690 



Popular Science Monthly 



The mobile army of the 

 United States is not much 

 more than twice the size of 

 the New York city poUce 

 force, and smaller than the 

 regular army 

 at any time 

 since 1861 



testimony of Brigadier General Crozier, 

 the Chief of Ordnance, the United States 

 possessed only 658 three-inch field pieces, 

 and even when the guns under construc- 

 tion and those provided for by the pres- 

 ent appropriation have been finished, the 

 number of guns of all calibers will not be 

 more than 912. The minimum estimate 

 of what would be needed has been placed 

 at 323 batteries of four guns each, a 

 total of 1,292 guns, while the maximum 

 estimate, made by the late Chief of 

 Staff, was 2,834, which is undoubtedly 

 what would be required in a war against 

 a great Power. On 

 December 23, 1914, 

 the Secretary of War 

 acknowledged that 

 we had only 634 

 completed modern 

 field guns and howitz- 

 ers altogether. The 

 United States has 

 nothing larger in cal- 

 iber than the 6-inch 

 howitzer, and only 

 forty of those cither 

 in existence or ap- 

 propriated for; yet 

 every one knows 

 that in the present 

 European war great 

 use is being made of 

 heavier guns than 

 these. The Chief of 



Ordnance also testified that, even when 

 the design has been decided upon and the 

 forgings delivered, the actual construc- 

 tion of a gun requires about four months; 

 that a battery costs about $85,000; that 

 if $2,100,000 were appropriated annually 

 it would still require eight years before 

 the United States would have 1,292 guns. 

 In no other respects is the military 

 unpreparedness of the United States so 

 apparent as in the matter of reserve ar- 

 tillery ammunition. The minimum num- 

 ber of rounds per gun required in the Ger- 

 man Army is 2,800, while our own Field 

 Service Regulations for 1914 prescribe 

 1,856 rounds. Disregarding the other 

 field pieces possessed by the American 

 Army and assuming that the 568 three- 

 inch guns were alone supplied with 1,856 

 rounds each, the number required would 

 be no less than 1,054,208; yet the Chief 

 of Ordnance confessed on December 8, 



1 914, that all the United States then had 

 "was about 580,000 rounds for the Field 

 Artillery, for the guns of all different 

 calibers." If the 634 field guns of all 

 calibers which the United States pos- 

 sessed in December, 1914, fired only 915 

 times each, they would more than ex- 

 haust the present reserve supply of field 

 artillery ammunition amounting to 580,- 

 000 rounds, and it is a conservative 

 estimate that two days of such firing 

 as is a common occurrence in the battles 

 of the present time, would suffice to 

 consume the entire amount now on 

 hand. The Chief of 

 Ordnance stated 

 that even if every 

 sottrce of supply 

 were utilized, only 

 "about 400,000 

 rounds" could be 

 manufactured in the 

 first six months ; that 

 only 130,000 rounds 

 could be turned out 

 each month there- 

 after; that a mil- 

 lion rounds 

 might be made in a 

 year; that we need 

 about a million and 

 a quarter; and that 

 "it takes over a year 

 to get that much if 

 w^e were to go at it 

 with unlimited appropriations."* Gen- 

 eral Crozier had to confess that "no 

 permanent ammunition trains have been 

 provided," and that at the present rate 

 of appropriation by Congress it would 

 require eight years to complete 1,292 

 guns and their ammunition trains, and 

 about four years to supply 1,800 rounds 

 to the field guns of various calibers — 

 with the exception of the 6-inch howitzers 

 to which it was contemplated to give 

 only 1,000 rounds — and then only on 

 condition that the various plants 

 throughout the country were kept "go- 

 ing night and day" in manufacturing 

 artillery ammunition. 

 Plenty of Rifles , But Too FewMachine-Gims 

 After considerable experimentation the 

 Ordnance Department has found it ad- 



* Many American factories have engaged in the mak- 

 ing of munitions for the Allies since this comment was 

 made. We are probably in a better position now to meet 

 our ammunition requirements. — Editor. 



