Chapter III
MOBILE FIELD ARTILLERY.
The chance observer might assume that once the Ordnance Department had succeeded in putting in production the cannon of various sizes described in the preceding chapter the battle of providing artillery was as good as won. But such was not the case. Even after the ponderous tubes had come finished from the elaborate processes of the steel mills, the task of the ordnance officers had only just begun. Each one of these guns had to be rendered mobile in the field and it had to be equipped with a mechanism to take up the retrograde shock of firing (the "kick") and to prevent the weapon from leaping out of aim at each discharge.
Mobility to a gun is given by the carriage on which it rides. The device which absorbs the recoil and restores the gun to position is called the recuperator (in the case of the hydropneumatic French design) or the recoil mechanism. Carriage and recuperator, or recoil mechanism, together are known as the mount.
The forging, boring, reinforcing, machining, and finishing of the gun body is not half the battle of manufacturing a modern military weapon; it is scarcely one-third of it. No ordnance officer of 1917-18 will ever forget the heartbreaking experiences of manufacturing the mounts, a work which went along simultaneously with the production of the cannon themselves. The manufacture of carriages often presented engineering and production problems of the most baffling sort. As to the recuperators, a short analysis of the part they play in the operation of a gun will indicate something of the nature of the project of building them in quantities.
The old schoolbook axiom that action and reaction are equal has a peculiar emphasis when applied to the firing of a modern piece of high-power artillery. The force exerted to throw a heavy projectile 7 miles or more from the muzzle of a gun is equally exerted toward the breach of the weapon in its recoil. Some of these forces handled safely and easily by mechanical means are almost beyond the mind's grasp.
Not long ago a touring car, weighing 2 tons, traveled at the rate of 120 miles an hour along a Florida beach. Conceive of such a car going 337 miles an hour, which is much faster than any man ever traveled; then conceive of a mechanism which would stop this car, going nearly 6 miles a minute, stop it in 45 inches of space and half a second of time, without the slightest injury to the automobile. That is precisely the equivalent of the feat performed by the recuperator of a 240-millimeter howitzer after a shot.
Conceive of a 150,000-pound locomotive traveling at 53.3 miles an hour. The action of the 240-millimeter recuperator after a shot is equivalent to stopping that locomotive in less than 4 feet in half a second without damage.
The forging for the 155-millimeter howitzer's recuperator is a block of steel weighing nearly 2 tons--in exact figures, 3,875 pounds. This must be bored and machined out until it weighs, with the accessory parts of the complete recuperator placed on the scales with it, only 870 pounds. It is scarcely fair to a modern hydropneumatic recuperator to say that it must be finished with the precision of a watch. It must be finished with a mechanical nicety comparable only to the finish of such a delicate instrument as a navigator's sextant or the mechanism which adjusts the Lick telescope to the movement of the earth. No heavy articles ever before turned out in American workshops required in their finish the degree of microscopic perfection the recuperators called for.
We adopted from the French, the greatest of all artillery builders, four recuperators--one for the 75-millimeter gun, one for the 155-millimeter gun, another for the 155-millimeter howitzer, and the fourth for the 240-millimeter howitzer. These mechanisms had never been built before outside of France. Indeed, one could find pessimists ready to say that none but French mechanics could build them at all and that our attempt to duplicate them could end only in failure. Yet American mechanical genius "licked" every one of these problems, as the men in the greasy overalls say, and did it in little more than a year of time after the plans came to the workshops. There was not one of these beautiful mechanisms, in France the product of patient handiwork on the part of metal craftsmen of deep and inherited skill, that eventually did not become in American workshops a practical proposition of quantity production.
The problem of building French recuperators in the United States, in short, may be regarded as the crux of the whole American ordnance undertaking in the war against Germany, the index of its success. It presented the most formidable challenge of all to American industrial skill. There were men whose opinion had to be considered and who were convinced that it was impracticable to attempt to produce French recuperators here. Although the superiority of these recoil devices in their respective classes were universally conceded, Germany had never been able to make them, while England, with the cooperation of the French ordnance engineers freely offered, did not attempt them. The French built them one by one, as certain custom-built and highly expensive automobiles are produced. When American factories proposed to produce French recuperators not only but to manufacture them by making parts and assembling them according to the modern practice of quantity production, the ranks of the skeptics increased.
Yet, as we have said, the thing was done. The first of these recuperators ever produced outside of the French industry were produced in America and manufactured by typically American quantity methods.
The first of these recuperators to come into quantity production was that for the 155-millimeter howitzer. Rough forgings began to be turned out in heavy quantities by the Mesta Machine Co. in the spring of 1918, while the Watertown Arsenal, the other contractor, reached quantity production in rough forgings in September, 1918. At their special recuperator plant at Detroit the Dodge Bros. turned out the first finished 155-millimeter howitzer recuperator in July, 1918, and went into quantity production with them in September, producing 495 in the month of November alone, and turning out up to the end of April, 1919, the great number of 1,601 of them.
Next in order of time to be conquered as a factory problem was the 155-millimeter gun recuperator. The rough forgings at the Carnegie Steel Co., the sole contractor, were in quantity production in the spring of 1918. The first of these recuperators finished came from the Dodge plant in October, 1918; and although 30 issued from the plant and were accepted before the end of the year, quantity production may be said to have started on January 1, 1919, when the factory began producing them at the rate of more than four a day. In March the high mark of 361 recuperators was reached, and the total production up to the end of April was 880.
The heavy 240-millimeter howitzer recuperator was third to come into quantity production. The rough forgings were being turned out in quantity in the spring of 1918 by the Carnegie Steel Co., while the Watertown Arsenal, the other contractor, produced a number of these rough forgings in August, 1918. The two contractors for finishing and turning out the complete recuperators were the Otis Elevator Co., at its Chicago plant, and the Watertown Arsenal. The arsenal produced the pilot recuperator in October, 1918. In January the Otis Elevator Co. produced its first four, while quantity production began in February, 1919, both contractors that month sending out 19 recuperators, a number which may be regarded as good quantity when the size of this mechanism is taken into consideration. Both plants together in April turned out the large number of 89 recuperators for the 240.
Last to come through to quantity production was the hardest of the four to build, the one that promised to defy American industry to build it at all--the 75-millimeter gun recuperator. The two contractors for the rough forgings for this recuperator were the Carbon Steel Co. and the Bucyrus Co. The Carbon Steel Co. was in large series production of them in the spring of 1918, and the Bucyrus Co. reached the quantity basis of manufacture in October, 1918. In that month alone both contractors together turned out 1,305 sets of forgings.
The machining and finishing of the 75 recuperator was in the hands of the Rock Island Arsenal and the Singer Manufacturing Co., which built a costly plant especially for the purpose at Elizabethport, N. J. The first recuperator of this size to appear and be accepted under the severe tests came from the arsenal in October. Thereafter the production ceased for a while. The contractors indeed built recuperators in this period, but the recuperators could not pass the tests. The machining and production of parts seemed to be as perfect as human skill could accomplish, but still the devices would not function perfectly. Adjustments, seemingly of the most microscopical and trivial sort, had to be made--there was trouble with the leather of the valves and with oil for the cylinders. These matters, which could scarcely cause any delay at all in the production of less delicate machinery, indicate the infinite care which had to be employed in the manufacture of the recuperators. At length the producers smoothed out the obstacles and learned all the secrets and necessary processes, and then the 75-millimeter recuperators began to come--2 in January, 1919, and then 13 in February, 20 in March, and 23 in April.
It should be remembered that by quantity production in this particular is meant the production in quantity of recuperators of such perfect quality as to pass the inspection of the Government and to be accepted as part of our national ordnance equipment. In this inspection the Government was assisted by French engineers sent from the great artillery factories in France which had designed the recuperators and which until the successful outcome of the American attempt were their sole producers. Such inspection naturally required that the American recuperators should be the equals of their French prototypes in every respect.
Because the production of French recuperators stands at the summit of American ordnance achievement, here at this point, before there is given any account of the manufacture of field artillery, the theme of this chapter, a performance table is inserted to show the records written by the various concerns engaged in making these devices.
