The mount for the howitzer is so constructed that this load is partly taken up by the slide of the gun car along the track. In addition, the howitzer is equipped with a hydraulic recoil cylinder. Thus the unit has a double recoil system. The car trucks in the tests comfortably transmitted, through a series of equalizer springs, this enormous load upon an ordinary rock-ballast track, without any distortion to the track or roadbed or impairment to the working parts of the unit. After each discharge the whole huge mount moves backward along the track for a distance of 20 or 30 feet.
Each railway artillery project called for the manufacture of a great equipment of ammunition cars, fire-control cars, spare-parts cars, supply cars, and the like, a complete unit being a heavy train in itself. Such armament-train cars, together with numerous other accessories and necessary equipment, were designed by the Ordnance Department and produced for each mount. In all, 530 ammunition cars were produced up to April, 1919. Most of them were shipped abroad, but 118 were retained for use in this country. Since the overseas cars were to be used with French railway equipment, it was necessary to fit them out with French standard screw couplers, air brakes, and other appliances for connecting up with French railway cars.
The matter of traction power for these gun and armament trains near the front set a problem for the Ordnance Department to solve. It was out of the question to use steam engines near the enemy's lines, since the steam and smoke would betray the location of artillery trains at great distances. The Ordnance Department adopted a gas-electric locomotive of 400 horsepower to be used to pull railway artillery trains at the front, and was on the point of letting a contract to the General Electric Co. for the manufacture of 50 of them when the armistice was signed.
NEVILLE ISLAND.
It seems fitting at this point to say something about the Neville Island ordnance plant, on an island in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, which would have produced weapons of the character of those used with railway mounts and would have turned them out in large numbers had the armistice not come to put an end to this enormous project. The plant was being erected for the Government by the United States Steel Corporation without profit to itself. The estimated cost of this plant when finished was $150,000,000. Designed to supply the needs of the Army for artillery of the heaviest types, the Neville Island plant was being constructed on such a scale that it would surpass in size and capacity any of the famous gun works of Europe, including the Krupps.
It was being equipped to handle huge ordnance undertakings, such as the monthly completion of 15 great 14-inch guns and the production of 40,000 projectiles monthly for 14-inch and 16-inch guns. The plans of the Government contemplated the production of 14-inch guns to the number of 165 in all and their shipment to France in time to be in the field before May 1, 1920. An initial order for 90 of these weapons had been placed at the arsenal while it was being erected.
Besides 14-inch guns the plant was being equipped to turn out 16-inch and even 18-inch weapons. The immense size of the machinery necessary for such production can be understood when it is noted that an 18-inch gun weighs 510,000 pounds and a 14-inch gun 180,000 pounds. It requires from 12 to 18 months to produce guns of this size, yet Neville Island was being developed on a scale to build hundreds of them simultaneously. The entire plant was to cover 573 acres and was to employ 20,000 workmen when in full operation.
At the signing of the armistice work was suspended at Neville Island, and four months later the whole project was abandoned.
| Type. | Total Ordered. | Number produced Nov. 11, 1918. | Number produced to Apr. 7, 1919. | Number required by A. E. F. for campaign during 1919. | Guns available. | Remarks. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7-inch Navy gun, railway mount | 12 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 12 | Produced for antisubmarine work along America's seacoast. |
| 8-inch, 35-caliber seacoast gun, railway mount | 47 | 18 | 33 | 36 | 96 | |
| 10-inch, 34-caliber seacoast gun on French type railway mount. | 36 | [19]8 | [19]22 | 36 | 111 | Fabricated material and trucks, complete, produced within country, mount to be assembled in France. |
| Do. | 18 | 0 | 0 | 18 | Project cancelled on signing of the armistice, Batignolles. | |
| 12-inch, 35-caliber seacoast gun on French type railway mount. | 12 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 49 | French Batignolles type. |
| 12-inch, 50-caliber gun on American sliding railway mount. | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | Guns obtained from Chilean Government manufactured in this country. |
| 14-inch, 50-caliber naval gun on railway mount. | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 21 | |
| 12-inch, 10-caliber seacoast mortar on railway mount. | 91 | 1 | 45 | 49 | 150 | |
| 16-inch howitzer, 20-caliber on railway mount. | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 61 guns under construction. |
| 14-inch, 50-caliber guns on American sliding railway mount. | 16 | 0 | Protect cancelled Mar. 11, 1919. Guns under construction. | |||
| 12-inch, 20-caliber howitzer on railway mount. | 1 | 0 | If war had continued, 60 mounts contemplated. |
[19] Sets, fabricated parts.