The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-06-09

that slapped the thighs of American doughboys."
 With this weapon. it is stated, "any average soldier with average training can hit what he shoots at. In almost the first skirmish it proved it's supe for usefulness in trench fighting Such incidents as that of the single American soldier who dispersed or killed whole squad of German bayo neteers which had surrounded him struck the enemy with fear of Van. kee prowess with the pistol"
 This resulted in the addition of pistols to the fighting equipment of the American troops at & rate that overwhelmed the supply. Every effort to increase production was made. but the army was forced to resort to 45- calibre revolvers to supplement the supply. The actual rate of production reached just before the armistice was 1893 pistols and 1.233 revolvers a day and the total number of weapons built during the war was 743,663
 The standard American army rife ammunition proved it's superiority in action. adding materially to the accu. racy of American small arms fire Extraordinary measures to produce cartridges in sufficient numbers are recounted in the report and in the fall of 1918 the United States achieved an average monthly output of 2S4.S52. .735 rounds against a British average of 259. .787 .000 and French average of 139 .S45,000. During the nineteen months the United States was in the war 1t produced 2.864. .954.0OO rounds approximately equalling the French production and comparing with 3.4S6. 127,00O produced by Great Britain.
 WASHINGTON, May lS.-Behind the armies in France which smashed road to victory thru the German de- lenses last Fall, the United States was forging. before the armistice was signed. weapons gigantic and power full. counted upon to make ultimate victory certain. In the American ar tillery alone,F the full fruition of which could not have been reached before 1920. there was in creation an agency believed by army men here to be of itself able to bring the victory.
 An official and detailed account of that program is contained in the chapters made public today of Am erica's Munitions" the historical re. port prepared under the direction of Assistant Secretary Crowell, who was direct of munitions during the war
 The whole story of guns. from the 37-mm infantry cannon" with it's inch and one.half bore. designed for use in the front lines of combat, to the 16-inch mortar on railway mount which was to work havoc on the enemy from points miles behind the fighting front, the story of the eXtraor- dinary efforts of American industry to equip an army with artillery on a scale never before attempted is graph. ically pictured. Thru it all runs the same spirit of partnership in the war enterprise between industry and the government that made possible such an undertaking.
 The chapters devoted to guns are so extensive as to make up con- siderable volume in themselves. They contain the names and the statistical records of achievement of all firms that worked on guns or ammunition and this offlcial commentary will have a place in the records of those firms in the years to come.
 Among the many interesting things in the report is the account now off. cially given of the reasons that impel ed the war department to cast aside. except for training purposes. all of the 3-inch field artillery with which the American army was equipped when the United States entered the war. and to substitute for these wea- pons three types of guns fitted to take ammunition of the 75.mm type em ployed by the French light pieces.
 There has been much controversy because of the alleged failure to adopt at the outset of the war the French 75. famous for it's performances in the war. as the standard American piece of this type. The report shows that the gun was adopted for combat pur- poses, but that it's production in quan tity in the United States proved to be even more problem than the gov ernment's experts had anticipated For that reason the American 3.inch gun, redesigned for 75 ammunition and the British 3.3.inch field gun similarly rechambered, were both put into production in order to make use of every facility for manufacture. The American and British type were in. tended primarily for training work and were so employed. But the wis. dom of putting these guns into produc. ton on quantity scale is emphasized