_American acceptances of recuperators by firms on Army ordnance orders only._
=========================+================================================= | 1918 +-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+------+------ Item, process, and firm. | To |July.|August.|Septem-|Octo-|Novem-|Decem- |July 1.| | | ber. | ber.| ber. | ber. -------------------------+-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+------+------ 75-mm. gun recuperator: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Forging-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Carbon Steel Co. | 259 | 259 | 254 | 750 |1,005| 300 | 552 | | | | | | | Bucyrus Co. | | | 29 | 78 | 300| 173 | 111 +-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+------+------ Total | 259 | 259 | 283 | 828 |1,305| 473 | 663 +=======+=====+=======+=======+=====+======+====== Finish machining and | | | | | | | assembling-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Singer Manufacturing | | | | | | | Co. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rock Island Arsenal | | | | | 1| | +-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+------+------ Total | | | | | 1| | +=======+=====+=======+=======+=====+======+====== 155-mm. howitzer | | | | | | | recuperator: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Forging-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mesta Machine Co. | 676 | 646 | 648 | 899 |1,080| 226 | | | | | | | | Watertown Arsenal | | | | 160 | 80| 80 | +-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+------+------ Total | 676 | 646 | 648 | 1,059 |1,160| 306 | +=======+=====+=======+=======+=====+======+====== Machining complete and | | | | | | | assembling-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dodge Bros. | | 1 | 27 | 249 | 285| 495 | 403 | | | | | | | 155-mm. gun recuperator: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Forging-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Carnegie Steel Co. | 212 | 213 | 229 | 269 | 401| 389 | 21 | | | | | | | Finish machining and | | | | | | | assembling-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dodge Bros. | | | | | 1| 10 | 19 +=======+=====+=======+=======+=====+======+====== 240-mm. howitzer | | | | | | | recuperator: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Forging-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Carnegie Steel Co. | 286 | 99 | 115 | 61 | 70| 79 | | | | | | | | Watertown Arsenal | | | 21 | | | | +-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+------+------ Total | 286 | 99 | 136 | 61 | 70| 79 | +=======+=====+=======+=======+=====+======+====== Finish machining and | | | | | | | assembling-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Otis Elevator Co. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Watertown Arsenal | | | | | 1| | +-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+------+------ Total | | | | | 1| | =========================+=======+=====+=======+=======+=====+======+======
=========================+===========================+========+=====+======== | 1919 | Total, |Total| Total, +------+------+------+------+Nov. 11,|1918.|Apr. 30, Item, process, and firm. | Jan- |Febru-|March.|April.| 1918. | | 1919. |uary. | ary. | | | | | -------------------------+------+------+------+------+--------+-----+-------- 75-mm. gun recuperator: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Forging-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Carbon Steel Co. | 407 | 49 | | | 2,600 |3,379| 3,835 | | | | | | | Bucyrus Co. | | 68 | | | 435 | 691| 759 +------+------+------+------+--------+-----+-------- Total | 407 | 117 | | | 3,035 |4,070| 4,594 +======+======+======+======+========+=====+======== Finish machining and | | | | | | | assembling-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Singer Manufacturing | | | | | | | Co. | | | 3 | 8 | | | 11 | | | | | | | Rock Island Arsenal | 2 | 13 | 17 | 15 | 1 | 1| 48 +------+------+------+------+--------+-----+-------- Total | 2 | 13 | 20 | 23 | 1 | 1| 59 +======+======+======+======+========+=====+======== 155-mm. howitzer | | | | | | | recuperator: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Forging-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mesta Machine Co. | 49 | | 31 | | 4,000 |4,175| 4,255 | | | | | | | Watertown Arsenal | 25 | 1 | | | 268 | 320| 346 +------+------+------+------+--------+-----+-------- Total | 74 | 1 | 31 | | 4,268 |4,495| 4,601 +======+======+======+======+========+=====+======== Machining complete and | | | | | | | assembling-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dodge Bros. | 141 | | | | 796 |1,460| 1,601 | | | | | | | 155-mm. gun recuperator: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Forging-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Carnegie Steel Co. | | | | | 1,480 |1,734| 1,734 | | | | | | | Finish machining and | | | | | | | assembling-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dodge Bros. | 116 | 270 | 361 | 103 | | 30| 880 +======+======+======+======+========+=====+======== 240-mm. howitzer | | | | | | | recuperator: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Forging-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Carnegie Steel Co. | | | | | 678 | 710| 710 | | | | | | | Watertown Arsenal | | | | | 21 | 21| 21 +------+------+------+------+--------+-----+-------- Total | | | | | 699 | 731| 731 +======+======+======+======+========+=====+======== Finish machining and | | | | | | | assembling-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Otis Elevator Co. | 4 | 14 | 41 | 62 | | | 121 | | | | | | | Watertown Arsenal | | 5 | 19 | 27 | 1 | 1| 52 +------+------+------+------+--------+-----+-------- Total | 4 | 19 | 60 | 89 | 1 | 1| 173 =========================+======+======+======+======+========+=====+========
The process of manufacture of recuperators requires four steps--forging, rough machining, finish machining, and assembling. In the case of 155-millimeter howitzer recuperators all the machining was done by one firm; in the other cases rough machining was done by various firms, including, in the case of the 155-millimeter gun and 240-millimeter howitzer recuperators, the firms doing the forging. Complete records of rough machining are not available.
In discussing here, therefore, the production of field artillery in the war period, we are concerned chiefly with carriages and recuperators, for they offered the major difficulties. Since the production of gun bodies for these various units has been taken up in the preceding chapter, such reference to them as is necessary will be brief. For the sake of additional clearness in the mind of the reader inexpert in these things, the line should be sharply drawn between field artillery and the so-called railway artillery, which was also mobile to a limited degree. The mobile field artillery consisted of all rolling guns or caterpillar guns up to and including the 240-millimeter howitzer in size; and also included the antiaircraft guns of various sizes. All mobile guns of larger caliber than the 240-millimeter howitzer were mounted on railroad cars.
The list of the mobile field artillery weapons in manufacture here during the war period was as follows:
The little 37-millimeter gun, the so-called infantry cannon, one of which two husky men could lift from the ground--a French design;
The 75-millimeter guns--three types of them--the French 75, adopted bodily by the United States; our own 3-inch gun redesigned to the French caliber; and the British 3.3-inch gun, similarly redesigned;
The 4.7-inch gun of American design;
The 5-inch and 6-inch guns, taken from our coast defenses and naval stores and placed on mobile mounts;
The 155-millimeter gun, a French weapon with a barrel diameter of approximately 6 inches;
The 155-millimeter howitzer, also French;
The 8-inch and 9.2-inch howitzers, British designs, being manufactured in the United States when war was declared;
The 240-millimeter howitzer, French and American; and, finally,
The antiaircraft guns.
In modern times, but prior to 1917, the United States had designed types of field-artillery weapons and produced them in quantities shown by the following tabulation:
Pieces.
2.95-inch mountain gun 113 3-inch gun 544 4.7-inch gun 60 5-inch gun 70 6-inch howitzer 40 7-inch howitzer 70 --- Total 897
A comparison of this list with the enumeration above of weapons put in production during the war against Germany indicates that we greatly expanded our artillery in types. That we were able to do this at the outset and go ahead immediately with the production of many weapons strange and unknown to our experience, without waiting to develop models and types of our own, is due solely to the generosity of the governments of France and Great Britain, with whom we became associated. We manufactured in all eight new weapons, taking the designs of three of them from the British and of five from the French.
It might seem to the uninitiated that the way of the United States to a great output of artillery would be made smooth by the action of the British and French Governments in agreeing to turn over to us without reservation the blue prints and specifications that were the product of years of development in their gun plants. Yet this was only relatively true. In numerous instances we were not able to secure complete drawings until months after we had entered the war, due to the practice of continental manufacturers that intrusts numerous exact measurements to the memories of the mechanics working in their shops. Consequently it required several months to complete drawings, and when we received them our troubles had only begun.
First there came the problem of translating the plans after we received them. All French dimensions are according to the metric system. A millimeter is one one-thousandth part of a meter, and a meter is 39.37 inches. An inch is approximately 0.0254 meter. Thus to translate French plans into American factory practice involves hundreds of mathematical computations, most of them carried out to decimals of four or five places. Moreover, the French shop drawings are put down on an angle of projection different from what is used in this country. This fact involved the recasting of drawings even when the metric system measurements were retained. When it is considered that such a mechanism as the recuperator on the 155-millimeter gun involves the translation of 416 drawings, the fact that the preparation of French plans for our own use never took more than two months is remarkable, particularly so since it was hard to find in the United States draftsmen and engineers familiar with such translation work.
Once our specifications were worked out from the French plans, it then became necessary to find American manufacturers willing to bid on the contracts. The average manufacturer would look at these specifications, realize what a highly specialized and involved sort of work would be required in the production of the gun carriages or recoil mechanisms, and shake his head. In numerous instances no such work had ever before been attempted in the United States.
However, as the result of efforts on the part of the Government an increased capacity for producing mobile field artillery was created as follows:
At Watertown, N. Y., the New York Air Brake Co., as agent for the United States, constructed a completely new factory to turn out 25 gun carriages a month for the 75-millimeter guns, model 1916--the American 3-inch type modified to the French dimensions.
At Toledo, Ohio, increased facilities were put up at the plant of the Willys-Overland Co. to manufacture a daily output of 17 French 75-millimeter gun carriages, model 1897.
At Elizabethport, N. J., the Singer Manufacturing Co. erected for the Government a complete new factory for finishing daily 17 French 75-millimeter recuperators.
At New Britain, Conn., the plant of the New Britain Machine Co. was adapted and increased facilities were created for the manufacture of two 3-inch antiaircraft gun carriages a day.
At Detroit, Mich., Dodge Bros., as agents for the Government, erected an entirely new factory, costing in the neighborhood of $11,000,000 to give the final machining to the rough-machine forgings for five recuperators daily for the 155-millimeter gun and to machine completely the parts for twelve recuperators daily for the 155-millimeter howitzer. Their huge new plant for this purpose established a record for rapidity of construction in one of the most severe winters of recent history.
At the plant of the Studebaker Corporation at Detroit, facilities were extended for turning out three carriages a day for the 4.7-inch guns.
At Plainfield, N. J., extended facilities were created at the factory of the Walter Scott Co. for manufacturing 20 carriages a month for the 4.7-inch guns.
At Worcester, Mass., at the plant of the Osgood Bradley Car Co. increased facilities were built for the daily manufacture of five carriages for the 155-millimeter howitzers.
At Hamilton, Ohio, at the works of the American Rolling Mill Co., extensions were made to provide for the manufacture each day of three carriages for the 155-millimeter howitzers.
The plant of the Mesta Machine Co., at West Homestead, Pa., near Pittsburgh, was extended to the enormous capacity of turning out the forgings for 40 recuperators a day for the 155-millimeter howitzers.
Extensively increased facilities were made at the shops of the Standard Steel Car Co., at Hammond, Ind., for the daily output of two carriages for the 240-millimeter howitzers.
Increased facilities were created in the plant of the Otis Elevator Co., Chicago, Ill., for the finish machining of the equivalent in parts of two and one-half recuperators a day for the 240-millimeter howitzers.
Large extensions were made to the plant of the Morgan Engineering Co., Alliance, Ohio, for the manufacture monthly of 20 improvised mounts for the 6-inch guns taken from the seacoast fortifications.
The facilities of the United States arsenals at Watertown, Mass., and at Rock Island, Ill., for the manufacture of field-gun carriages and recuperators were greatly increased.
This carriage construction for the big guns required the closest kind of fine machine work and fittings where the brake or recuperator construction entered the problem, and the great plants built for this purpose of turning out carriages and recuperators were marvels for the rapidity of their construction, the speed with which they were equipped with new and intricate tools, and the quality of their output.
