The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-06-12
United States Producing Arms at
High Speed When Fight
ing Ended.
WORK OF WINNING THE WAR
History Of Rifle Production Shove
Great Record-Many Tanks Under
Construction When Armistice
Came-Plstois Efficient


and small arms produced by the mil
lions, ammunition turned out by tn,
billions Of rounds and tanks built BY
thousands when the armistice ended
lostilities, furnish the subject Of chap
.ers just made public Of the war de
partment's history Of the material
aide Of winning the war.
In regard to machine gun production,
! about which such hot controversy
waged In congress as 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
NSNA IL VI AASd'J ihoNhhhC suns LII dAA
craft work, to be synchronized with
propellers. The Browning aircraft gun
would have met the requirements, but
it would be long time before it could
be produced in quantity. In seeking
a stop gap weapon until the Browning
could be ready, the ordnance depart
ment, by zone of those surprising and
OH
times encountered found that a modi-
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 II
the production Of Browning rifles was
52,238, a majority of which were In
France. In addition 10000 Chauchat
guns had been purchased, so that
enough light automatic rifles were on
hand to supply 100 divisions, or an
army of 3,500,000 men. In the same
time 41.S04 heavy Brownings and |
enough Vickers guns had been pro-
duced to make. with the Hotchkiss
weapons purchased from the French, |
a 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 1900
were being constructed in cooperation
with the British and 1450 additional
wholly by American enterprise.
On November II "a tanks of the
French six-ton type had been delivered
and by January 81 of this year 291
Of these six were shipped abroad.
Orders for 1000 Mark 1 light tanks
were cancelled as were orders for 49,
)15 three-tOn tanks. Is of which had
been completed on November H.
The history Of the rifle production, I
all of the considerations
which led to the adoption of the stand
ardized British Enfield weapon for :
American use, also is fully outlined. 4
The department states that it sees no
'eason now to change it's view that the
yiSest course was that which was fol- '
owed. The total rifle production in I
he United States from the beginning :
# the war up to November 8, 1918,
vas 2,5O6,307, of which q little more
han 100000 were Springfield rifles. II
Pistols Of U. s. Type Valuable. r
Considerable attention is devoted to :
he production of automatic pistols Z
nd revOlvers for the troops Euro I
can countries failed to appreciate the
alue of large caliber, hard-hitting =
-eapon of the American type and the :
hief use Of pistols and revolvers in !,
European armies had been as Orna-
tents for officers uniforms, it is said, 6;
ither than for active fighting. .
With the standard army automatic &
is stated, "any average soldier with
verage training can hit what he Z
boots at. In almost the first skirmish .
q proved its superior usefulness in Z
ench fighting. Such incidents as !
lat of the single American soldier =
or killed whole squad -
German bayoneteers which had sur -
,unded him struck the enemy with
ar of Yankee prowess with the :
stol." y