It can be concluded from the try-out in this division that the gun in its operation and functioning when handled by men in the field is a success.

The Browning automatic rifles were also highly praised by our officers who had to use them. Although these guns received hard usage, being on the front for days at a time in the rain and when the gunners had little opportunity to clean them, they invariably functioned well.

On November 11 we had built 52,238 Browning automatic rifles in this country. We had bought 29,000 Chauchats from the French. Without providing replacement guns or reserves, this was a sufficient number to equip over 100 divisions with 768 guns to the division. This meant light machine guns enough for a field army of 3,500,000 men. In heavy machine guns at the signing of the armistice we had 3,340 of the Hotchkiss make, 9,237 Vickers, and 41,804 Brownings, or a total of 54,627 heavy machine guns—enough to equip the 200 divisions of an army of 7,000,000 men, not figuring in reserve weapons.

The daily maximum production of Browning rifles reached 706 before our manufacturing efforts were suddenly stopped, and that of Browning heavy machine guns 575. At the peak of our production a total of 1,794 machine guns and automatic rifles of all types was produced within a period of twenty-four hours.

Based upon our output in July, August, and September, 1918, we were producing monthly 27,270 machine guns and machine rifles of all types, while the average monthly production of France was at this time 12,126 and that of Great Britain 10,947.

In total production between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918, we had turned out 181,662 machine guns and machine rifles, as against 229,238 by France and 181,404 by England in that same period.

One of the important features which contributed to the success of the machine-gun program was the cordial spirit of cooperation which the War Department met from the machine-gun manufacturers. Competitive commercial advantages weighed not at all against the national need, and the Department found itself possessed of a group of enthusiastic and loyal partners with whom it could attack the vast problem of machine-gun supply. Without these partners and this spirit, the problem could not have been solved. The United States, starting almost from the zero point, developed in little more than a year a machine-gun production greater than that of any other country in the world, although some of those countries had been fighting a desperate war for three years and building machine guns to the limit of their capacity.

Acceptances of automatic arms, by months, in United States and Canada on UnitedStates Army orders only.
To Jan. 1.1918Total.
Jan.Feb.Mar.Apr.May.June.July.Aug.Sept.Oct.Nov.Dec.
Ground machine guns.
Browning heavy129222,6204,2259,1828,83814,6396,6549,51656,608
Vickers field2,0311,0219511,3861,3411,2081,3491,56578938110312,125
Colt2,500305112,816
Lewis field2,2092912,500
Lewis caliber .3037503001,050
Aircraft machine guns.
Browning2113636580
Marlin123,1343,8503,4195,7506,2502196,3567,2691,6915038,000
Lewis flexible65401,0851,5681,3332,6294,3424,3385,5953,9735,8573,7924,14239,200
Vickers caliber .303075753731,2212,476
Vickers 11-mm72263952541171612761,238
Tank machine guns.
Browning314
Marlin[25]103[25]9[25]316[25]460[25]582[25]1,470
Automatic rifles.
Browning light155483631,8223,8768,19612,5176,89613,68711,36810,67269,960
Total7,5084,9865,9016,9219,09912,83112,78324,95435,44722,34035,23922,71425,834226,557

[25] Modified from aircraft, not included in total.