Every mobile gun mount must be equipped with a shield of armor plate. The size of the artillery project may be read in the fact that our initial requirement for armor for the guns ran to a total of 15,000 tons to be produced as soon as it could be done. Now, we had no real source for getting armor in such large quantities, because the previous demands of our artillery construction had never called for it. The prewar manufacturers of artillery armor were three in number--the Simmons Manufacturing Co., of St. Louis; Thomas Disston & Sons, of Philadelphia; and the Crucible Steel Co. To meet the new demand two armor sources were developed--the Mosler Safe Co. plant of the Standard Ordnance Co. and the Universal Rolling Mill Co. The process of building this armor had been a closely guarded secret in the past, a fact entailing extended experiments in the new plants before satisfactory material could be obtained.
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.
In the war period--April 6, 1917, to November 11, 1918--we produced 2,008 complete artillery units, as against 11,056 turned out by France and 8,065 completed by Great Britain in the same period. In those 19 months we turned out 4,275 gun bodies, while in the same months France produced 19,492 and Great Britain 11,852.
THE 37-MILLIMETER INFANTRY FIELD GUNS
The smallest weapon of all the field guns we built was the French 37-millimeter gun, the diameter of its bore being about 1½ inches in our measurements, the figure being 1.45669 inches. This was the so-called infantry field gun, to be dragged along by foot soldiers when they are making an advance. Its chief use in the war was in breaking up the German concrete pill boxes, machine gun nests, and other strong points of enemy resistance. In service it was manned by infantrymen instead of artillerists, a crew of eight men handling each weapon, the squad leader being the gunner. One of the men of the crew was the loader, and he was likewise able to fire the piece. The other six men served as assistants.
The 37-millimeter outfit as it exists to-day consists of the gun, with a split trail, mounted on axle and wheels. By means of a trailer attachment on the ammunition cart it can be drawn by one horse or one mule. The ammunition cart itself is merely a redesigned machine-gun ammunition vehicle. The wheels and axle can easily be removed and left a short distance in the rear of the place where it is desired to set up the gun. The whole outfit weighs only 340 pounds and is about 6 feet long.
The gun rests on its front leg which is dropped to form a tripod with the two legs of the split trail. The gun proper can be removed from the trail and the sponge staff can be inserted in the barrel through the opened breech. Two men can bear this part of the weapon in advancing
## action. Two other men are able to carry the trail, when its legs are
locked together, while the four other members of the squad bring along the boxes of ammunition.
The ammunition cart holds 14 ammunition boxes, each containing 16 rounds. A spare-parts case, strapped to the trail, contains a miscellaneous assortment of such parts as can readily be handled in the field. A tool kit in a canvas roll is also transported on the cart, along with entrenching tools and other accessories.
Equipped with a telescopic sight for direct fire and a quadrant, or collimating sight, for indirect fire, great accuracy is obtained by this small piece of artillery. The length of the barrel of the gun proper is 20 calibers, which means that it is 20 times 37 millimeters in length, or about 29 inches. The length of the recoil when the gun is fired is 8 inches.
Two types of ammunition were provided for this gun at first; but, as the low-explosive type was not so effective as desired, it was abandoned entirely in favor of the high-explosive type contained in a projectile weighing 1¼ pounds. This projectile is loaded with 240 grains of T. N. T. and detonated by a base percussion fuse. The range of the gun is 3,500 meters, or considerably more than 2 miles. Only three to six shots from this gun were found to be necessary to demolish an enemy machine gun emplacement or other strongly held position.
In the great war the 37-millimeter gun found itself and proved its usefulness. The original model had been designed at the Puteaux Arsenal in France in 1885; but it was not until after 1914 that the weapon was produced in quantities.
In this country we took up the production of 37-millimeter guns in October, 1917. While our shops were tooling up for the effort, 620 of these weapons were purchased from the French and turned over to the American Expeditionary Forces. For the purposes of greater speed in manufacture our executives took the gun apart and divided it into three groups, known as the barrel group, the breech group, and the recoil group. Additional to these, as a manufacturing proposition, were the axle and wheels and the trail.
The barrel group went to the Poole Engineering & Machine Co., of Baltimore, Md., who subcontracted for some of the parts to the Maryland Pressed Steel Co., of Hagerstown, Md. The breech group was manufactured by the Krasberg Manufacturing Co., of Chicago. The C. H. Cowdrey Machine Works, of Fitchburg, Mass., turned out the recoil mechanisms. The axles and wheels were built by the International Harvester Co., of Chicago. The trails were turned out by the Universal Stamping & Manufacturing Co., also of Chicago.
When crated for overseas shipment, the gun, ammunition cart, and all accessories, weighed 1,550 pounds and occupied about 15 cubic feet of space.
The first delivery of completed 37-millimeter guns from our factories was made in June, 1918, and at the cessation of hostilities manufacturers were turning out the guns at the rate of 10 per day. Between June and November 122 American-built 37-millimeter guns were shipped abroad, and more were ready to be sent over when the armistice was signed. The gun had been so successful in use abroad that our original order of 1,200 had been increased to 3,217 before the signing of the armistice, including the 620 purchased from the French.
The various groups of this gun were shipped to the plant of the Maryland Pressed Steel Co., Hagerstown, Md., for assembly and were there tested at a specially built proving ground, 8 miles from the factory.
Three 37's were issued to each infantry regiment, making one for each battalion. The required equipment for a division was, therefore, 12 weapons.
[Illustration: THE 37-MILLIMETER INFANTRY CANNON.]
[Illustration: TWO VIEWS OF 75-MILLIMETER FIELD GUN, MODEL 1918 (AMERICAN).]
_Figures on 37-millimeter gun production._
Guns procured from the French Government 620 Guns ordered manufactured in United States, October, 1917 1,200 Increase in order, September, 1918 1,397 Total number ordered in United States 2,597 Total number of guns completed prior to the signing of the armistice 884 Guns delivered for overseas shipment prior to the signing of the 300 armistice Guns shipped to various camps in this country 26 Guns shipped to other points in this country 4 On hand at Hagerstown Arsenal, proof fired 425 Completed and ready for proof firing 129
THE 75-MILLIMETER GUNS.
Next in order in the upward scale of sizes we come to the 75-millimeter gun, which was by far the most useful and most used piece of artillery in the great war. In fact the American artillery program might be divided in two classes, the 75's in one class, and all other sizes in the other, since it may be said practically that for every gun of another size produced we also turned out a 75. In number the 75's made up almost half of our field artillery. The 75-millimeter gun threw projectiles weighing between 12 and 16 pounds and it had an effective range of over 5½ miles.
We approached the war production of this weapon with three types available for us to produce--our own 3-inch gun; its British cousin the 3.3-inch gun or 18-pounder; and the French 75-millimeter gun, with its bore of 2.95275 inches. The decision to adopt the 75-millimeter size and modify the other two guns to this dimension, giving us interchangeability of ammunition with the French, was an historic episode in the American ordnance development of 1917.
While in 1917 the French with their excess manufacturing capacity began work on our first orders for 1,068 guns of this size to supply our troops during the interim until American factories could come into production, we were preparing our factories for the effort. Roughly speaking the 75 consists of a cannon mounted on a two-wheeled support for transportation purposes. This support also provides a means for aiming by suitable elevating and traverse mechanisms. As previously explained, a recoil mechanism is also provided to absorb the shock of firing, allowing a certain retrograde movement of the cannon and then returning it in position for the next shot--returning it "into battery," as the artillerists say. By its recuperator device the field gun of to-day is chiefly distinguished from its brother of the latter part of the nineteenth century. Without a recuperator the gun would leap out of aim at each shot and would have to be pointed anew; but one with a recuperator needs to be pointed only at the beginning of the
## action.
When we entered the war we found ourselves with an equipment of 544 field guns of the old 3-inch model of 1902. This gun had a carriage provided with the old-style single trail. By 1913, however, we had been experimenting with the split trail and it had been strongly recommended by our ordnance experts; and in 1916 we had placed orders for nearly 300 carriages of the split-trail type, which had come to be known as Model 1916. Of these orders 96 carriages were to come from the Bethlehem Steel Co., and the remainder from the Rock Island Arsenal.
Meanwhile for some time the Bethlehem Steel Co. had been engaged in turning out carriages for the British 3.3-inch guns. Here was capacity that might be utilized to the limit; and, accordingly, in May, 1917, we ordered from the Bethlehem Co. 268 of the British carriages. At the same time we ordered from the same company approximately 340 of our own Model 1916 carriages at a cost of $3,319,800. A few weeks later the decision had been made to make all our guns of this sort conform to the French 75-millimeter size, and these British and American carriages contracted for in May were ordered modified to take 75-millimeter guns. The carriages needed little modification and the guns not much. Subsequently, in rapid succession we placed orders with the Bethlehem Steel Co., calling for the construction of an additional 1,130 of the British carriages, all of them to be adapted to 75-millimeter guns.
Next it was the concern of the Ordnance Department to find other facilities for manufacturing carriages for these weapons. The artillery committee of the Council of National Defense located the New York Air Brake Co. as a concern willing to undertake this work; and in June, 1917, this company signed a contract to produce 400 American model 1916 carriages at a cost of $3,250,000.
By December we had the drawings for the French carriages of this size and made a contract with the Willys-Overland Motor Car Co. to produce 2,927 of them. The table at the end of this section shows the production attained at these various plants.
The manufacture of carriages for the 75's produced concrete results, as our factories here were turning them out for us at the rate of 393 per month when the fighting ceased, and our contract plants in France were making 171 per month. In all we received from American factories 1,221 carriages. At the rate of increase we would have been building 800 carriages per month by February, 1919.
It may be said we were thoroughly impressed with the difficulties attached to the transplanting to this country of the manufacture of French 75-millimeter recuperators. It was a question whether this device could possibly be built by any except the French mechanics trained by long years in its production. At first it seemed that we could secure no manufacturer at all who would be willing to assume such a burden. Not until February, 1918, were complete drawings and specifications of the recuperator received from France. At length the Singer Manufacturing Co., builders of sewing machines, consented to take up this new work, and on March 29 the company contracted to produce 2,500 recoil systems for the 75-millimeter gun carriages. In April, 1918, the Rock Island Arsenal was instructed to turn out 1,000 of these recuperators.
