The two factories in question not having been encouraged by large purchases of ordnance material, as were similar industries in Germany, were not capable of volume production when we entered the war. But at the same time the gun bodies produced by these concerns at least equaled in quality those built in any other country on earth; so that while the big-gun-making art was in existence in this country and was maintained as to quality, it was most insufficient as to the quantity of the production available.
When the United States faced the war in April, 1917, arrangements were at once entered into to obtain in the shortest space of time an adequate supply of finished artillery of all calibers required by our troops and to get this supply in time to meet our men as they should set foot on the shores of France. Many thousands of forgings for guns, and finished guns too, had been ordered by the allies of the few gun makers in this country; and these makers were, at the time we got into the conflict, fully occupied for at least a year ahead with orders from the French and English ordnance departments. All of this production was immediately useful and available for the combined armies of the allies, and so it was allowed to go forward, the forgings preventing a gap in the output of the finished articles from the British and French arsenals which were then using the semifinished guns made in the old factories in existence in this country in April, 1917.
Some idea of the volume of this production in this country will be gained from the following table showing material supplied to the allies between April, 1917, and the date of the signing of the armistice, November 11, 1918.
| Guns of calibers from 3-inch to 9.5-inch furnished to the allies | 1,102 | |
| Additional gun forgings furnished to the allies | tubes | 14,623 |
| Shell and shell forgings furnished to the allies in this period | pieces | 5,018,451 |
In supplying all of this material from our regular sources of manufacture in this country to the finishing arsenals of the allies we were but maintaining our position as a part of the general source of supply. The plan of the French and British ordnance engineers at the outbreak of the war in 1914 was to build their factories as quickly and as extensively as could possibly be done. By the time the United States entered the war all of these factories were in operation and clamoring for raw material at a rate which was far in excess of that which could be supplied by the home steel makers in Great Britain and France. Consequently their incursions into the semifinished ordnance material supplies in the United States were necessary. In sending these large quantities of our own materials abroad, when we needed them ourselves, we were distinctly adding to the rate and quantity of the supply of finished ordnance for the use of our own Army in the field as well as being at the same time of inestimable value to the allies. This was because the French and British had agreed to supply our first armies with finished fighting weapons while we were giving them the raw materials which they needed so badly.
The four gunmakers in America meanwhile were being expanded into a total of 19 makers. All of these 19 factories during the month of October, 1918, were practically in full operation. Many of them were producing big guns at a faster rate than that for which the plants had been designed. In the month of October, 1918, with 3 of the 19 factories yet to have their machine-tool equipment completed, there were produced 2,031 sets of gun forgings between the calibers of 3-inch and 9.5-inch, which is at the rate of upward of 24,000 guns a year. This figure, of course, does not indicate anything of the gun-finishing capacity of the country; yet this expansion may be contrasted to the fact that our supply of finished guns prior to 1917 amounted only to 55 weapons a year.
| Caliber. | 1917 | 1918 | Total | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec. | Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May. | June. | July. | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | ||
| 75-millimeter | 5 | 45 | 48 | 52 | 74 | 127 | 169 | 142 | 204 | 199 | 214 | 320 | 214 | 1,813 |
| 3-inch antiaircraft | 3 | 16 | 24 | 16 | 2 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 22 | 50 | 34 | 31 | 230 | |
| 4.7-inch | 6 | 8 | 15 | 29 | 71 | 50 | 39 | 218 | ||||||
| 155-millimeter howitzer | 3 | 10 | 16 | 28 | 75 | 110 | 248 | 206 | 350 | 231 | 179 | 1,456 | ||
| 155-millimeter gun | 2 | 14 | 51 | 22 | 40 | 129 | ||||||||
| 8-inch howitzer | 34 | 38 | 8 | 28 | 22 | 33 | 14 | 14 | 191 | |||||
| 240-millimeter howitzer | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Total | 8 | 61 | 75 | 112 | 130 | 163 | 261 | 272 | 507 | 492 | 769 | 672 | 517 | 4,039 |
[9] Carriages, recuperators, and sights had to be added to these cannon to make them complete units ready for service.
| Caliber. | 1917 | 1918 | Total | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec. | Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May. | June. | July. | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | ||
| 75-millimeter | 4 | 13 | 73 | 62 | 79 | 239 | 376 | 574 | 678 | 754 | 1,385 | 674 | 310 | 5,221 |
| 3-inch antiaircraft | 6 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 49 | 163 | 124 | 18 | 404 | ||
| 4.7-inch gun | 9 | 10 | 8 | 28 | 70 | 100 | 84 | 35 | 25 | 53 | 422 | |||
| 155-millimeter howitzer | 2 | 13 | 26 | 61 | 44 | 146 | 133 | 176 | 204 | 273 | 279 | 276 | 62 | 1,695 |
| 155-millimeter gun | 1 | 15 | 4 | 42 | 28 | 56 | 105 | 79 | 24 | 354 | ||||
| 8-inch howitzer | 34 | 38 | 8 | 28 | 22 | 33 | 14 | 14 | 191 | |||||
| 240-millimeter howitzer | 30 | 21 | 31 | 22 | 49 | 153 | ||||||||
| Total | 6 | 26 | 114 | 174 | 175 | 440 | 525 | 872 | 1,074 | 1,259 | 2,031 | 1,214 | 530 | 8,440 |