New Britain herald., 1922-06-09
AMERICAN ARMY IS
 LACKING IN GUNS
Artillery Equipment Not Up to Standard

Washington, June a,-The Ameri- can army came out Of the war with vast amount Of artillery but still lacks the ideal types of guns and hop1tzers which a careful post-war study by army experts indicated 10 be the most desirable. On the basis Of the report of the "caliber board, which made this study in 1918. however, existing artillery equipment has been ap- portioned among the troops to ap- proximate as nearly as possible ideal conditions.
 One striking fact was developed by the "caliher board" study Despite the enormous increase in the amount of artillery used by the contending armies, the board concluded that the principles of the use of field artillery continued unchanged
 Although the French coined the saving during the war that the artillery conquers; the infantry oc- cupies the ground" postwar studies do not confirm this in American mili- tary opinion which holds that the infantry armed with rife and bayonet Is the main, line of- the army and all other arms designed merely to aid the advance of the foot troops.
 As to the increased use of artillery during the war, Sir Douglas Haig. British commander noted in after the war reports that while the proportion of British artillery personnel engaged In the battle of the Somne was about 50 per cent of the infantry if reached 80 per cent in the battle of Ypres in 1917. In the 1915 struggle British guns hurled 5000 tons of shell in single day and in 1917 they poured 23.ooo tons in the German positions in the same time.
 Six Types Needed.
 The caliber board found that for the purpose of American field opera lions there should be six types of weapons, a light weight gun and howitzer to accompany infantry di- visions, a medium weight pair for corps use and a heavy team for each field army. The. board found that for divisional use, a gun of about 3-inch caliber firing missiles of man killing chara cteristics weighing not more than 20 pounds and with maximum IT but that the American and French 75's while not exactly filling require ments, formed a practical substitute The army artillery as we'll as the National Guard field batteries are now equipped with these weapons supple mented by some American 3-inch l guns.
 As mate for this field gun. the | board recommend a ,1o5 nm. weapon with range of 10000 yards and pro- jectiles of 30 to 35 pounds. That | type does not exist in the army today although the 155mm. howitzer sug- gested as substitute is included and was for a time mated with light field gun. It is regarded as too heavy for divisional use, however and has been eliminated from divisional batteries
 Light Howftzer.
 The lack of light howitzer is due to the fact that the American army adopted French artillery equipment in the war and the French never were able to turn their attention to this weapons production in the stress of i other work. The British army is equipped with a 1o5 nm. howitzer to support infantry operations.
 For medium batteries attached to army corps. the caliber board recon1- mended 4.7 to 5 inch guns with range of 1S,o0o yards to bring hos tile battery positions under fire. The existing AT guns of old model. with one regiment armed with British inch weapon. make up this element of the present American artillery strength. the guns being mated with the 10000 yard range 155 nm. how itzer. .....
 For the heavy field artillery handled by units of the field army. the board selected a 155 nm gun with 25.ooo yard range and an s-inch howitzer firing 18.00o yards Equipment ap- pro1imating this is made available bv using British design howitzers which are on hand
 It is pointed out that under pres ent national defense plans. most of \ fhe artillery for major mobilization N must come from the National Guard II which now includes 163 gun batteries \ armed with 75's; 36 howitzer batter ies equipped with 155 nm weapons and 13 gun batteries army with 155 nm rifles. '.. ...--. ....