MACHINE GUNS.
The machine gun is typically and historically an American device. An
American invented the first real machine gun ever produced. Another
American, who had taken British citizenship, produced the first weapon
of this type that could be called a success in war. Still a third
American gave to the allies at the beginning of the great war a machine
gun which revolutionized the world's conception of what that weapon
might be; while a fourth American inventor, backed by our Ordnance
Department, enabled the American forces to take into the field in
France what is probably the most efficient machine gun ever put into
action.
The machine gun as an idea is not modern at all. The thought has
been engaging the attention of inventors for several centuries.
The idea was inherent in guns which existed in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, but they should be called rapid-fire guns rather
than machine guns, since no machine principle entered into their
construction. They usually consisted of several gun barrels bound
together and fired simultaneously.
The first true machine gun was the invention of Richard Jordon Gatling,
an American, who in 1861 brought out what might be termed a revolving
rifle. The barrels, from 4 to 10 in number, were placed parallel to
each other and arranged on a common axis about which they revolved
in such a manner that each barrel was brought in succession into the
firing position. This gun was used to some extent in our Civil War and
later in the Franco-Prussian War.
In 1866 Reffye, a French inventor, brought out the first
mitrailleuse--a mounted machine gun of the Gatling type towing a limber
and drawn by four horses. It had 25 rifled barrels and could fire 125
shots per minute. The weapon, however, during the Franco-Prussian War,
turned out to be a failure for the reason that it proved an excellent
target for the enemy's artillery and was not sufficiently mobile.
Accordingly the French government abandoned it.
Sir Hiram S. Maxim, who was American born, in 1884 developed a machine
gun which operated automatically by utilizing the force of the recoil.
This gun was perfected and became a serviceable weapon for the
British army in the Boer War. The Maxim gun barrel was cooled by the
water-jacket system. When the water became hot it exhausted a jet of
steam which could be seen for long distances across the South African
veldt, making it a mark for the Boer sharpshooters. This defect was
remedied in homemade fashion by carrying the exhaust steam through a
hose into a bucket of water where it was condensed. This Maxim gun
fired 500 shots a minute.
Meanwhile in this country the Gatling gun had been so improved that it
became one of our standard weapons in the Spanish-American War. Later
on it was used in the Russo-Japanese War.
The Colt machine gun also existed in 1898. This was the invention of
John M. Browning, whose name has been prominently associated with the
development of automatic firearms for the last quarter of a century.
In England the Maxim gun was taken up by the Vickers Co., eventually
becoming what is known to-day as the Vickers gun. In 1903 or 1904 the
American Government bought some Maxim machine guns which were then
being manufactured by the Colt Co. at Hartford, Conn.
In no war previous to the one concluded in 1918 did the machine gun
take a prominent place in the armaments of contending forces. The
popularity of the earlier machine guns was retarded by their great
weight. Some of them were so heavy that it took several men to lift
them. All through the history of the development of machine guns the
tendency has been toward lighter weapons, but it was not until the
great war that serviceable machine guns were made light enough to give
them great effectiveness and popularity. Such intense heat is developed
by the rapid fire of a machine gun that unless the barrel can be kept
cool the gun will soon refuse to function. The water jacket which keeps
the gun cool proved to be the principal handicap to the inventors who
were trying to remove weight from the device. The earliest air-cooled
guns were generally unsuccessful, since the firing of a few rounds
would make the barrel so hot that the cartridges would explode
voluntarily in the chamber, thus rendering the weapon unsafe. The
Benét-Mercié partly overcame this difficulty by having interchangeable
barrels. As soon as one barrel became hot it could be quickly removed
and its cool alternate inserted in its place.
These conditions led to the development of machine guns along two
separate lines--the heavy type machine gun, which must be capable of
long sustained fire, and the automatic rifle, whose primary requisite
is extreme lightness. These requirements brought the ultimate
elimination from ground use in France and in the United States of guns
of the so-called intermediate weight as being incapable of fulfilling
either of the above requirements to the fullest degree.
The machine gun produced by the American inventor, Col. I. N. Lewis,
was a revelation when it came to the aid of the allies early in the
great war. This was an air-cooled gun which could be fired for a
considerable time without excessive heating, and it weighed only 25
pounds, no great burden for a soldier. The Lewis machine gun was hailed
by many as the greatest invention brought into prominence by the war,
although its weight put it in the intermediate class, with limitations
as noted above.
Along in the first decade of the present century the Benét-Mercié
automatic machine rifle was developed. This was an air-cooled gun of
the automatic rifle type and weighed 30 pounds. Light as this gun was,
it was still too heavy to be of great service as an automatic rifle,
since a strong man would soon tire of holding 30 pounds up to his
shoulder, and it was therefore in the intermediate class.
The Germans had apparently realized better than anyone else the value
of machine guns in the kind of fighting which they expected to be
engaged in, and therefore supplied them to their troops in greater
numbers than did the other powers, having, an early report stated,
50,000 Maxim machine guns at the commencement of hostilities. The
Austrian Army had adopted an excellent heavy type machine gun known as
the Schwarzlose whose chief feature lay in the fact that it operated
with only one major spring.