[Illustration: TWO VIEWS OF THE FRENCH 75-MILLIMETER GUN.
This type of gun has been used by the French Army since 1897, and was the gun most used by the Allies in the Great War. This gun throws a shell weighing 12.3 pounds a distance of 8,400 meters or shrapnel weighing 16 pounds a distance of 9,000 meters. The weight of the gun and carriage is 2,657 pounds. The service muzzle velocity of the shell is 1,805 feet per second, while for shrapnel it is 1,755 feet per second.]
[Illustration: THE 75-MILLIMETER FIELD GUN, MODEL 1917 (BRITISH).
This gun throws a shell weighing 12.3 pounds a distance of 8,300 meters, and 16 pounds of shrapnel a distance of 8,900 meters. The weight of the gun and carriage is 2,887 pounds. Its muzzle velocity for shell is 1,750 feet a second and for shrapnel 1,680 feet a second.]
The production of gun bodies for the 75-millimeter units was quite satisfactory. The Bethlehem Co., the Wisconsin Gun Co., the Symington-Anderson Co., and the Watervliet Arsenal were the contractors who built the gun bodies. Gun bodies of three types, but all of the same 75-millimeter bore, were ordered--the American type (the modified 3-inch gun), the British type (the modified 3.3-inch gun), and the French type.
Our ordnance preparation would have given us enough 75's for the projected army of 3,360,000 men on the front in the summer of 1919, together with appropriate provision for training in the United States. Of the 75's built in this country, 143 units were shipped to the American Expeditionary Forces before the armistice went into effect. Meanwhile the French had delivered to our troops 1,828 units of this size. The total equipment of 75's for our Army in France from all sources thus amounted to 1,971 guns with their complete accessories.
------------------------+------------------------+------+------+------+------ Unit. | Contractor. |Number|Number|Number|Number | | or- | comp-|float-| com- | |dered.| leted| ed |leted | | | at |over- |up to | | | sign-| seas |April | | |ing of| to | 17, | | | armi-| Nov. |1919. | | |stice.| 11, | | | | |1918. | ------------------------+------------------------+------+------+------+------ 75-mm. gun carriage, |{Rock Island Arsenal | 472| 159| }| { 185 model 1916 |{Bethlehem Steel Co. | 455| 14| } 34| { 25 |{New York Air Brake Co. | 400| 33| }| { 97 | | | | | 75-mm. gun carriage |Willys-Overland Co. | 2,927| 291| | 1,299 (French) | | | | | | | | | | 75-mm. gun carriage |Bethlehem Steel Co. | 2,868| 724| 124| 921 (British), complete | | | | | | | | | | 75-mm. gun carriage | do. | 968| 439| | 1,010 limber (British), | | | | | complete | | | | | | | | | | 75-mm. gun carriage |{ do. | 436| 436| | 441 limber, model 1918 |{American Car & Foundry | 3,661| 3,661| 980| 3,661 |Co. | | | | | | | | | 75-mm. gun caisson, |{Bethlehem Steel Co. | 1,666| 302| 4,957| 831 model 1918 |{American Car & Foundry |20,356|11,680| |18,301 |Co. | | | | | | | | | 75-mm. caisson limber, |{Bethlehem Steel Co. | 1,916| 1,210| | 1,916 model 1918 |{American Car & Foundry |20,675|15,526| 4,126|20,675 |Co. | | | | | | | | | |{Symington-Anderson Co. | 640| 416| }| { 416 75-mm. cannon, model |{Wisconsin Gun Co. | 160| 116| } 19| { 116 1916 |{Watervliet Arsenal | 264| 161| }| { 192 |{Bethlehem Steel Co. | 340| 2| }| { 2 | | | | | 75-mm. cannon (French) |{Symington-Anderson Co. | 4,300| 103| | 860 |{Wisconsin Gun Co. | 2,050| 9| | 190 | | | | | 75-mm. cannon (British) |Bethlehem Steel Co. | 2,868| 592| 124| 909 ------------------------+------------------------+------+------+------+------
4.7-INCH GUNS.
In the 4.7-inch field gun, model of 1906, America took to France a weapon all her own. It was a proven gun, too, developed under searching experiments and tests. There were 60 of these in actual service when we got into the war. The 4.7-inch guns, with their greater range and power, promised to be particularly useful for destroying the enemy's 77-millimeter guns.
The carriage model of 1906 for the 4.7-inch gun is of the long recoil type, the recoil being 70 inches in length. The recoil is checked by a hydraulic cylinder, and a system of springs thereupon returns the gun to the firing position. The gun's maximum elevation is 15 degrees, at which elevation, with a 60-pound projectile, the gun has a range of 7,260 meters, or 4½ miles. With a 45-pound projectile a range of 8,750 meters, or nearly 5½ miles, can be obtained at 15 degrees elevation. It is possible to increase this range to about 10,000 meters, or well over 6 miles, by depressing the trail into a hole prepared for it, a practice often adopted on the field to obtain greater range. The total weight of the gun carriage with its limber is about 9,800 pounds.
An order for 250 of the 4.7-inch carriages was placed with the Walter Scott Co., at Plainfield, N. J., July 12, 1917, upon the recommendation of committees of the Council of National Defense, who were assisting the Ordnance Department in the selection of industrial firms willing to accept artillery contracts. Of the 250 ordered from this concern, 49 were delivered up to the signing of the armistice.
The Rock Island Arsenal had also been employed previously in turning out 4.7-inch carriages; and the capacity of that plant, although small, was utilized. Under the date of July 23, 1917, the arsenal was instructed to deliver 183 carriages. Late in December, 1917, the Studebaker Corporation was given an order for 500. On September 30, 1918, Rock Island Arsenal was given an additional order for 120 carriages, while the Studebaker order was reduced to 380. Additional plant facilities had to be provided at both the Walter Scott Co. and the Studebaker Corporation.
Up to December 12, 1918, a total of 381 carriages of the 4.7-inch type had been completed and delivered. These carriages included the recoil mechanism. In the month of October, 1918, alone, 113 were produced, and this rate would have been continued had the armistice not been signed.
Cannon for the 4.7-inch units were turned out at the Watervliet Arsenal and the Northwestern Ordnance Co., Madison, Wis. Deliveries from the Watervliet Arsenal began in June, 1918, totaling 120 up to December, while the Northwestern Ordnance Co., starting its deliveries in August, had completed 98 by December.
Up to the 15th of November, 64 complete 4.7-inch units had been floated for our forces overseas.
Forgings for the 4.7-inch gun cannon were made by the Bethlehem Steel Co. and the Heppenstall Forge & Knife Co., of Pittsburgh, Pa.
Owing to the great difference in cross section between muzzle and breech end of the jacket, great difficulty was experienced in the heat treatment of these forgings, particularly on the part of manufacturers who had had no previous experience in the production of gun forgings.
[Illustration: FRONT AND REAR VIEWS OF OUR 4.7-INCH GUN AND CARRIAGE, MODEL 1906, WITH WHICH OUR TROOPS HAVE BEEN EQUIPPED FOR A LONG TIME.
This gun throws a projectile weighing 45 pounds a distance of about 6 miles.]
[Illustration: TWO VIEWS OF 155-MILLIMETER GUN, MODEL 1918, G. P. F.
The upper view shows the piece mounted on an auto truck for quick moving about.]
In order to produce enough forgings to supply the finish-machining shops, an order for 50 jackets was later given to the Edgewater Steel Co., of Pittsburgh, Pa., where the jackets were forged. These were then sent to the Heppenstall Forge & Knife Co. for rough machining and finally returned to the Edgewater Steel Co. for heat treating. An order for 150 jackets was also given to the Tacony Ordnance Corporation.
Shortly before the signing of the armistice, the jacket was redesigned so that the heavy breech end was forged separately in the shape of a breech ring. This design, however, was not produced.
It was desired to develop a 4.7-inch gun carriage having the characteristics of the split-trail 75-millimeter gun carriage, model of 1916, so that greater elevation and wide traverse could be obtained. The Bethlehem Steel Co. was given a small order for 36 carriages of their own design prior to the war, and their pilot carriage had been undergoing tests at the proving ground. The design was, however, not sufficiently advanced to be used in the war.
-----------------------+-----------------------+--------+----------+--------- Unit. | Contractor. | Number | Number | Number | |ordered.|completed |completed | | | at the | up to | | |signing of|April 17, | | |armistice.| 1919. -----------------------+-----------------------+--------+----------+--------- 4.7-inch gun carriage, |{Rock Island Arsenal | 303| 183| 183 model of 1906 |{Studebaker Corporation| 380| 88| 175 |{Walter Scott Co. | 250| 49| 57 | | | | 4.7-inch gun-carriage |{American Car & | 433| 433| 433 limber |Foundry Co. | | | |{Maxwell Motor Co. | 479| 82| 250 | | | | 4.7-inch gun caisson |{American Car & | 1,848| 320| 848 |Foundry Co. | | | |{Ford Motor Co. | 1,001| 106| 400 | | | | 4.7-inch cannon |{Northwestern Gun Co. | | 56| |{Watervliet Arsenal | | 93| -----------------------+-----------------------+--------+----------+---------
Sixteen of these units, also 48 which were previously on hand, were floated for overseas up to November 11, 1918.
THE 5-INCH AND 6-INCH GUN MOUNTS.
In the war emergency America sought to put on the front every pound of artillery she could acquire from any source whatsoever. Accordingly, before any of the manufacturing projects were even started, the Ordnance Department conducted a preparedness inventory of the United States to see what guns already in existence we might find that could be improvised for use as mobile artillery in France. The search discovered a number of heavy cannon that could serve the purpose--part of them belonging to the Army, these being the guns at our seacoast fortifications; part belonging to the Navy, in its stores of supplies for battleships; and part of them being the property of a private dealer, Francis Bannerman & Son, of New York.
