The British and French ammunition supply and reserves are sufficient to provide the requirements of the American Army thus equipped at least up to June, 1918, provided that the existing 6-inch shell plants in the United States and Dominion of Canada are maintained in full activity, and provided that the manufacture of 6-inch howitzer carriages in the United States is to some extent sufficiently developed.
On the other hand, the French, and to a lesser extent the British, require as soon as possible large supplies of propellants and high explosives: and the British require the largest possible production of 6-inch howitzers from now onward and of 8-inch and 9.2-inch shell from June onward.
In both of these matters they ask the assistance of the Americans.
With a view, therefore, first to expedite and facilitate the equipment of the American armies in France, and, second, to secure the maximum ultimate development of the ammunition supply with the minimum strain upon available tonnage, the representatives of Great Britain and France propose that the American field, medium, and heavy artillery be supplied during 1918, and as long after as may be found convenient, from British and French gun factories; and they ask: (A) That the American efforts shall be immediately directed to the production of propellants and high explosives on the largest possible scale; and (B) Great Britain also asks that the 6-inch, 8-inch, and 9.2-inch shell plants already created for the British service in the United States shall be maintained in the highest activity, and that large additional plants for the manufacture of these shells shall at once be laid down.
In this way alone can the tonnage difficulty be minimised and potential artillery development, both in guns and shells, of the combined French, British, and American armies be maintained in 1918 and still more in 1919.
This agreement had a profound effect upon American production of munitions. Most important of all, it gave us time; time to build manufacturing capacity on a grand scale without the hampering necessity for immediate production; time to secure the best in design; time to attain quality in the enormous output to come later as opposed to early quantity of indifferent class.
In the late autumn of 1917, shortly after Russia collapsed and withdrew from the war, it became evident that Germany would seize the opportunity to move her troops from the eastern front and concentrate her entire army against the French and British in 1918.
This intelligence at once resulted in fresh emphasis upon the man-power phase of American cooperation. As early as December, 1917, the War Department was anticipating the extraordinary need for men in the coming spring by considering plans for the transport of troops up to the supposed limit of the capacity of all available American ships, with what additional tonnage Great Britain and the other Allies could spare us. It is of record that the actual dispatch of troops to France far outstripped these early estimates.
Then came the long-expected German offensive, and the cry went up in Europe for men. England, "her back against the wall," offered additional ships in which to transport six divisions over and above the number of troops already scheduled for embarkation, agreeing further to feed and maintain these men for 10 weeks while they were brigaded with British units for final training. After the six additional divisions had embarked there was still need of men, and the British continued their transports in our service. The high mark of shipment was in July, when 306,000 American soldiers were transported across the Atlantic, more than three times the number contemplated for July in the schedule adopted six months earlier.