Such was the machine-gun situation, although incompletely set forth
here, at the beginning of the great war. The nations, with the
exception of Germany, had been slow to promote machine gunnery as a
conspicuous phase of their military preparedness. In our Army we had
a provisional machine-gun organization, but no special officers and
few enthusiasts for machine guns. We were content with a theoretical
equipment of four machine guns per regiment. The fact was that in no
previous war had the machine gun demonstrated its tactical value.
The chief utility of the weapon was supposed to lie in its police
effectiveness in putting down mobs and civil disorders and in its value
in other special situations, particularly defensive ones.
The three years of fighting in Europe before the United States was
drawn in had demonstrated the highly important place which the machine
gun held in modern tactics. Because of the danger of our position
we had investigated many phases of armed preparedness, and in this
investigation numerous questions had arisen regarding machine guns.
The Secretary of War had appointed a board of five Army officers and
two civilians to study the machine-gun subject, to recommend the types
of guns to be adopted, the number of guns we should have per unit
of troops, how these guns should be transported, and other matters
pertaining to the subject. Six months before we declared war this
board submitted a report strongly recommending the previously adopted
Vickers machine gun and the immediate procurement of 4,600 of them. In
December, 1916, the War Department acted on this report by contracting
for 4,000 Vickers machine guns from the Colt Co. in addition to 125
previously ordered.
The Vickers gun belongs to what is known as the heavy type of machine
gun. The board found that the tests it had witnessed did not then
warrant the adoption of a light-type machine gun, although the Lewis
gun of the intermediate type was then being manufactured in this
country. The board, however, recommended that we conduct further
competitive tests of machine guns at the Springfield Armory, in
Massachusetts, these tests to begin May 1, 1917, the interval being
given to permit inventors and manufacturers to prepare equipment for
the competition.
The war came to us before these tests were made. On the 6th day of
April, 1917, our equipment included 670 Benét-Mercié machine rifles,
282 Maxim machine guns of the 1904 model, 353 Lewis machine guns, and
148 Colt machine guns. The Lewis guns, however, were chambered for
the .303 British ammunition and would not take our service cartridges.
Moreover, the manufacturing facilities for machine guns in this country
were much more limited in extent than the public had any notion of
then or to-day. Both England and France had depended mainly upon their
own manufacturing facilities for their machine guns, the weapons which
they secured on order from the United States being supplementary and
subsidiary to their own supplies. We had at the outbreak of the war
only two factories in the United States which were actually producing
machine guns in any quantity at all. These were the Savage Arms
Corporation, which in its factory at Utica, N. Y., was nearing the
completion of an order for about 12,500 Lewis guns for the British and
Canadian Governments, and the Marlin-Rockwell Corporation, which had
manufactured a large number of Colt machine guns of the old lever type
for the Russian Government. The Colt factory in the spring of 1917 was
equipping itself with machinery to produce the 4,125 Vickers guns, the
order for 4,000 of which had been placed the previous December by the
War Department on recommendation of the Machine Gun Board. None of
these guns, however, had been completed when the United States entered
the war. The Colt Co. also held a contract for Vickers guns to be
produced for the Russian Government.
It was therefore evident that we should have to build up in the United
States almost a completely new capacity for the production of machine
guns. Nevertheless, we took advantage of what facilities were at hand;
and at once, in fact within a week after the declaration of war, began
placing orders for machine guns. The first of these orders came on
April 12, when we placed a contract with the Savage Arms Corporation
for 1,300 Lewis guns, which, as manufactured by that corporation, had
by this time been overhauled in design and much improved. This order
was subsequently heavily increased. On June 2 we placed an order with
the Marlin-Rockwell Corporation for 2,500 Colt guns, these weapons to
be used in the training of our machine-gun units.
In this connection the reader should bear continually in mind that
throughout the development of machine-gun manufacture we utilized
all existing facilities to the limit in addition to building up new
sources of supply. In other words, whenever concerns were engaged in
the manufacture of machine guns, whatever their make or type, we did
not stop the production of these types in these plants and convert the
establishments into factories for making other weapons; but we had them
continue in the manufacture in which they were engaged, giving them
orders which would enable them to expand their facilities in their
particular lines of production. Then when it became necessary for us
to find factories to build Browning guns and some of the other weapons
on which we specialized, we found new capacity entirely for this
additional production.
Since we sent to France the first American division of troops less than
three months after the declaration of war, they were necessarily armed
with the machine guns at hand, which in this case proved to be the
Benét-Mercié machine rifles.
Meanwhile the development of machine guns in Europe had been going on
at a rapid rate. The standard guns in use by the French Army were now
the Hotchkiss heavy machine gun and the Chauchat light automatic rifle,
both effective weapons. Upon the arrival of our first American division
in France the French Government expressed its willingness to arm this
division with Hotchkiss and Chauchat guns; and thereafter the French
facilities proved to be sufficient to equip our troops with these
weapons until our own manufacture came up to requirements.
