The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-08-14

E6sOm craft armament
 artillery, tank and combat vehicles, small arm and types of bomb, ammunition ana accessories.
 That word standardized" is prob ably a bad one. Nothing in moderr was is ever standardized. In peace. times, the manufacturers of auto mobiles, stoves, refrigerators, type. writers, adding machines, washing machines, machines of all kinds car standardize for 8 year or so. They can spend two years developing g new model, and then bring 1t out al the desgin they will standardize or for any given season.
 When these same manufacturers are converted to war production they may get contract for say 1O,- GOO tanks of standard design. But before the first thousand are manu- factured, there may be better tank designed and before the first thou sand of the second model are con- pleted, still better design will be forthcoming. In a long, modern war, there just isn't any such thing as a standard model.
 WAR WORKS
 WONDERS
 The speed with which new models of weapons afe adopted is of course greatly accelerated in wartime. It took the U. s. Army 20 years, for instance to adopt the new Garand rifle. But when Nazi spearheads began to thrust through French lines and when Na1 parachute troops penetrated depe into Poland, it became obvious that troops serv- ing in the rear, who had relied on pistols in the past, would have to be armed with better, harder hit ting, longer range small arms. In October, 1940, the Army ordnance department sent manufacturers a circular listing requirements for a short-barreled. lightweight, semi automaticcarbine. By September, 1941, nine models had been submit ted, tested and by the process of elimination reduced to single mod el which was developed within six weeks, standardized and put into production for infantry, artillery, armored force, and even the Navy and Marines.
 Adoption of the new round- head helmet, is another case in point. For six years the Army ex- perimented with various designs intended to improve the old fiat British designed tin hat that was standard in the last war. The ex- periments and tests got nowhere. Then in 1941, after only a few months, the answer was found in the new double helmet, similar in general outline to the German helmet, but better in that it has the light weight fiber inner helmet that can be worn back of the lines.
 In bigger weapons, the changes have been no less startling. In 75 days, ordnance and field artillery designed and standardized on a new tank destroyer, mounting a 75-mm, gun on a half track ve- hicle that gave 1t high speed and extreme flexability as weapon to battle the mass tank tractics introduced by the Germans.
 BIG GUNS
 GET BIGGER
 The old 75-mm. pieces themselves, guns of type that won the war for the Frencn in 1918, had to be completely redesigned. The French had stuck to their World War models and the German Panzer di- visions ran right over them. The result was that in the United States the 75 had to be redesigned, its range and velocity increased with a new armor- piercing shell, it's car riage modernized with a new split trail that permitted movement at high speed.
 Even the bigger guns had to be brought up to date. Eight-inch howitzers and 155-mm. field guns were modernized to hurl a 200 pound shell Il miles and they were made more mobile by mount ing on new high speed car riage that would take either weapon, interchangeability. And a new 80-mm. anti aircraft and anti-tank weapon had to be de- veloped to beat both the German 88-mm, and the U. s. old model B. inch anti-aircraft gun.
 Making over the M-3 medium tank into the MA was perhaps the most spectacular of all the ordnance conversion and modern ization jobs. Over $53 million were spent in plant facilities alone to make this change, but 1t was worth it. The new MA tank, with Is cast and forged turret re- placing the old rivet jobs is un- questionably the fastest, the best armored and the heaviest hitting medium tank on any front today.
 One important point about the bringing out of a new model of any weapon. There can't be any shutdown for retooling, as there was in normal automobile pro-