Likewise the supply of clothing arose to the emergency of combat.
"The records of the quartermaster show that during the six months of hard fighting, from June to November, the enlisted man in the A. E. F. received on the average:
"Slicker and overcoat, every 5 months; blanket, flannel shirt, and breeches, every 2 months; coat, every 79 days; shoes and puttees, every 51 days; drawers and undershirt, every 34 days; woolen socks, every 23 days."
GUNS AND MUNITIONS
When war was declared we had on hand nearly 600,000 Springfield rifles. The American Enfield rifle was designed and manufactured. The total production of the two up to the signing of the armistice was over 2,500,000. The production of rifle ammunition amounted to 3,500,000,000, of which half was shipped overseas, in addition to the 200,000,000 rounds secured from the French and British.
During the war the Browning automatic rifle and the Browning machine gun were developed, put into quantity production and used in large numbers in the final battles in France. Before the war the allowance of machine guns in the American Army was four guns to a regiment; the allowance now is 336 to a regiment, testimony to the demonstrated importance in war of that effective weapon. The Browning machine guns are believed to be more effective than the corresponding weapons used in any other army.
The total number of machine guns produced in America up to the end of 1918 was 226,557, of these 69,960 being of the light Browning and 56,612 of the heavy Browning type. The Vickers field machine guns produced totaled 12,125, the other field guns 6,366, the Lewis aircraft guns, 39,200, the Browning aircraft 580, the Marlin aircraft 38,000, and the Vickers aircraft 3,714. Before Nov. 1, 1918, 29,000 light Brownings, 27,000 heavy Brownings, and 1,500,000,000 rounds of rifle and machine-gun ammunition were shipped.
When war was declared the United States had sufficient light artillery to equip an army of 500,000 men, and shortly found itself confronted with the problem of preparing to equip 5,000,000 men. To meet the situation, it was decided in June, 1917, to allot our guns to training purposes and to equip our forces in France with artillery conforming to the French and British standard calibers. It was arranged that we should purchase from the French and British the artillery needed for our first divisions and ship them in return equivalent amounts of steel, copper and other raw materials so that they could either manufacture guns for us in their own factories or give us guns out of their stocks and replace them by new ones made from our materials.
Up to the end of April, 1919, the number of complete artillery units produced in American plants was more than 3,000, or equal to all those purchased from the French and British during the war. The number of rounds of complete artillery ammunition produced in American plants was in excess of 20,000,000, as compared with 10,000,000 rounds secured from the French and British. In the first twenty months after the declaration of war by each country, the British did better than we did in the production of light artillery, and we excelled them in producing heavy artillery and both light and heavy shells.