The 1st of May, 1917, brought the tests recommended by the
investigation board, these tests continuing throughout the month. To
this competition were brought two newly developed weapons produced by
the inventive genius of that veteran of small-arms manufacture, John M.
Browning. Mr. Browning had been associated with the Army's development
of automatic weapons for so many years that he was peculiarly fitted to
produce a mechanism that could adapt itself to the quantity production
which our forthcoming effort demanded. Both the Browning heavy machine
gun and the Browning light automatic rifle which were put through these
tests in May had been designed with the view of enormous production
quickly attained, so that their simplicity of design was one of their
chief merits. After the tests the board pronounced these weapons the
most effective guns of their type known to the members. The Browning
heavy gun with its water jacket filled weighs 36.75 pounds, whereas
the Browning automatic rifle weighs only 15.5 pounds. These May tests
also proved the Lewis machine gun to be highly efficient. The board
recommended the production of large numbers of all three weapons;
the two Brownings and the Lewis. The board also approved the Vickers
gun, which weighs 37.50 pounds, and we accordingly continued it in
manufacture.
[Illustration: BROWNING MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1917.]
[Illustration: MARLIN TANK MACHINE GUN.]
[Illustration: COLT MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1917, CALIBER .30.]
[Illustration: LEWIS MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1917, CALIBER .30.]
The first act of the Ordnance Department after this report had been
received was to increase greatly the orders for Lewis machine guns
with the Savage Arms Corporation, and the second to make preparation
for an enormous manufacture of Browning machine guns and Browning
automatic rifles. Mr. Browning had developed these weapons at the plant
of the Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Co., of Hartford, Conn.,
which concern owned the exclusive rights to both these weapons under
the Browning patents. This company at once began the development of
manufacturing facilities for the production of Browning guns. In July,
1917, orders for 10,000 Browning machine guns and 12,000 Browning
automatic rifles were placed with the Colt Co. It should be remembered
that the Colt Co. was in the midst of preparations for the production
of large numbers of Vickers machine guns; and the Government required
that the Browning manufacture should be carried on without interference
with the existing contracts for Vickers guns. This requirement
necessitated an enormous expansion of the Colt plant to take care of
its growing contracts for Browning guns. The concern prepared to make
the Browning automatic rifle, the lighter gun, at a new factory at
Meriden, Conn.
In its arrangements with the Colt Co. the Government recognized
that its future demands for Browning guns would be far beyond the
capacity of this one concern to supply. Consequently, for a royalty
consideration, the Colt Co. surrendered for the duration of the war,
its exclusive rights to manufacture these weapons, this arrangement
being approved by the Council of National Defense. Mr. Browning,
the inventor of the guns, was also compensated by the Government
for weapons of his invention manufactured during the war. In the
arrangement the Government acquired the right to manufacture during the
period of the emergency all other inventions that might be developed
by Mr. Browning--an important consideration, since at any time the
inventor might add improvements to the original designs or bring out
accessories that would add to the efficiency or effectiveness of the
weapons.
It may also be added that throughout this period Mr. Browning's efforts
were constantly directed toward the perfection of these guns and the
development of new types of guns and accessories. His services along
these lines were of great value to the War Department.
When these necessary preliminary matters had been settled the Ordnance
Department made a survey of the manufacturing facilities of the United
States to determine what factories could best be set to work to produce
Browning guns and rifles, always with special care that no existing war
contracts, either for the allies or for the United States, be disturbed.
By September this survey was complete, and also by this time we had
definite knowledge of the rate of enlargement of our military forces
and their requirements for machine guns. We were ready to adopt the
program of machine-gun construction that would keep pace with our
needs, no matter what numbers of troops we might equip for battle.
As a foundation for the machine-gun program, in September, 1917, we
placed the following orders: 15,000 water-cooled Browning machine guns
with the Remington Arms-Union Metallic Cartridge Co., of Bridgeport,
Conn.; 5,000 Browning aircraft machine guns with the Marlin-Rockwell
Corporation, of New Haven, Conn.; and 20,000 Browning automatic rifles
with the Marlin-Rockwell Corporation. In this connection it should
be explained that the Browning aircraft gun is essentially the heavy
Browning with the water-jacket removed. It was practicable to use it
thus stripped, because in aircraft fighting a machine gun is not fired
continuously, but only at intervals, and then in short bursts of fire
too brief to heat a gun beyond the functioning point.
At the same time these orders were placed the Winchester Repeating
Arms Co., of New Haven, Conn., was instructed to begin its preliminary
work looking to the manufacture of Browning automatic rifles; and less
than a month later, in October, an order for 25,000 of these weapons
was placed with this concern. Then followed in December an additional
order for 10,000 Browning aircraft guns to be manufactured by the
Marlin-Rockwell Corporation. A contract for Browning aircraft guns was
also given to the Remington Arms-Union Metallic Cartridge Co.