The guns for this improvised use were obtained as follows:
From the Coast Artillery, a branch of the Army, we obtained ninety-five 6-inch guns, 50 calibers in length, and twenty-eight 5-inch guns, 44.6 calibers; from the Navy stores came forty-six 6-inch guns, ranging from 30 to 50 calibers in length; from Francis Bannerman & Son, thirty 6-inch guns, 30 calibers long. This was a total of 199 weapons of great destructive power, awaiting only suitable mobile mounts to make them of valiant service on the western front. It was the task of the Ordnance Department to take these guns and as swiftly as possible mount them on field artillery carriages of an improvised type that could be most quickly built.
Minor changes had to be made on many of the guns obtained in this manner in order to adapt them for use on field artillery carriages. The various seacoast guns were retained as they were in length, because it was planned to return them eventually to the fortifications from which they had been taken. The Navy guns, all of the 6-inch size, were shipped to the Watervliet Arsenal to be cut down to a uniform length of 30 calibers.
The need for speed in manufacture demanded that the carriages for these guns should be of the simplest design consistent with the ruggedness required for field operations and the accuracy necessary for effectiveness. When tests of the first carriages produced were made it was found that requirements had been more than met.
Orders were placed on September 24, 1917, with the Morgan Engineering Co., of Alliance, Ohio, for 70 mounts for the 6-inch units. A few days later this number was increased to 74, while on the 28th of September, 1917, the same company was given an order for 18 additional 6-inch gun mounts and 28 mounts for the 5-inch guns. Orders for limbers were placed with the same company on December 1.
It was soon discovered that big transport wagons would be required to carry the long 6-inch seacoast guns separately because of their great weight. On February 15, 1918, the Morgan Engineering Co. was ordered to build these necessary transport wagons.
Difficulties in securing skilled labor, necessary materials, and tools delayed production of these mounts, but the eighteen 6-inch gun mounts ordered September 28, 1917, were completed in March, 1918, while the twenty-eight 5-inch gun mounts ordered on the same date were finished in April. In August, 1918, the seventy-four 6-inch gun mounts were turned out. The production of an additional order for thirty-seven 6-inch gun mounts was just beginning when the armistice was signed.
The 6-inch gun carriage, bearing the gun, weighs about 41,000 pounds. A maximum range of over 10 miles can be obtained by this weapon. The complete 5-inch gun unit weighs about 23,500 pounds and has a maximum range of more than 9 miles. In understanding the difficulties that faced the Ordnance Department in building carriages for these guns, it should be recalled that these big weapons were originally built for fixed-emplacement duty and were therefore much heavier than mobile types. This fact complicated the problem of designing the wheeled mounts. They proved to be more difficult to maneuver than the lighter types of guns.
--------+---------+----------+------------+------------ | | | Number | Number | | Number | completed | floated for Model. | Size. | ordered. | prior to | overseas. | | | Nov. 11. | --------+---------+----------+------------+------------ 1897 | 5-inch | 28 | 28 | 26 1917 | 6-inch | 74 | 74 | 68 1917-A | 6-inch | 18 | 18 | 4 1917-B | 6-inch | 37 | 1 | --------+---------+----------+------------+------------
155-MILLIMETER HOWITZERS.
It is a testimonial to the adaptability and skill of American industry that we were able to duplicate successfully in this country the celebrated 155-millimeter howitzer, before 1917 built only in the factory of its original designer, the great firm of Schneider et Cie., in France. This powerful weapon is a fine example of the French gun builders' art, in a country where the art of gun-making has been carried to a perfection unknown anywhere else.
The 155-millimeter howitzer's history dates back to the nineteenth century. In its development the French designers had so strengthened its structure, increased its range, and improved its general serviceability, that in 1914 it was ready to take its place as one of the two most-used and best-known weapons of the allies, the other being the 75-millimeter field gun.
As thus perfected the howitzer weighs less than 4 tons and is extremely mobile for a weapon of its size. It can hurl a 95-pound projectile well over 7 miles and fire several times a minute. The rapidity of fire is made possible by a hydropneumatic recoil system that supports the short barrel of the gun and stores up the energy of the recoil by the compression of air. With the gun pointing upward at an angle of 45 degrees, the recoil mechanism will restore it into battery in less than 13 seconds. The carriage of the gun is extremely light, being built of pressed steel parts that incorporate many ingenious features of design to reduce the weight. The shell and the propelling charge of powder are loaded separately.
The American-built 155-millimeter howitzer was practically identical with that built in France. Any of the important parts of the American weapon would interchange with those which had come from the Schneider factory. We equipped the wheels of our field carriage, however, with rubber tires, and gave the gun a straight shield of armor plate instead of a curved shield.
In the spring of 1917 we bought the plans of the howitzer from Schneider et Cie. and began at once the work of translating the specifications into American measurements. This work monopolized the efforts of an expert staff until October 8, 1917.
In order to facilitate the reproduction here, we divided the weapon, as a manufacturing proposition, into three groups--the cannon itself, the carriage, and the recuperator or recoil system--and placed each group in the hands of separate contractors. There was, of course, the usual difficulty in finding manufacturers willing to undertake production of such an intricate device and who also possessed machine shops that had the equipment and talent required for such work, and in procuring for these shops the highly specialized machinery that would be necessary.
The American Brake Shoe & Foundry Co., of Erie, Pa., whose magnificent work in building a special plant has been described in the preceding chapter, took an order in August, 1917, for 3,000 howitzer cannon and by October, 1918, was producing 12 of them every day. The company turned out its first cannon in February, 1918, approximately six months after receiving the contract, having in the interim built and equipped a most elaborate plant. It is doubtful if the annals of industry in any country can produce a feat to match this.
In fact, the production of cannon by the Erie concern so outstripped the manufacture of carriages and other important parts for the howitzer that it was possible by September, 1918, for us to sell 550 howitzer bodies to the French Government. When the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, the company had completed 1,172 cannon.
In November, 1917, we placed orders for 2,469 carriages for this weapon, splitting the order between the Osgood-Bradley Car Co., of Worcester, Mass., and the Mosler Safe Co., of Hamilton, Ohio. Then followed a long battle to secure the tools and equipment, the skilled mechanical labor, and the necessary quantities of the best grades of steel and bronze, an effort in which the contracting companies were at all times aided by the engineers of the Ordnance Department. All obstacles were overcome and the first carriages were ready for testing in June, 1918. When the armistice was signed 154 carriages had been delivered, and production was moving so rapidly that one month later this number had been run up to 230.
The limbers were manufactured by the Maxwell Motor Car Co., which had orders to turn out 2,575 of them. The first deliveries of limbers came in September, 1918, and seven a day were being turned out in October, a total of 273 having been completed by the day of the armistice. A month later the number of completed limbers totaled 587.
It was in the making of the recuperator systems that the greatest problems were presented. No mechanism at all similar to this had ever been made in this country. No plant was in existence here capable of turning out such a highly complicated, precise, and delicate device.
Finally, after much Governmental search and long negotiation, the Dodge Bros., of Detroit, motor car builders, agreed to accept the responsibility. In this effort they built and equipped the splendid factory, costing $10,000,000, described elsewhere.
This howitzer recuperator is turned out from a solid forging, weighing 3,875 pounds, but the completed recuperator weighs only 870 pounds. Each cylinder must be bored, ground, and lapped to a degree of fineness and accuracy that requires the most painstaking care.
Difficulties of almost every sort were experienced with the forgings and other elements of the recuperators. The steel was analyzed and its metallurgical formulas were changed. The work of machining proceeded favorably until the very last operation--that of polishing the interior of the long bores to a mirrorlike glaze and still retaining the extreme accuracy necessary to prevent the leakage of oil past the pistons. Such precision had been theretofore unknown in American heavy manufacture. Until the many processes could be perfected, the deliveries were held back.
Even with the delivery of the first recuperator, difficulties did not vanish. This mechanism has no adjustments which can be made on the field, but depends for its wonderful operation upon the extreme nicety of the relation of its parts. It required the alteration of certain small parts before the first trial models could be made to function.
However, all obstacles and difficulties were finally overcome, and in the plant that had been erected during the bitter cold of one of our severest winters, and with practically entirely new machinery and workmen, production got under way, and the first recuperator was delivered early in July, 1918, nine months after the contract was signed. Production in quantity began to follow shortly after that month, and by November an average of 16 recuperators a day was being turned out. Of the 3,120 recuperators contracted for, 898 had been finished when the armistice was signed, and this quantity was increased to 1,238 one month later.
The steel required for the recuperators in these 155-millimeter howitzers, and also for those of the 155-millimeter guns, was of special composition; yet all the forge capacity in this country was being utilized in other war manufacture. New facilities for the manufacture of these forgings had to be developed by increasing the capacity of the Mesta Machine Co. of Pittsburgh, until it could meet our requirements. The Government itself contracted for these forgings and supplied them to Dodge Bros.
Each howitzer required some 200 items of miscellaneous equipment, such as air and liquid pumps and other tools. These were purchased from many sources, and many of these contractors had just as much difficulty with the small parts as the larger firms had with the more important sections of the howitzers.
Many of the problems involved in turning out the complete unit could not be known or understood until they were met with in actual manufacture. Mechanical experts representing Schneider et Cie. were on hand at all times to help solve difficulties as they arose.
The Government turned to France for an auxiliary supply of carriages for the American-built howitzers, placing orders for 1,361 with French concerns. Of this number 772 had been completed when the armistice was signed, and the French expected soon to turn out the carriages at the rate of 140 per month. It might also be noted here that we placed an order in England for 302 British 6-inch howitzers, a piece very like the French howitzer. The British contract was to be completed April 1, 1919.
The various parts of the 155-millimeter howitzer were assembled into complete units and tested at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. After being assembled and tested, the whole unit was taken apart and packed into crates especially designed for overseas shipment. One crate held two howitzer carriages with recuperators in less space than would have been occupied by one carriage on its wheels.
It will be noted that the first gun body of the 155-millimeter howitzers made in this country was delivered in February and the first recuperator in July. Before the recuperators were ready, the other parts of the howitzer had been proof-tried by using a recuperator of French manufacture.
