The new artillery program required the manufacture of 120,000 wheels of various types and sizes for the mobile carriages. The Rock Island Arsenal and two commercial concerns prior to the war had been building artillery wheels in limited quantities. One completely new plant had to be erected for the manufacture of wheels, while seven existing factories were specially equipped for this work. We had to develop new sources of supply of oak and hickory and to erect dry kilns especially for the wheel project.
The largest order for rubber tires in the history of the American rubber industry was placed as one relatively small phase of the artillery program, the order amounting to $4,250,000. Rubber tires on the wheels of all the heavier types of artillery carriages, so that the units might be drawn at good speed by motor vehicles, was essentially an American innovation. No tires of this size had ever been manufactured in this country. Consequently it was necessary for the firms who got the orders to build machinery especially designed for the purpose.
With practically all of the manufacturers of the American metal-working industries clamoring for machine tools, and with some branches of the Government commandeering the machine-tool shops in whole sections of the country, it is evident that the necessity for the heavier types of machine tools required by the manufacturers of artillery material offered a weighty problem at the outset. In fact, the machine-tool supply was never adequate at any time, and the shortage of this machinery hampered and impeded to a great degree the speed of our artillery production.
The Nation was raked with a fine-toothed comb for shop equipment. The Government went to almost any honorable length to procure this indispensable tooling. For instance, when the Dodge plant at Detroit was being equipped to manufacture the 155-millimeter recuperators, the Government agents discovered trainloads of machinery consigned to the Russian government and awaiting shipment. These tools were commandeered on the docks. One huge metal planer had dropped overboard while it was being lightered to the ocean tramp that was to carry it to a Russian port. Government divers fixed grappling hooks to this machine, and it was brought to the surface and shipped at once to the Dodge plant.
The 3-inch gun which we had been building for many years prior to the war was a serviceable and efficient weapon; but still we were unable to put it into production immediately as it was. Our earliest divisions in France, under the international arrangement, were to be equipped by the French with 75-millimeter guns; while we, on this side of the water, reaching out for all designs of guns of proven worth, expected to manufacture the 75's in large numbers in this country. The French 75 in its barrel diameter is a fraction of an inch smaller than our 3-inch gun, the exact equivalent of 75 millimeters being 2.95275 inches. Thus, if we built our own 3-inch gun (and the British 3.3-inch gun, as we intended) and also went ahead with the 75-millimeter project on a great scale, we should be confronted by the necessity of providing three sorts of ammunition of almost the same size, with all the delays and confusion which such a situation would imply. Consequently we decided to redesign the American and British guns to make their bores uniformly 75 millimeters, thus simplifying the ammunition problem and making available to us in case of shortage the supplies of shell of this size in France.
With all of the above considerations in mind, it is evident now, and it was then, that we could not hope to equip our Army with American-built artillery as rapidly as that Army could be collected, trained, and sent to France; and this was particularly true when in the spring of 1917 the Army policy was changed to give each 1,000,000 men almost twice as many field guns as our program had required prior to that date. Consequently, when on June 27, 1917, the Secretary of War directed the Chief of Ordnance to provide the necessary artillery for the 2,000,000 men who were to be mobilized in 1917 and the first half of 1918, the first thought of our officers was to find outside supplies of artillery which we could obtain for an emergency that would not be relieved until our new facilities had reached great production.
We found this source in France. The French had long been the leading people in Europe in the production of artillery, and even the great demands of the war had not succeeded in utilizing the full capacity of their old and new plants. Two days later, on June 29, 1917, the French high commissioner, by letter, offered us in behalf of France a daily supply of five 75-millimeter guns and carriages, beginning August 1, 1917. The French also offered at this time to furnish us with 155-millimeter howitzers; and on August 19, 1917, the French Government informed Gen. Pershing that each month, beginning with September, he could obtain twelve 155-millimeter Filloux guns and carriages from the French factories.
Before the signing of the armistice 75-millimeter guns to the number of 3,068 had been ordered from the French, and of this number 1,828 had been delivered. Of 155-millimeter howitzers, 1,361 had been ordered from the French and 772 delivered before November 11, 1918. Of 155-millimeter guns, 577 had been ordered from the French and 216 delivered previous to the granting of the armistice.
From British plants we ordered 212 Vickers-type 8-inch howitzers, and 123 had been delivered before the armistice had been signed; while of 9.2-inch howitzers, Vickers model, 40 of an order for 132 had been completed. In addition to this, 302 British 6-inch howitzers were in manufacture in England for delivery to us by April 1, 1919. These figures, with the exception of those relating to the order for British 6-inch howitzers, do not include the arrangements being made by this Government during the last few weeks of hostilities for additional deliveries of foreign artillery.
As to our own manufacture of artillery, when we had conquered all the difficulties—translated the drawings, built the new factories, equipped them with machine tools and dies, gages, and other fixtures needed by the metal workers, and had mobilized the skilled workers themselves—we forged ahead at an impressive rate. When the armistice was signed we were turning out 412 artillery units per month. Compare this with Great Britain's 486 units per month in the fall of 1918 and measure our progress, remembering that England had approximately three years' head start. Compare it with the French monthly production of 659 units per month, and remember that France was the greatest artillery builder in the world. When it came to the gun bodies themselves we obtained a monthly output of 832, as against Great Britain's 802 and France's 1,138. And our artillery capacity was then, in the autumn of 1918, only coming into production.