Before the year ended the enormous task of providing the special
machinery for this practically new industry was well under way. The
Hopkins & Allen factory, at Norwich, Conn., had been engaged upon a
contract for military rifles for the Belgian government. Before this
order was completed the Marlin-Rockwell Corporation took over the
Hopkins & Allen plant and set it to producing parts for the light
Browning automatic rifles. Even this concern, however, could not
produce the parts in sufficient quantities for the Marlin-Rockwell
order, and the latter concern accordingly acquired the Mayo Radiator
factory, at New Haven, and equipped it with machine tools for the
production of Browning automatic-rifle parts. Such expansion was
merely typical of what went on in the other concerns engaged in our
machine-gun production. Immense quantities of new machinery had to
be built and set up in all these factories. But still the Ordnance
Department kept on expanding the machine-gun capacity. The New England
Westinghouse Co., of Springfield, Mass., in January, 1918, completed a
contract for rifles for the Russian government and was at once given
an order for Browning water-cooled guns. For reasons which will be
explained later, the original order for Browning aircraft guns, which
had been placed with the Remington Arms Co., was later transferred to
the New England Westinghouse Co. at their Springfield plant.
[Illustration: BENÉT-MERCIÉ MACHINE GUN.]
[Illustration: HOTCHKISS MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1914, 8-MILLIMETER.
This is the machine gun adopted by the French Army. This gun
is of a heavy type, air-cooled, gas-operated, and fed from
either a strip holding 30 cartridges or a metallic link
belt. Its rate of fire is about 500 rounds per minute.]
[Illustration: VICKERS MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1915, CALIBER .30.]
[Illustration: VICKERS AIRCRAFT MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1918, CALIBER .30.]
As soon as our officers in France could make an adequate study of our
aircraft needs in machine guns, they discovered that in the three
years of war only one weapon had met the requirements of the allies
for a fixed machine gun that could be synchronized to fire through the
whirling blades of an airplane propeller. This was the Vickers gun,
which was already being manufactured in some quantity in our country,
and for which three months before we entered the war we had given an
order amounting to 4,000 weapons. On the other hand, the fighting
aircraft of Europe were also finding an increased need for machine guns
of the flexible type--that is, guns mounted on universal pivots, and
which could be aimed and fired in any direction by the second man, or
observer, in an airplane. The best gun we had for this purpose was the
Lewis machine gun.
For technical reasons that need not be explained here, the Vickers gun
was a difficult one to manufacture. The Colt Co., which was producing
these weapons, in spite of their long experience in the manufacture
of such arms and in spite of their utmost efforts, had been unable
to deliver the finished Vickers guns on time, either to the Russian
government or to this country. However, by expanding the facilities
of this factory to the utmost, by the month of May, 1918, the concern
achieved a production of over 50 Vickers guns per day. Doubtless,
because of these same difficulties, neither the British nor the French
governments had been able to procure Vickers guns as rapidly as they
expanded the number of their fighting aircraft, and consequently
when we entered the war we received at once a Macedonian cry from
the allies to aid in equipping the allied aircraft with weapons of
the Vickers type. An arrangement was readily reached in this matter.
Our first troops in France needed machine guns for use on the lines.
Our own factories had not yet begun the production of these weapons.
Accordingly, in the fall of 1917, we arranged with the French high
commissioner in this country to transfer 1,000 of our Vickers guns to
the French air service, receiving in exchange French Hotchkiss machine
guns for Gen. Pershing's troops.
Now while the demands of the allied service had brought forth only
the Vickers machine gun as a satisfactorily synchronized weapon, we,
shortly after our entry into the war, had succeeded in developing two
additional types of machine guns which gave every promise of being
satisfactory for use as fixed synchronized guns on airplanes. One of
these, of course, was the heavy Browning gun, stripped of its water
jacket; but because this was a new weapon, requiring an entirely new
factory equipment for its production, the day when Brownings would
begin firing at the German battle planes was remote, indeed, as time is
reckoned in war.
On the other hand, our inventors had been improving a machine gun
known as the Marlin, which was, in fact, the old Colt machine gun,
Mr. Browning's original invention, but now of lighter construction
and with a piston firing action instead of a lever control. In the
face of considerable criticism at the time, we proposed to adapt this
weapon to our aircraft needs as a stop-gap until Brownings were coming
from the factory in satisfactory quantities. We took this course
because we were prepared to turn out quantities of the Marlin guns
in relatively quick time. As has been said, the Marlin resembled the
Colt. The Marlin-Rockwell Corporation was already tooled up for a large
production of Colt guns, and this machinery with slight modifications
could be used to produce the Marlin.
We decided upon this course shortly after the declaration of war, and
there followed a severe engineering and inventive task to develop a
high-speed hammer mechanism and a trigger motor which would adapt the
gun for use with the synchronizing mechanism. But then occurred one of
those surprising successes that sometimes bless the efforts of harassed
and hurried executives at their wits' end to meet the demand of some
great emergency. The improvements added to the Marlin gun eventually
transformed it in unforeseen fashion into an aircraft weapon of such
efficiency that not only our own pilots but those of the French air
forces as well were delighted with the result.
