MUNITIONS 



MUNITIONS 



MUNITIONS: A WAR INDUSTRY 



F. A. Mackenzie, Author of Through the Hindenburg Line 



In addition to this general sketch this Encyclopedia has articles on 

 all munitions, including explosives, e.g. Ammunition; Artillery; 

 Barbed Wire ; Bomb ; Gas Helmet ; Gun ; Lyddite ; Melinite ; 

 Paravane; Shrapnel; Torpedo, etc. See the articles Aisne ; 

 Marne ; Neuve Chapelle and other battles ; also Krupp 



The term munitions (Lat. mu- 

 nire, to fortify) is applied generally 

 to weapons and explosives of every 

 kind, whether offensive or defen- 

 sive, used in warfare, including 

 not only artillery and ammunition, 

 but also tanks, gas masks, torpe- 

 does, paravanes, barbed wire and 

 military stores of all kinds. The 

 scale on which the Great War of 

 1914--18 was waged created an 

 unprecedented demand for muni- 

 tions in every belligerent country, 

 and there was enormous activity in 

 this direction. In the autumn of 

 1914 the British army was un- 

 prepared for the kind of fighting 

 that lay ahead. Its shells were 

 few in number and nearly all 

 shrapnel, unsuitable for trench 

 warfare. Its infantry was highly 

 trained in the use of the rifle and 

 amply provided with small arms 

 ammunition, but was without mor- 

 tars, hand-grenades, and bombs. 



At the outbreak of the war 

 Britain had 456 guns and about 

 180 aeroplanes ; the guns could 

 not fire more than 2 m. into the 

 air ; only two machine guns were 

 provided to each battalion, or 

 24 to a division. There were 

 German fuses for the shells, 

 German sights for the guns, 

 German magnetos and German 

 plugs for the motor transport and 

 aircraft, German optical glasses 

 for the binoculars, German high- 

 speed steel for the machine-tools, 

 and German spelter for gun-metal 

 and other alloys. When it became 

 necessary to manufacture high ex- 

 plosives it was found that Britain 

 had been depending on Germany 

 for sulphuric acid and toluol. The 

 one high explosive made in Britain 

 in the early days was lyddite. 

 A False Economy 



During the trench war in the 

 winter of 1914-15, Sir John French 

 repeatedly asked the government 

 for more high explosives and more 

 shells. He was told that he must 

 economise. In the spring of 1915 

 the guns were rationed over 

 large parts of the front to four 

 shells a gun a day, with the under- 

 standing that these were not to be 

 used unless necessary. The men 

 made their own hand-grenades in 

 the trenches from empty jam and 

 meat tins. The munition plants 

 were working at half pressure ; few 

 were running night shifts. There 

 were rigid trade union regulations 

 against dilution of labour. 



The stories told by returned 

 soldiers aroused a suspicion in 

 England that all was not right. 

 Asquith, speaking at Newcastle-on- 

 Tyne, April 20, 1915, emphatically 

 denied that there was any short- 

 age. " There is not a word of 

 truth in that statement," he 

 declared, " which is the more 

 mischievous because, if it were 

 believed, it is calculated to dis- 

 hearten our troops, to discourage 

 our Allies, and to stimulate the 

 action and the hopes of our 

 enemies." He explained later that 

 he had made the most careful 

 inquiries of Lord Kitchener, and 

 spoke on his authority. 



The military correspondent of 

 The Times, after returning from 

 the front, published a statement 

 on May 14 that some British 

 attacks during the offensive at 

 Festubert had failed because of the 

 lack of high explosives to dis- 

 lodge the enemy from his strong 

 points. A week later The Daily 

 Mail published an article, The 

 Tragedy of the Shells, attacking 

 Lord Kitchener because he " had 

 starved the army in France of high 

 explosive shells." 



Lloyd George takes Control 



The article aroused resentment, 

 but it was soon realized that The 

 Daily Mail was right. Five days 

 later the government announced 

 the creation of a ministry of 

 munitions, and Lloyd George 

 resigned the office of chancellor of 

 the exchequer to organize the new 

 department. He undertook a 

 crusade to arouse the nation to the 

 necessity of a great munition- 

 making campaign. An Act was 

 passed in June, 1915, setting up 

 the ministry of munitions and 

 giving it almost absolute power 

 to take what land or buildings it 

 required, to engage what labour it 

 wished, and to make conditions 

 governing labour for the period of 

 the' war. The board of trade was 

 constituted referee in all disputes 

 between employers and employed ; 

 lock-outs and strikes were for- 

 bidden, employers being liable to 

 a fine of 5 a day for every worker 

 locked out, and employees to the 

 same fine for striking. The profits 

 of controlled establishments, that 

 is, establishments having to do 

 with manufacture for the ministry 

 of munitions, were limited to not 

 more than 20 p.c. over the average 

 amount of net profits for two 



years before the war. This was 

 later on supplemented by a 

 valuable scheme of costing, by 

 which prices were greatly reduced. 



At first employees were not 

 allowed to leave one establishment 

 for anothor without permission, but 

 later leaving certificates were 

 granted. Munition workers were 

 given a badge as an honourable sign 

 of distinction. The ministry was 

 greatly criticised on one occasion, 

 shortly after the passage of the 

 Act, when, on the miners of South 

 Wales striking, it did not impose 

 fines on them, but persuaded them 

 to return to work. The Act, how- 

 ever, succeeded in its purpose. 

 Munitions were produced. 



Results of the Campaign 



A campaign was begun to -enlist 

 labour for war factories. Piece 

 work was established and workers 

 were encouraged to earn as much 

 as they could. Before the end of 

 the war there were 2,300,000 men 

 and 900,000 women engaged on 

 the production of munitions. 

 Women of every class volunteered 

 for the hard, dangerous, and 

 physically exhausting work of the 

 machine shops, explosive factories, 

 and steel works. While there was 

 undoubtedly some waste and over- 

 lapping in the work of the ministry, 

 these were, when all the circum- 

 stances of the hasty creation of a 

 vast enterprise were numbered, 

 insignificant compared with the 

 results accomplished. Special 

 munition towns \vere built at 

 Gretna and elsewhere. Twenty-six 

 national shell factories were begun. 

 The national projectile factory 

 built by Cammell Laird at Notting- 

 ham may be taken as an example. 

 The factory was proposed in July, 

 1915. Within a week Cammell Laird 

 had their scheme prepared. On 

 Aug. 17 the scheme was sanctioned. 

 Two days later the first sod was cut- 

 By April, 1916, half the machines 

 were delivered and production 

 begun, and a year after starting 

 building, the place had turned out 

 over 40,000 9 in. and 6 in. shells. 



Production was divided between 

 the great munition firms, assisted 

 by thousands of small manu- 

 facturers all over the country and 

 the government factories. In some 

 cases private firms, in addition to 

 managing their own works, man- 

 aged national factories for the 

 government. To house the tens of 

 thousands of fresh workers at the 

 government arsenal at Woolwich, 

 where 27,000 Ayomen alone were 

 employed, a new town was built at 

 Well Hall, in Kent. To facilitate 

 the transport of munitions to 

 France a secret port was built at 

 Richborough (q.v.) in Kent. A train 

 ferry across the Channel and a 



