Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-05-14

peditionary Force received from the
French before the armistice was
signed 1928 75mm guns and 772
SSmm howitzers,. They had also
155mm rifles and from the British
| 12S S-inch howitzers with forty
| 9.2-inch howitZers completed and
ready for delivery. Additional con-
tracts were made with the British
for 302 howitzers of 6-inch caliber
for delivery by April. 1919.
Draw on United States
TO NIL their own factories with
forgings for guns, both French and
| British were drawing heavily on
American industry when the United
States entered the war. These or
ders were not interfered with, but.
on the contrary, were stimulated
and expanded in order that the
United States might furnish forgings
in trade for completed guns and at
the same time create wholly new
source of supply for the bulk of its
| own artillery program. The report
shows that between April, 1917, and
the conclusion of hostilities there
were supplied to the Allies forgings
| for 1902 guns of calibers ranging
from 3-inch to 9.5-inch; additional
gun tube forgings to the extent of
1883, and shell forging totaling
| 5,01S.451.
There were only four gunmakers
in the United States when the coun-
try entered the contest, but by Oc-
tober. 1918, there were nineteen
factories engaged on this work.
During that month, with three of
the nineteen factories still lacking
their complete equipment, there
were produced 2,031 gun forgings of
calibers up to 9.5-inch or at rate
OF $4,000 guns a year, as compared
to the capacity for fifty-five finished
weapons a year in the spring of
1917.
Some Figures
The actual production of complet-
ed guns up to December, 1919, was
4,OS9, including 1913 of 75mm cal
Tiber 230 of the 3-inch antiaircraft
type, 21s of the 4.7-inch type, 1,456
of the 155mm howitzers 129 of the
155mm rifles, 191 S-inch howitzers
and two of the monster French
24Omm howitZers, which would
| have supplanted the smaller British
guns of this type in 1919. Over the
same period the number of gun
| forgingS produced totaled S,440.
The report points out that the gun
| program in reality depended upon
the ability to produce the recoil
mechanisms. This picture of what
such mechanisms are called upon to
do is drawn:
Not long ago a touring car,
weighing two tons, travelled at a
rate of 120 miles an hour along a
| Florida beach. Conceive of such a
| car going 337 miles an hour, which
is much faster than any man ever
travelled; then conceive of mecha-
nism which would stop this car,
| going nearly six miles a minute.
| stop 1t in forty-five inches of space
and half a second of time, without
| the slightest injury to the automo-
bile. That is precisely the equiva-
lent of the feat performed by re-
cuperator by a 240mm howitzer aft
| er a shot"
Summarizing the production of
guns by the United States as COM
pared with France and Great Brit
ain, the report says that between
April. 1917, and November, 1918.
| the United States produced 2,00S
complete artillery units, as against
11,056 by France and S.065 by
| Great Britain, and during those
| nineteen months turned out 4,275
gun bodies, as against 19,492 by
France and 1852 by Great Britain.
And our artillery capacity" it
adds. was then, in the autumn of
1918, only getting under way"
Coast Guns For France
Big guns are dealt with separate
ly. A survey of the country inlme.
diately after the war declaration To-
Gated 464 weapons ranging from
finch to 14-inch caliber which
could be spared from coast defenses
or by the Navy to be placed on
railway mounts for use in France.
There was also available one giant
16-inch howitzer built by the Army
before 1917. From the seacoast
defenses were taken ninety-six
S-inch, 129 10-inch, forty-nine
12-inch rifles and $50 12-inch NOR
tars, while the Navy supplied twelve
7-inch rifles and twenty-one IA
| inch and six high-power 12-inch
| rifles building for the Chilean gov
ernment were commandeered. Prac-
tically all of these were intended
for the railway mounts of various
types and the great majority of
them, together with new guns of
these sizes, would have reached
of 1919 and 1920 had the war con-
| tinued.
In all, there were in process
| projects to support the American
Army with 500 of these tremendous
guns, all of which were well ad-
vanced when the fighting ended.
In addition to the Navy's contribu-
| IiOH OI 1f-InCh TILES OH railway
mounts. three Army S-inch units
| went overseas. BY the end of 1918
| twenty-four units had been COM
| pleted and the guns and mounts
| fully demonstrated. An interesting
| feature of the mount was that it
had trucks which would permit it
| to operate over either standard rail-
roads or the narrow-gauge lines at
| the front.
Railway mounts for thirty-six
| 10-inch rifles from the coast de-
fenses also were ordered in COOP
Grafton with the French, machine
work and assembly to be done in
France. They were to be delivered
at General Pershing's request by
March, 1919.
One of the projects embarked
upon was the mounting of forty of
| the 12-inch mortars for use in the
! 1919 campaign. This proved to be
the largest job of the whole artiI-
lery program and required the con-
struction by the Government of a
wholly new plant, which was COM
pleted on June /, 1918. The first
| mount was finished in August of
| that year and passed all tests, and
when the armistice was signed the
| castings. forgings and structural
parts for ninety-one mounts were
on hand. In April of this year
| forty-five complete units had been
delivered and the whole nfnety-one
guns could have been mounted by
June.
| Tba dana rtment orderad sixtaan