When it was proposed to adapt the Marlin gun for synchronized use on
airplanes, the Ordnance Department detailed officers to cooperate with
the Marlin company in its efforts. For technical reasons of design the
original gun apparently had little or no adaptability to such use. Many
new models were built only to be knocked to pieces after the failure of
some feature to perform properly the work for which it was designed.
Nevertheless the enthusiasm of the company for its project could not be
chilled, and it continued the development until the gun finally became
a triumph in gas-operated aircraft ordnance.
In the latter part of August we were using the Marlin gun at the front,
and cablegram after cablegram told us of the surprisingly excellent
performances of this weapon in actual service. It is sufficient here
to quote one of these messages from Gen. Pershing, dated February 23,
1918:
[Illustration: MAXIM MACHINE GUN AND TRIPOD (AMERICAN), MODEL 1904
CALIBER .30.
This was the first automatic machine gun to be developed. It
is of the heavy type, recoil operated, water cooled, and belt
fed. The gun is capable of sustained fire for long periods of
time provided its water supply is properly maintained, and is
adaptable to indirect barrage fire. It is used by the British
and U. S. forces and in modified form by the Germans.]
[Illustration: BROWNING AUTOMATIC RIFLE EQUIPMENT.]
[Illustration: LEWIS AIRCRAFT MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1917, CALIBER .30.]
[Illustration: MARLIN AIRCRAFT MACHINE GUN, TYPE 8 M. G.
A fixed synchronized gun developed from the Colt gun solely
for aircraft use. It is of the heavy type, gas operated, air
cooled, and belt fed. It is the only gas-operated gun which has
been successfully synchronized and has been found to give the
closest grouping of shot in synchronized fire which has ever
been obtained with any gun.]
[Illustration: GERMAN MAXIM MACHINE GUN ON MOUNT.]
Marlin aircraft guns have been fired successfully on four trips
13,000, 15,000 feet altitude, and at temperature of minus 20°
F. On one trip guns were completely covered ice. Both metallic
links and fabric belts proved satisfactory.
(Cartridges are fed into the fixed aircraft guns inserted in belts made
of metallic links which disintegrate as the guns are fired.)
On November 2, 1918, just before the armistice was signed, Gen.
Pershing cabled as follows, in part:
Marlin guns now rank as high as any with pilots, and are
entirely satisfactory.
The French government tested the Marlin guns and declared them to be
the equal of the Vickers. In order to meet the ever-increasing demands
of the Air Service for machine guns capable of synchronization, the
original order for 23,000 Marlin guns, placed in September, 1917,
with the Marlin-Rockwell Corporation, was afterwards increased to
38,000. Along in 1918 the French tried to procure Marlins from this
country, but by that time the Browning production was reaching great
proportions, and the equipment at the Marlin plant was being altered to
make Brownings.
The original order for Lewis guns, placed with the Savage Arms
Corporation, had contemplated their use by our troops in the line; but
when it became evident that the available manufacturing capacity of the
United States would be strained to the utmost to provide enough guns
for our airplanes, we diverted the large orders for Lewis guns entirely
to the Air Service. This action was confirmed by cabled instructions
from Gen. Pershing. For this flexible aircraft work the weapon was
admirably adapted.
To the machine-gun tests, May, 1917, the producers of the Lewis gun
brought an improved model, chambered for our own standard .30-caliber
cartridges, instead of for the British .303 ammunition, with some 15
modifications in design in addition to those which had been presented
to us before, and some added improvements in construction and in the
metallurgical composition of its materials. From our point of view,
this new model Lewis was a greatly improved weapon. The fact should be
stated here that the Lewis gun, as so successfully made for the British
service by the Birmingham Small Arms Co., had never been procurable by
the United States, even in a single sample for test.
The Lewis accordingly became the standard flexible gun for our
airplanes. The Savage Arms Corporation was able to expand its
facilities to fulfill every need of our Air Service for this type of
weapon, and therefore we made no effort to carry the manufacture of
Lewis guns into other plants. Before 1917 came to an end the Savage
company was delivering the first guns of its orders.
During the difficulties on the Mexican border the United States secured
from the Savage Arms Co. several hundred Lewis guns made to use British
ammunition. In order to be sure that the guns would be properly used,
experts from the factory were sent out to instruct the troops who
were to receive the guns. Ordnance officers also went out on this
instruction work and established machine-gun schools along the border.
The troops did not find the guns entirely satisfactory, in spite of
expert instruction that they received from men from the factory. The
trouble with the guns at this time was due to the fact that the company
making them in the United States had been engaged in the manufacture
of machine guns for a short time only and had run into several minor
difficulties in the design and manufacture, difficulties which caused
considerable trouble in operating the guns in the field, and which
were subsequently corrected in the 15 changes mentioned above. The
machine-gun schools which were established on the border taught not
only the mechanism of the Lewis gun, but also those of the other types
of guns with which the various troops were armed. The first thing that
these schools developed was the fact that much of the trouble which
had been encountered in machine guns was undoubtedly due to the fact
that our soldiers were unfamiliar with the operation of the weapons. In
fact, at that time we had few experts in the operation of any make of
machine guns.