During the months of August and September, 1918, the first regiment equipped with 155-millimeter howitzers was made ready at Aberdeen. The big weapons were packed and on the dock for shipment overseas when the armistice was signed. These first ones were to be followed by a steady stream of howitzers. All arrangements had been made to assemble units and crate them for overseas at the Erie Proving Ground at Port Clinton, Ohio.
None of the 155-millimeter howitzers built here reached the American Expeditionary Forces, but French deliveries of the weapon up to the signing of the armistice totaled 747.
------------------------+------------------------+--------+---------+--------- Unit. | Contractor. | Number | Number | Number | |ordered.|completed|completed | | |Nov. 11, |Apr. 17, | | | 1918. | 1919. ------------------------+------------------------+--------+---------+--------- 155-mm. howitzer |Osgood Bradley Car Co. | 900| 136| 369 carriage | | | | | | | | 155-mm. carriage | do. | 49| | 0 replacement parts | | | | | | | | 155-mm. howitzer | do. | 250| | 93 carriage | | | | | | | | Do |American Rolling Mill | 1,270| 18| 26 |Co. (old Mosler Safe | | | |contract) | | | | | | | Do |Rock Island Arsenal | 172| | 0 | | | | 155-mm. howitzer | | | | carriage limbers |Maxwell Motor Co. | 2,575| 273| 700 | | | | Do |Rock Island Arsenal | 100| | 0 | | | | 155-mm. howitzer caisson|Ford Motor Co. | 8,937| 4,373| 8,937 | | | | 155-mm. howitzer cannon |American Brake Shoe & | | | |Foundry Co. | | 1,172| 1,789 ------------------------+------------------------+--------+---------+---------
THE 155-MILLIMETER G. P. F. GUNS.
The reproduction in the United States of the French 155-millimeter G. P. F. (the French designation) gun presents much the same story as that of the howitzer of equal size--a story of difficulties in translating plans, writing into them the precision of finishing measurements that the French factory usually leaves to the skill of the mechanic himself, difficulties in finding manufacturers willing to undertake the work, and then of providing them with suitable raw materials and machinery, and, above all, of locating the necessary skilled mechanics.
This strange, big monster of a weapon is of rugged design. The entire unit weighs 19,860 pounds. The gun has the extremely high muzzle velocity of 2,400 feet per second, a rate of propulsion that throws the 95-pound projectile 17,700 yards, or a little more than 10 miles.
The wheels of the carriage have a double tread of solid rubber tire. By an ingenious arrangement a caterpillar tread can be applied to the wheels in a few minutes whenever soft ground is encountered.
The center of gravity of the unit is low. The wheels are of small dimensions and the cradle is trunnioned behind in such a fashion as to reduce the height of the cannon. The carriage has a split trail, which allows for a large clearance for recoil at a high elevation and a large angle of traverse. The carriage when traveling is supported on semielliptical springs, as is also the carriage limber.
Two large steel castings make up the carriage of this unit. The bottom part of the carriage is supported by the axle, which carries the two sections of the split trail upon the hinge pins. The top part of the carriage is supported by and revolves upon the bottom carriage and carries in trunnioned bearings the recuperator. The principal difficulty in carriage manufacture was to obtain in this country the extremely large steel castings of light-section, high-grade steel.
The carriages, 1,388 in number, were ordered in November, 1917, from the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Co. The first delivery of carriages was made in August, 1918, and in the last week of October they were being turned out at the rate of seven a day. Up to the armistice date 370 had been produced, of which 16 had been sent overseas.
We also placed orders in France for 577 of these carriages, of which 216 had been completed upon the signing of the armistice. The American monthly rate of production of carriages in October was 162.
The 155-millimeter gun itself is far from being simple to manufacture. It is of considerable length and is built of a number of jackets and hoops to give the required resistance to the heavy pressures exerted in firing, this being a high-velocity gun. Except for a slight change in the manner of locking the hoops to the jacket, our gun is identical with that of the French.
Orders for 2,160 cannon were given to the Watervliet Arsenal and the Bullard Engineering Works, at Bridgeport, Conn., in November, 1917. The Bullard Engineering Works had to construct new buildings and to purchase and install special equipment, and the Watervliet Arsenal had to extend its shops and also purchase and install much additional machinery--a job that took time at both places.
The first deliveries of cannon came from Watervliet Arsenal in July, 1918. During October 50 cannon were delivered, and it seemed certain that by early in 1919 the projected eight cannon per day would be the rate attained. We shipped 16 of the cannon overseas. By November 11 we had received 71 cannon, a number increased to 109 by December 12.
Limbers in the same quantity as carriages were ordered from the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Co., which produced a limber to accompany each one of its delivered carriages. This limber has an extremely heavy axle, similar to the automobile front axle. Its size and weight caused difficulty in obtaining it as a drop forging.
To Dodge Bros. was assigned the task of producing the recuperators for this gun in their special plant. The 155-millimeter gun recuperators, however, were made secondary to the production of the recuperators for the 155-millimeter howitzers, which were the easier of the two sorts to build.
Forgings were available and work started on recuperators in April, 1918. No rapid completion of these intricate mechanisms was possible, however, as the first forgings encountered many delays in their machinings. In the cycle of operations, with everything speeded up to the limit, more than three months must elapse from the day the recuperator forging is received to the day when the completed mechanism can be turned over to the inspector as an assembled article.
[Illustration: 155-MILLIMETER HOWITZER, MODEL 1918 (SCHNEIDER).
This weapon throws shell or shrapnel weighing 95 pounds. Muzzle velocity for shell is 1,420 feet per second. The weight of the howitzer and carriage is 7,600 pounds.]
[Illustration: 8-INCH HOWITZER, MODEL 1917.]
It was in October, 1918, that the first 155-millimeter gun recuperator was delivered. The factory expected to reach a maximum capacity of 10 a day. The company built 12 more by December 1. After the armistice was signed the company's order was reduced to 880, which had all been completed by May 1, 1919.
In order to have recuperators available for use for the units shipped from the United States minus these mechanisms, 110 rough-machined recuperator forgings were shipped to France, where the work of machining and completing was done.
The translation of the French plans for this weapon furnished one of the most difficult pieces of work undertaken by the Ordnance Department. Without counting in the gun pieces, the carriage and limber is made up of 479 pieces, while the recoil mechanism itself has 372 pieces. A total of 150 mechanical tracings had to be made by our draftsmen for the carriage and test tools; 50 for the carriage limbers; 142 for the recoil mechanism; 74 for the tools and accessories; or a total of 416. It was extremely difficult to secure draftsmen who could do this work, and the translation, accomplished in a few weeks, is regarded as a remarkable achievement.
The cannon for this gun were tested at the Erie Proving Grounds and there packed for overseas shipment. We had many cannon and carriages awaiting shipment when the armistice was signed, the plan being to send them to France, where they would be equipped with recuperators.
--------------------+------------------+--------+---------+----------+-------- | | | Number | Number | Number Units. | Contractors. | Number |completed|completed |floated | |ordered.|Nov. 11, | Apr. 17, |Nov. 11, | | | 1918. | 1919. | 1918. --------------------+------------------+--------+---------+----------+-------- 155-mm. gun carriage|Minneapolis Steel | 1,446 | 370 | 800 | 16 model 1918 | & Machinery Co. | | | | (Filloux) | | | | | | | | | | 155-mm. gun carriage| do. | 1,446 | 370 | 800 | 16 limber, model 1918| | | | | (Filloux) | | | | | | | | | | 155-mm. gun cannon |Bullard Engine | 1,400 | 53 | 250 |} proper | Works | | | |} 16 Do |Watervliet Arsenal| 760 | 18 | 68 |} --------------------+------------------+--------+---------+----------+--------
8-INCH HOWITZERS
In the early days of the war the British designed an 8-inch field howitzer that proved itself on battle fields in France. Great Britain loaded her own plants with orders for this weapon and then turned to the United States for additional facilities. The Midvale Steel & Ordnance Co. at Nicetown, Pa., was manufacturing this unit for the British at the time we entered the war.
On April 14, 1917, exactly eight days after we had formally announced our purpose of warring with Germany, an order for 80 of these 8-inch howitzers was placed with the Midvale Steel Co. It was understood that production on our order was to be begun upon the completion of the British contract on which the Midvale Co. was then engaged. The order included the complete units, with carriages, limbers, tools, and accessories, all to be built in accordance with British specifications.
Contracts for the trails were sublet by the Midvale Co. to the Cambria Steel Co; for the wheels, to the American Road & Machinery Co.; for the limbers and firing platforms, to the J. G. Brill Co.; and for the open sights, to the British-American Manufacturing Co. Panoramic sights for these guns were furnished by the Frankford Arsenal.
So satisfactory did the production proceed that on December 13, 1917, the first of the 8-inch howitzers was proof-tried with good results. Early in January, 1918, the complete units began to come through at the rate of three a week, increasing to four a week in April and to six a week in May.
A subsequent contract with Midvale brought the total number of howitzers ordered from that plant up to 195. These weapons, all of the model known as the Mark VI, were all produced and accepted before the signing of the armistice, 96 of them being shipped overseas, with their full complement of accessories. Each completed unit cost in the neighborhood of $55,000. These weapons throw a 200-pound projectile 11,750 yards.
The progress of the war moved so swiftly, however, that there soon was need for artillery units of this same size but with longer range. Accordingly, a new design, known as the Mark VIII½, was brought out, having a range of over 13,000 yards. On October 2, 1918, we placed with the Midvale Co. an order for 100 of these 8-inch howitzers, specifying carriages of the new, heavier type.
When we entered the war the Bethlehem Steel Co., at Bethlehem, Pa., was producing for the British Government a howitzer with a bore of 9.2 inches. The Bethlehem Co. expected to complete these British contracts in July, 1917. The 9.2-inch howitzer was approximately the same size as the 240-millimeter howitzer which we were getting ready to put into production. However, in our desire to utilize every bit of the production facilities of the country, we ordered 100 of the 9.2-inch howitzer units from the Bethlehem Steel Co. and placed additional orders for 132 of these units in England. The British concerns delivered 40 howitzers before the armistice was signed.
