
Other production struggles described
include items varying in size from
trench knives to the 45-ton Mark VIII
tanks Of British design, of which I 800
were being constructed in cooperation
with the British and 1.450 additional
wholly by American enterprise.
On November II 81 tanks Of the
French six-ton type had been delivered
and by January 81 Of this year POI.
OF these six were shipped abroad.
Orders for 1000 Mark 1 light tanks
were Cancelled as were orders for IT,
DIS three-ton tanks, Is Of which had
been completed on November IL.
The history of the rife production,
including all of the considerations
which led to the adoption of the stand
lrdized British Enfield weapon for
American use, also is fully outlined. |
The department states that it sees no
'eason now to change its view that the
visest course was that which was fol-
owed. The total rife production In
he United States from the beginning
II the war up to November 8, 1918,
vas 2,506, 307, Of which a little more
han 100000 were Springfield rifles.
Pistols Of U. s. Type Valuable.
Considerable attention is devoted to
he production of automatic pistols
nd revolvers for the troops. Euro
can countries failed to appreciate the
alue Of a large caliber, hard-hitting
1eapOn of the American type and the
hief use of pistols and revolvers in
European armies had been as Orna-
lentS for officers uniforms, it is said,
ather than for active fighting.
With the standard army automatic
Is stated, "any average soldier with
verage training can hit what he
boots at In almost the first skirmlsh
t proved its superior usefulness in
rench fighting. Such incidents as
hat of the single American soldier
yho dispersed or killed whole squad
+ German bayoneteers which had sur
ounded him struck the enemy with
ear of Yankee prowess with the
istol."