Soon after the establishment of machine-gun schools on the border it
became apparent that the system of instruction devised by our ordnance
officers had gone a long way toward overcoming the difficulties which
the Army had encountered in the use of machine guns. The advantage
of these schools was so marked that on the outbreak of the war with
Germany the Ordnance Department established a machine-gun school at
Springfield Armory. The first class of this school consisted of a
large number of technical graduates from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and other such schools. These men were employed as
civilians, and were taught the mechanism of machine guns in a
theoretical way in as thorough a manner as could possibly be done,
and were given an opportunity to fire the guns and find out for
themselves just what troubles were likely to occur. Many of these men
were afterwards commissioned as officers in the Ordnance Department
and were sent to the various cantonments throughout the United States
to establish schools of instruction in the mechanism of the various
machine guns.
After this class of civilians had been graduated from the Springfield
school, a number of training-camp candidates were instructed and
were afterwards commissioned. When the full success of this school
was realized, it was enlarged and expanded, and it instructed not
only civilians and training-camp candidates, but also officers of
the Ordnance Department, who were trained as armament officers,
instructors, etc. Later the school was still further expanded to
include a large class of enlisted men for duty as armorers. In all,
over 500 officers were instructed at the Springfield school.
When the war with Germany ceased, the graduates of the Springfield
Armory machine gun school were found in almost every line of endeavor
connected with arms, ammunition, and kindred subjects.
Now, let us look at the first results of the early effort in
machine-gun production. Within a month after the first drafted troops
reached their cantonments we were able to ship 50 Colt guns from the
Marlin-Rockwell Corporation to each National Army camp, these guns to
be used exclusively for training our machine-gun units. Before another
30 days passed we had added to the machine-gun equipment of each camp
20 Lewis guns of the ground type, and 30 Chauchat automatic rifles
which we bought from the French. (The Lewis ground gun was almost
identical with the aircraft type, except that its barrel was surrounded
by an aluminum heat radiator for cooling, a device not needed on the
guns of airplanes because of the latter's shorter periods of fire.)
Also, in the autumn of 1917 we were able to issue to each National
Guard camp a training equipment consisting of 30 Colt machine guns, 30
Chauchat automatic rifles, and some 50 to 70 Lewis ground guns.
At the beginning of 1918 our machine-gun manufacture was well under
way. Such was the industrial situation at this time: the Savage
Arms Corporation was producing Lewis aircraft machine guns of the
flexible type; the Marlin-Rockwell Corporation was manufacturing large
quantities of Marlin aircraft machine guns of the synchronizing type;
the Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Co. was building Vickers
machine guns of the heavy, mobile type; and a number of great factories
were tooling up at top speed for the immense production of Browning
guns of all types soon to begin. Meanwhile we kept increasing our
orders as rapidly as conditions warranted.
By May, 1918, the first 12 divisions of American troops had reached
France. They were all equipped with Hotchkiss heavy machine guns
and Chauchat automatic rifles--both kinds supplied by the French
government. During May and June, 11 American divisions sailed, and
the heavy machine-gun equipment of these troops was American built,
consisting of Vickers guns. For their light machine guns these 11
divisions received the French Chauchat rifles in France. After June,
1918, all American troops to sail were supplied with a full equipment
of Browning guns, both of the light and heavy types. Part of these
Brownings were issued to the troops before they sailed, and the rest
upon their arrival in France.
The Savage Arms Corporation built nearly 6,000 Lewis guns of the
ground type before diverting their manufacture to the aircraft type
exclusively. On May 11, 1918, this concern had built 16,000 Lewis guns
for the American Government, of which more than 10,000 were for use
on airplanes. By the end of July the company had turned out 16,000
aircraft Lewis guns, not to mention 6,000 of the same sort which it had
built and supplied to the American Navy. By the end of September we had
accepted over 25,000 Lewis aircraft guns. On the date of the signing of
the armistice approximately 32,000 of these guns had been completed.
By the first of May, 1918, the Marlin-Rockwell Corporation had
turned out nearly 17,000 Marlin aircraft guns with the synchronizing
appliances. Thirty days later its total had reached 23,000. On October
1 the entire order of 38,000 Marlin guns had been completed, and the
company began the work of converting its plant into a Browning factory.
On May 1, 1918, the Colt Co. had delivered more than 2,000 Vickers guns
of the ground type. Before the end of July this output totaled 8,000,
besides 3,000 Vickers guns which were later converted to aircraft use.
In addition the Colt Co. had undertaken another machine-gun project
of which nothing has been said before. This concern had completed
manufacture of about 1,000 Vickers guns for the Russian government.