-----------+------------+------------+--------+---------+--------+--------- | | | Number | Number | | Number Mark. | Size. |Contractor. |ordered.|completed| Number |completed | | | |Nov. 11, |floated.| to Apr. | | | | 1918. | |17, 1919. -----------+------------+------------+--------+---------+--------+--------- VI |8-inch |Midvale | 195 | 167 | 96 | 195 | howitzer | Steel Co. | | | | VIII½ | do. | do. | 100 | | | 34 Model 1917 |9.2-inch |Bethlehem | 100 | | | 1 | howitzer | Steel Co. | | | | -----------+------------+------------+--------+---------+--------+---------
[Illustration: THE 9.2-INCH HOWITZER, MODEL 1917.
This gun shoots shell weighing 290 pounds 8,690 meters. The weight of the howitzer and carriage is 29,100 pounds.]
[Illustration: TWO VIEWS OF THE 240-MILLIMETER HOWITZER, MODEL 1918.]
THE 240-MILLIMETER HOWITZERS.
The scheme of production of the French 240-millimeter howitzers was entirely aimed at the year 1919; since even if American heavy manufacturing establishments had not been loaded with war orders, it would have been well-nigh impossible to turn out this mighty engine of destruction in quantities in any shorter period of time.
Although approximately the same size as the British 9.2-inch howitzer (the exact diameter of the bore of the 240 being 9.45 inches) and only a little larger than the 8-inch howitzer, the French gun was far more powerful than either. The 8-inch and the 9.2-inch howitzers had ranges in the neighborhood of 6 miles, while their shell weighed from 200 to 290 pounds. The 240, on the other hand, hurled a shell weighing 356 pounds and carrying a bursting charge of between 45 and 50 pounds of high explosive. Its range was almost 10 miles.
We produced the 8-inch and the 9.2-inch howitzers to fill the gap during the two years which must elapse before we could get into quantity production of the 240. The French and British governments in the fall of 1917 asserted their ability to equip our first 30 combat divisions in 1918 with heavy howitzers, so that if our production came along in the spring of 1919 it could meet the requirements of the war situation.
Consequently we planned to equip our first army of 30 divisions with 8-inch and 9.2-inch howitzers in equal numbers of each. Our second army of 30 divisions should be wholly equipped with 240-millimeter howitzers; and our expected production of these, being beyond our own contemplated needs, would serve to replace such 8-inch and 9.2-inch howitzers as had been lost in the meantime.
As we adapted it from the French Schneider model, the 240-millimeter howitzer consisted of four main parts--the howitzer barrel, the top carriage, the cradle with recoil and mechanism, and the firing platform. Each of these four parts had its own transportation wagon and limber drawn by a 10-ton tractor. The weapon was set up with the aid of an erecting frame and a small hand crane.
Each of the main sections is composed of numerous smaller assembled parts made up of various grades of iron and steel and raw materials, all requiring the greatest precision in their manufacture and all having to pass rigid and exacting tests for strength and dimensions.
The production of even one of these enormous weapons would have been a hard job for any American industrial plant, but to manufacture over 1,200 of them, and that within the comparatively limited time allowed and under the abnormal industrial and transportation conditions then prevailing, was a task of tremendous difficulty and complexity.
On September 1, 1917, an order was placed with the Watertown Arsenal for 250 carriages for the American 240's, to be turned out complete with the recoil mechanism, transportation vehicles, tools, and accessories. To show the size of the job, an allotment of $17,450,000 was set aside to cover the estimated expenses at the arsenal.
Well equipped as the Watertown Arsenal was said to be at the time for the production of heavy gun carriages, it was found necessary, in order to handle this job, to construct a new erecting shop that had a capacity practically as large as all the other buildings of the plant put together. The number of employees at the arsenal was increased from 1,200 to more than 3,000.
The greatest difficulty experienced was in obtaining the large number of heavy machine tools required, and experts were sent out to scour the country in an effort to locate these tools wherever they might be available. Raw materials could not be procured in sufficient quantities, while numerous transportation delays impeded the work.
Finally, in October, 1918, the pilot carriage was completed and sufficient progress had been made on the entire contract to assure production of the required number of units in the early part of 1919.
A second carriage contract (Nov. 16, 1917) went to the Standard Steel Car Co., of Hammond, Ind. This called for the delivery of 964 carriages complete with transportation vehicles, limbers, tools, etc., but not with recuperators. These the Otis Elevator Co., of New York, undertook to deliver.
The Standard Steel Car Co. is one of the most important builders of railway cars, freight and passenger, in the country, and it possessed a large and well-equipped plant. Nevertheless, the company was compelled to construct several additional buildings and practically to double the capacity of its huge erecting shop in order to prepare adequately for the tremendous task undertaken.
As a means to save time, subcontracts were immediately placed with more than 100 firms throughout the East and Middle West for the production and machining of as many as possible of the component parts needed by the Standard Steel Car Co. Wherever practicable, the subcontractors working on similar contracts for the Watertown Arsenal were retained by the Indiana company, so that better prices might be obtained, parts standardized, and the whole production greatly facilitated.
Once the work was well under way the ramifications of this one contract, with its subcontracts for parts, materials, tools, building construction, etc., extended throughout practically the entire industrial facilities of the eastern and central sections of the country.
As in the case of the contract given the Watertown Arsenal, there were many difficulties in obtaining tools and raw materials. In a large majority of cases allocations, partly of iron and steel products, had to be obtained through the War Industries Board. When allocations had been granted, priority orders had to be secured, as the producers of these materials were already overworked with Government orders of varying importance.
With the pilot carriage complete in the early part of October, production on all the main parts had progressed by November to such an extent that a large output of finished carriages was assured for December and thereafter, had not the signing of the armistice intervened and ended the necessity for further expedition of the work.
Orders for howitzer bodies were placed as follows:
Sets. Bethlehem Steel Co., Nov. 21, 1917. 237 Edgewater Steel Co., Oct. 24, 1917. 175 Tacony Ordnance Corporation, Nov. 14, 1917. 175 Watertown Arsenal, Nov. 10, 1917. 80 American Bridge Co., Mar. 31, 1918. 800
The Watervliet Arsenal on November 20, 1917, was instructed to do the machining of forgings so as to turn out 250 gun bodies for the 240-millimeter howitzers, and three months later this order was doubled. On November 7, 1918, an additional 660 were ordered from Watervliet, making a grand total of 1,160 howitzer cannon of this caliber ordered machined and completed at the Watervliet Arsenal. The arsenal contracted to reach an output of 100 cannon a month and deliver the last of the 1,160 not later than September 30, 1919.
It was found necessary to erect an entirely new shop for the machining of these howitzers. This shop was completed in May, 1918. During the war period $13,164,706 was spent or allotted to the Watervliet Arsenal for increasing its facilities. Forgings were furnished to the arsenal by the Government, but the forging situation was never a delaying factor in the production of 240-millimeter howitzers.
In all, 158 sets, of 1,467 ordered, were delivered up to December 12, 1918. The pilot howitzer was delivered by the Watervliet Arsenal to the proving ground on August 24, 1918.
In the summer of 1918 the Watertown Arsenal contracted to build 252 additional recuperators for these howitzers. Work was started at once in the shops, and, though additional facilities had to be prepared and much new equipment added, the production of the first recuperator was begun without delay. It was found that the planing equipment at the arsenal was not sufficient to handle the work, and therefore a great deal of the rough planing was done by subcontractors.
The Watertown Arsenal was to furnish its own forgings, but it was quickly found that an additional source of supplies was required. The Carnegie Steel Co. had been given an order on December 27, 1917, for 1,300 recuperator forgings, and some of these were sent to the Watertown Arsenal.
The first recuperator was completed October 28, 1918, and 16 had been finished up to December 31, 1918, when 280 forgings were in the process of machining.
To handle its order for 1,039 recuperators, the Otis Elevator Co., of New York, found it necessary to rebuild a plant which it owned in Chicago. Forgings were furnished by the Government.
On May 1, 1918, the Otis Elevator Co. started its rough machining. Hard spots were found in the metal, causing great trouble at first, but this difficulty was overcome by changes in the heat treatment. The Carnegie Steel Co. was then instructed to rough-machine the forgings before sending them to the Otis Elevator Co. An order was also given to the Midvale Steel Co. to rough-machine 24 forgings. Early in November, 1918, the Otis Elevator Co. finished its first recuperator.
One 240-millimeter howitzer unit was completed at the time of the signing of the armistice, out of a total of 1,214 contracted for; but had war conditions continued, the expectation was for a monthly capacity of 80 units by 1919. Actual deliveries are given below:
--------------------+-------------------+--------+---------+--------- | | |Number |Number Units. | Contractors. |Number |completed|completed | |ordered.|Nov. 11, |Apr. 17, | | |1918. |1919. --------------------+-------------------+--------+---------+--------- 240-mm. unit, |} Watertown | 250 |{ [11]1 | [11]41 complete, except |} Arsenal | |{ [12]4 | [12]25 howitzer |} | | | 240-mm. howitzer | Standard | 964 | 5 | 67 carriage units, | Steel Car Co. | | | except recuperators | | | | Windlasses | Dodge | 1,125 | 33 | 350 | Manufacturing Co | | | Rammer trucks | do. | 1,205 | 2 | 375 Shot trucks | do. | 3,214 | 2 | 1,000 240-mm. howitzer | Watervliet | | 2 | 19 cannon | Arsenal | | | --------------------+-------------------+--------+---------+---------
[11] Carriage alone.
[12] Carriages with recuperators.
FIGHTING THE AIRPLANE WITH ARTILLERY.
The American development of antiaircraft artillery had, previously to 1917, been confined almost exclusively to the task of designing and constructing stationary units of defense for our coast fortifications. It was naturally expected that it would be at those points that we would first, if ever, have to meet an attack from the air. Very little attention had been paid mobile artillery of this sort.
Before April, 1916, the Ordnance Department had designed a high-powered 3-inch antiaircraft mount for the fixed emplacement at coast fortifications. The gun on this mount fired a 15-pound projectile with a muzzle velocity of 2,600 feet a second. It is still to-day the most powerful antiaircraft weapon of its caliber. Between May, 1916, and June 18, 1917, orders for 160 of these mounts were placed with the Watertown Arsenal and the Bethlehem Steel Co. Up to April 10, 1919, a total of 116 of these had been completed and sent for emplacement at the points selected.
