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Show lamerica's gun production 1 pronSspeTwar ended 1 WASHINGTON, Dec. 17. Faced by a program of producing 2,000 guns of ! all calibres per month without disturb -j ing the flow of guns to the allied nations na-tions or the navy's prior right, the ordnance ord-nance bureau of the war department had achieved an output of about 500 ; guns a month when the armistice end-i end-i ed hostilities. By June of next year, production would have been in full . swing. These facts were revealed today by Assistant Secretary Crowcll, director I of munitions, in a personally conduct- I cd trip to the new proving ground at Aberdeen, Maryland, where all types of guns were demonstrated for Mr. Crowell's party, and American-built I tanks and tractors were put through their paces. 1 Mr. Crowell said the United States had looked upon the allies- as the first line of defense when this country en-tpred en-tpred the war and formulated its munition mu-nition plans so as not to interfere j with the gun and ammunition con-! con-! tracts for France and Great Britain. I Many American gun forgings and com - ! : pletcd guns have been poured across I to Great Britain and shipments to the I ; French armies had reached a total ' j o 1,000 guns a month. ! The needs of the navy as the sec-iond sec-iond defense line also gave it priority I and the shipping board came next in ! the list for steel and other commodi-j commodi-j ties needed to carry out the huge pro-' pro-' gram mapped out for the American army itself. This placed the American ; ordnance program fourth on the list i A striking feature of what was ac-i ac-i complishcd, it was shown by officers !at the proving ground, was the fact j that In the 155-mm howitzer program, an output' had been reached that ex-! ex-! ceeded the estimated needs of the American forces, even on the basis of four million men in France and six huudrcd howitzers were sold to l France was excess. The demonstration today covered all I the trench warfare weapons and the ! field artillery. It took in also tho first 1 niihlin ilomnntttrntinn of thr Mnnl MniRi , ..ui.v, v....u... ........ w. c....v o"--" j mounted on railway carriages, solid j ranks of 7-inch, 14-Inch and lG-inch ' weapons hurling projectiles over the I range. Among the guns fired were a 16 -Inch I mortar and a 16-inch howitzer. Both I were mounted on specially designed I railway carriages. A 14-inch rifle of extreme range and power, also railway-mounted and so designed that the recoil is taken up in the backward moving of the whqle massive carriage along the tracks, also was fired. It is a purely American output and is the first of the great mobile sea coast batteries to be added to the defense of the country. Tho tank demonstrated today was the three -ton two -man typo of American Amer-ican design. A production of 100 a day of these would havo been reached next spring, supplanting tho six -ton tank program upon which the United States was working. Jointly with the British. Mr. Crowell said that 6,000 of the big tanks were in process of manufacture in tho United States alone All the working parts of many others wero built in the United States and shipped to England for assembly. A whole fleet of American artillery tractors also was demonstrated as were two new typqs of guns developed in this country- One was an 8-inch howitzer mounted on a tractor which plowed over rough ground or through heavy woods, knocking down trees as it went. An American gun of 75-mm calibre, the present standard American light field gun, mounted on a two and a half ion tractor, showed a speed over soft, broken ground of eight or ten miles an hour. With I hose two guns alone at the front tho artillery could have outdistanced the infantry in an advance through any country. Mr. Crowell showed that the United States has on hand now an enormous slock of reserve ammunition for all tho army's standard guns. For the 75s alone, more than 15,000.000 rounds are on hand and this will be doubled before the contemplated reserve is completed. It is planned to keep twenty-five per cent of these loaded. . .nn- Is undertaking to increase its export of food from 17,500.000 tons to at least j 20.000,000 tons, and in order to accomplish accom-plish this result, it will be neccssaiy for the American people, not only to continue the food conservation measures meas-ures instituted during the war period but also to make special efforts such as are planned by the food administration adminis-tration in connection with the observance observ-ance of conservation week. |