At this time the aviators at the front began using machine guns of
large caliber, principally against observation balloons and dirigible
aircraft. The allies had developed an 11-millimeter Vickers machine
gun for this purpose, which means a gun with a bore diameter of nearly
one-half inch. The Ordnance Department undertook to change these
Russian Vickers guns into 11-millimeter aircraft machine guns. This
undertaking was successfully carried through by the Colt Co., which
delivered the first modified weapon in July and had increased its
deliveries to a total of 800 guns by November 11, 1918.
When the fighting ceased the Colt Co. had delivered 12,000 heavy
Vickers guns and nearly 1,000 of the aircraft type. As was mentioned
before, a considerable quantity of Vickers ground guns had been
subsequently converted to aircraft use. The production of ground-type
Vickers ceased on September 12, 1918, by which date the manufacture
of Browning guns had developed sufficiently to meet all of our future
needs. Thereafter the Colt plant produced the aircraft types of Vickers
guns only. We shipped 6,309 Vickers ground guns overseas before the
armistice was signed, besides equipping six France-bound divisions of
troops with these weapons in this country, making a total of 7,653
American-built Vickers in the hands of the American Expeditionary
Forces. Later, we planned to replace these weapons with Brownings,
turning over the Vickers guns to the Air Service.
But America's greatest feat in machine-gun production was the
development of the Browning weapons. These guns, as has been noted,
were of three types: the heavy Browning water-cooled gun, weighing 37
pounds, for the use of our troops in the field; the light Browning
automatic rifle, weighing 15.5 pounds, and in appearance similar to the
ordinary service rifle, also for the use of our soldiers fighting on
the ground; and, finally, the Browning synchronized aircraft gun of the
rigid type, which was the Browning heavy machine gun made lighter by
the elimination of its water-jacket, speeded up to double the rate of
fire, and provided with the additional attachment of the synchronized
firing mechanism. Let us take up separately the expansion of the
facilities for manufacturing these types.
In the first place, the Colt Co., which owned the Browning rights,
in September, 1917, turned over to the Winchester Repeating Arms Co.
the task of developing the drawings and gauges for the manufacture of
Browning automatic rifles on a large scale. The latter concern did a
splendid job in this work. Early in March, 1918, the Winchester Co. had
tooled up its plant and turned out the first Browning rifles. These
were shipped to Washington and demonstrated in the hands of gunners
before a distinguished audience of officers and other Government
officials, and their great success assured the country that America had
an automatic rifle worthy of her inventive and manufacturing prestige.
By the first of May the Winchester Co. had turned out 1,200 Browning
rifles.
The Marlin-Rockwell Corporation attained its first production of
Browning rifles in June, 1918, by which time the Winchester Co. had
built about 4,000 of them. Before the end of June the Colt Co. added
its first few hundreds of Browning rifles to the expanding output.
By the end of July the total production of Browning rifles had
reached 17,000, produced as follows: 9,700 by Winchester; 5,650 by
Marlin-Rockwell; and 1,650 by Colt's. Two months later this total had
been doubled--the exact figure being 34,500 Browning rifles--and on
November 11, 1918, when the flag fell on this industrial race, the
Government had accepted 52,238 light Browning rifles. Of these in round
numbers the Winchester Co. had built 27,000; Marlin-Rockwell, 16,000;
and Colt's, 9,000.
But these figures give only an indication of the Browning rifle
program as it had expanded up to the time hostilities ceased. When the
armistice was signed our orders for these guns called for a production
of 288,174, and still further large orders were about to be placed. As
an illustration of the size which this manufacture would have attained,
we had completed negotiations with one concern whereby its factory
capacity was to be increased to produce 800 Browning rifles every 24
hours by June of 1919. After the armistice was signed we canceled
orders calling for the manufacture of 186,000 Browning automatic rifles.
Of the 48,082 of these weapons sent overseas, 38,860 went in bulk on
supply transports, while the rest constituted the equipment of 12
Yankee divisions which carried their automatic rifles with them.
The Colt Co. itself developed the drawings and gauges for the quantity
manufacture of the Browning gun of the ground type. It will be
remembered that the New England Westinghouse Co. was the first outside
concern to begin the manufacture of these weapons. The New England
Westinghouse Co. received its orders in January, 1918, and within four
months had turned out its first completed guns, being the first company
to deliver these weapons to the Government. By the first of May it had
delivered 85 heavy Brownings.
By the middle of May the Remington Co. came into production of the
heavy Brownings. The Colt Co., which was required to continue its
production of Vickers guns, was also retarded by the duty of preparing
the drawings for the other concerns who had contracted to make heavy
Brownings; and this factory, the birthplace of the Browning gun,
was not able to produce any until the end of June. By this time the
Westinghouse Co. had turned out more than 2,500 heavy Brownings, and
Remington over 1,600.
By the end of July the production of Browning machine guns at all
plants had reached the total of 10,000; and two months later 26,000
heavy Brownings were in the hands of the Government. In the following
six weeks this production was enormously increased, the total receipts
by the Government up to November 11 amounting to about 42,000 heavy
Browning guns. In round numbers Westinghouse produced 30,000 of these,
Remington 11,000, and Colt about 1,000.