[Illustration: TWO VIEWS OF ANTIAIRCRAFT GUNS ON TRUCK MOUNTS.]
[Illustration: TWO OTHER VIEWS OF ANTIAIRCRAFT GUNS.]
By the end of 1916, however, it was foreseen that it would be necessary to provide antiaircraft artillery of a mobile type as part of the equipment for any field forces that might be sent abroad. Since that contingency seemed entirely possible at that time, and as it appeared to be impossible to provide a suitable design that would have a sufficient period of time in which to get proper consideration and test, it was decided to improvise a simple structural steel design that would permit quick construction and on which a 75-millimeter field gun, that was already in production, could be mounted.
This design was completed May 1, 1917, and an order for 50 placed with the Builders Iron Foundry. Deliveries on these were made during the fall of 1917, and the carriages were at once shipped to France for equipment with French field guns and recuperators that had been already procured for the purpose.
In its mobility the improvised antiaircraft gun mount was far from perfect. It was necessary to disassemble it partly and mount it on trailers. The need for a mount that could be moved easily and speedily had been realized before our entrance in the war, and a design embodying these qualities was completed as early as December, 1916.
This truck was designed to be equipped with the American 75-millimeter field gun, model of 1916. Before the drawings were completed an order for the pilot mounts of this type was placed with the Rock Island Arsenal. The war came on, and it was decided not to wait for a test of the mounts before starting general manufacture. Accordingly the New Britain Machine Co., in July, 1917, was given an order for 51 carriages. No further orders were placed for carriages of this sort, as it was not thought best to go too heavily into production of an untried mount.
It may be noted here that our first 26 antiaircraft guns were mounted on White 1½-ton trucks.
It was also realized that the field guns with which these mounts were to be equipped did not have the power and range that the war experience was showing to be necessary. The only reasons that the field guns of the 75-millimeter caliber were used in this way was because they were the guns most quickly available and because the French were already using them for this purpose.
To meet the need of more powerful antiaircraft weapons, a need becoming more pressing each day, a 3-inch high-powered antiaircraft gun was designed and mounted on a four-wheel trailer of the automobile type. This mount permitted elevations of the gun from 10 degrees to 85 degrees and also allowed for "all around" firing. An order for 612 of these carriages was given to the New Britain Machine Co. in July, 1917, shortly after the contract for the 51 truck mounts had been placed with that concern.
Because of the urgency of the situation it was necessary to construct these carriages without the preliminary tests on a pilot carriage. This, of course, is a very undesirable practice, but under the existing conditions no other procedure would have been practicable. The French antiaircraft auto truck mount, which had the French 75-millimeter field gun with its recuperator placed upon a special antiaircraft mount, was not adopted at the time, because, in July, 1917, the whole question of the possibility of constructing French recuperators in this country was still entirely unsettled. It was imperative then that we develop our own designs.
All of the 51 truck mounts for the antiaircraft guns were delivered during the fall and early winter of 1918, and 22 of them were in France before December, 1918.
Delivery of the first carriage for the 3-inch high-powered gun mounted on the trailer carriage was made in August, 1917. It had been rushed ahead of general production in order to be given some sort of a test. No further deliveries were made, but manufacture reached a point where production in quantity could begin.
A representative of the Ordnance Department was sent to France and England in December, 1917, to gather all the information possible on antiaircraft artillery. As a result of his investigations it was determined that it would be best to procure the greater part of our fire-control equipment in France, since the instruments developed there were in some cases of a highly complicated nature and their manufacture entirely controlled by private parties. Orders were placed for enough of these instruments for the equipment of the first 125 batteries.
Meanwhile, fire-control instruments of various types were in the process of development in this country; but, as they were largely based upon theoretical construction derived from study of the French practices, it was deemed best not to manufacture any of these instruments in quantity, as better instruments of French design were available. Drawings of the French instruments were brought back by the Ordnance officer on his visit to France and were available in this country in the spring of 1918, when manufacture of some of them began in the United States.
At the signing of the armistice our forces in France were equipped almost wholly with antiaircraft artillery loaned to us and supplied by the French. This, of course, does not include the 101 improvised and truck mounts completed during 1917. Production here, however, had reached such a point that shipment of material would have begun in quantity in January, 1919.
The estimated requirements of antiaircraft artillery for 2,000,000 men in 48 divisions is only 120 guns. Other material, of course, would have been required previously for defense of depots, railheads, etc., dependent in a great measure upon the activities of German bombers. It is estimated that about 200 guns would have sufficed for this purpose.
To summarize, 50 of the so-called improvised 75-millimeter antiaircraft guns and mounts had been ordered and completed up to the time of the signing of the armistice; 51 of the 75-millimeter antiaircraft mounts, model of 1917, had been ordered and 46 completed; while 612 of the 3-inch antiaircraft trailer carriage mounts, model of 1917, had been ordered, of which 1 had been actually delivered at the signing of the armistice, the balance to come at the rate of 26 per month starting in December.
_Artillery--Production of complete units, by months._
[Deliveries in the United States on U. S. Army orders only.]
-----------------------+-----+------------------------------ | To | 1918 |Jan.,+----+----+----+----+----+----- |1918.|Jan.|Feb.|Mar.|Apr.|May.|June. -----------------------+-----+----+----+----+----+----+----- 75-mm. gun, model 1897 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 75-mm. gun, model 1916 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 21 75-mm. gun, model 1917 | 1 | 11 | 36 | 28 | 58 | 22 | 61 75-mm. antiaircraft gun| 0 | 49 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 3-inch antiaircraft gun| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 4.7-inch gun | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 155-mm. howitzer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 5-inch seacoast gun | 0 | 0 | 1 | 27 |[13]|[13]| [13] 6-inch seacoast gun | 0 | 0 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 45 | 23 155-mm. gun | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 8-inch howitzer | 7 | 12 | 17 | 20 | 22 | 2 | 0 9.2-inch howitzer[14] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 240-mm. howitzer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 8-inch seacoast gun | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 10-inch seacoast gun | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 12-inch gun | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 12-inch seacoast mortar| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 -----------------------+-----+----+----+----+----+----+----- Total | 8 | 72 | 68 | 89 |86 | 76 | 106 -----------------------+-----+----+----+----+----+----+-----
-----------------------+--------------------------------+----- | 1918 | +-----+----+-----+----+----+-----+Total. |July.|Aug.|Sept.|Oct.|Nov.| Dec.| -----------------------+-----+----+-----+----+----+-----+----- 75-mm. gun, model 1897 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 75-mm. gun, model 1916 | 2 | 60 | 42 | 51 | 11 | 45 | 251 75-mm. gun, model 1917 | 61 | 55 | 130 |211 |110 | 55 | 839 75-mm. antiaircraft gun| 2 | 16 | 2 | 18 | 6 | 3 | 100 3-inch antiaircraft gun| 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 4.7-inch gun | 15 | 15 | 28 | 72 | 50 | 44 | 224 155-mm. howitzer | 1 | 8 | 39 | 63 | 65 | 100 | 276 5-inch seacoast gun | [13]|[13]| [13]|[13]|[13]| [13]| 28 6-inch seacoast gun | 4 | 1 | [13]|[13]|[13]| [13]| 92 155-mm. gun | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 16 8-inch howitzer | 0 | 23 | 27 | 33 | 13 | 15 | 191 9.2-inch howitzer[14] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |[14]0 240-mm. howitzer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 8-inch seacoast gun | 0 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 22 10-inch seacoast gun | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 12-inch gun | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 12-inch seacoast mortar| 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 13 -----------------------+-----+----+-----+----+----+-----+----- Total | 85 |180 | 271 |464 |276 |277 |2,058 -----------------------+-----+----+-----+----+----+-----+-----
[13] Project complete.
[14] No deliveries made by Bethlehem Steel Co. on U.S. Army orders until after signing of the armistice because of priority given to British orders placed before the American declaration of war.
By "complete units" is meant gun body complete, carriage, and recoil mechanism or recuperator. Units are given as complete when their component parts were complete, although the actual assembly of these parts at a common point, testing, and final delivery usually required from two weeks' to two months' additional time.
The 5-inch, 6-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch seacoast guns and the 12-inch seacoast mortars were taken from the fortifications and modified for use with mobile carriages, all above 6 inches for railway mounts.
The 75-millimeter gun, model 1897, was the approved model for active service in France. Model 1916 and model 1917 were used for training purposes both in the United States and in France.
_Production of mobile artillery (complete units), Apr. 1, 1917, to Nov. 11, 1918._
[Including all produced for France and Great Britain in United States.]
------------------------------------------+------------+--------- | Produced. | Shipped | |Overseas. ------------------------------------------+------------+--------- 75-mm. guns (or British 18-pounder) | 970 | 181 3-inch and 75-mm. antiaircraft guns | 97 | [15]26 4.5-inch howitzers | 97 | 97 4.7-inch guns | 157 | 64 155-mm. (5-inch and 6-inch seacoast guns) | 121 |[16]114 155-mm. howitzers | 144 | 0 7-inch guns on caterpillar mounts | [17]10 | 0 Railway artillery | 20 | 11 Heavy howitzers | [18]418 | 322 +------------+--------- Total | 2,034 | 815 ------------------------------------------+------------+---------
[15] Does not include 51 improvised mounts for which guns were furnished by French.
[16] Includes sixteen 155-mm. guns and carriages shipped without recuperators.
[17] Built for the Marine Corps.
[18] Includes sixteen 8-inch howitzers built for the Marine Corps.
[Illustration: 1½-TON ANTIAIRCRAFT MACHINE GUN TRAILER.]
[Illustration: TWO VIEWS OF THE 7-INCH NAVY RIFLE MOUNTED ON A PEDESTAL ON A RAILWAY CAR.
This rifle has a range of about 10 miles and throws a projectile weighing 165 pounds. Note the means of loading and the depression angle.]
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