We shipped in all 30,582 heavy Brownings to the American Expeditionary
Forces, 27,894 going on supply ships and the rest in the hands of 12
divisions of troops.
These shipments actually put in France before the armistice was signed
enough heavy Brownings to equip completely all the American troops
on French soil. However, at the time these supplies were arriving
the fighting against the retreating German Army was at its height,
and there was no time for the troops on the line to exchange their
British-built and French-built machine guns for Brownings, nor to
replace their Chauchat automatic rifles with light Brownings, of which
there was also an ample supply in France.
A report of the Chief Ordnance Officer, American Expeditionary Forces,
as of February 15, 1919, shows that, except for antiaircraft use,
Vickers and Hotchkiss machine guns with troops had been almost entirely
replaced by heavy Brownings on that date, and that Chauchat automatic
rifles had been replaced by light Brownings.
[Illustration: BROWNING EXPENDABLE CARTRIDGE BELT BOX, MARK I, MOUNTED
ON A BROWNING MACHINE GUN TRIPOD, MODEL 1917.]
[Illustration: BELT-FILLING MACHINE FOR BROWNING MACHINE GUN, MODEL
1917.]
[Illustration: BROWNING TANK MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1919, MOUNTED ON TANK.]
[Illustration: BROWNING TANK MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1919, ON BALL MOUNT,
SHOWING CASING.]
When the armistice was signed we had placed orders for 110,000 heavy
Brownings and were contemplating still further orders. We later reduced
these orders by 37,500 guns.
Because the Marlin aircraft gun had performed so satisfactorily, and
because our facilities for the manufacture of this weapon were large,
the production of the Browning aircraft guns had not been pushed to the
limit, which latter action would have interfered with the production
of the Marlin gun at a time when it was most essential to obtain an
immediate supply of fixed synchronized aircraft guns. Only a few
hundred Browning aircraft guns had been completed before the close
of the fighting. In its tests and performances this weapon had been
speeded up to a rate of fire of from 1,000 to 1,300 shots per minute,
which far surpassed the performances of any synchronized gun then in
use on the western front.
By the spring of 1918 it became evident that we would require a special
machine gun for use in our tanks. Several makes of guns were considered
for this purpose and finally discarded for one reason or another. The
ultimate decision was to take 7,250 Marlin aircraft guns which were
available and adapt them to tank service by the addition of sights,
aluminum heat radiators, and handle grips and triggers. The rebuilding
of these guns at the Marlin-Rockwell plant when the armistice was
signed was progressing at a rate that insured the adequate equipment of
the first American-built tanks.
Meanwhile the Ordnance Department undertook the production of a
Browning tank machine gun. This gun was developed by taking a
heavy Browning water-cooled gun, eliminating the water jacket and
substituting an air-cooled barrel of heavy construction, and adding
hand grips and sights. The work was begun in September, 1918, and
the completed model was delivered by the end of October. Before the
armistice was signed five sample guns had been built, demonstrated at
the Tank Corps training camps, and unanimously approved by the officers
of the Tank Corps designated to test it. After a test in France, the
report stated: "The gun is by far the best weapon for tank use that
is now known, and the Department is to be congratulated upon its
development." An order for 40,000 Browning tank guns was given to the
Westinghouse Co. This concern, already equipped for the manufacture of
heavy Browning guns, was scheduled to start its deliveries in December,
1918, and to turn out 7,000 tank guns per month after January 1, 1919.
After the signing of the armistice, however, the order was cut down to
approximately 1,800 guns. By March 27, 1919, the company had delivered
500 Browning tank guns, and the order for the remaining 1,300 was
thereafter canceled.
After the entrance of the United States in the war the armies on both
sides developed a new type of machine-gun fighting, which consisted in
indirect firing, or laying down barrages of machine-gun bullets. This
required the development of special tripods, clinometers for laying
angles of elevation, and other special equipment; and speedy progress
was being made in the quantity production of this matériel when the war
came to an end.
In a complete machine-gun program not only must the guns themselves
be built, but they must be fully equipped with accessories, such as
tripods, extra magazines, carts for carrying both guns and ammunition,
feed belts of various types, belt-loading machines, observation
and fire control instruments, and numerous other accessories the
manufacture of which is absolutely essential but usually unseen by the
public. The extent of our work in accessories is indicated by a few
approximate figures of deliveries up to the signing of the armistice:
nonexpendable ammunition boxes, 1,000,000; expendable ammunition
boxes, 7,000; expendable belts, 5,000; nonexpendable belts, 1,000,000;
belt-loading machines, 25,000; water boxes, 110,000; machine-gun carts,
17,000; ammunition carts, 15,000; tripods, 25,000.
The aircraft machine guns also required numerous accessories, some of
them highly complicated in their manufacture. This special equipment
consisted in part of special mounts for the guns, synchronizing
attachments, metallic disintegrating link belts, electric heaters to
keep the guns warm at the low temperatures at the high altitudes of the
aviator's battle field, and many other smaller items.
Not only our own forces but the allied armies as well were enthusiastic
about the Browning guns of both types, as soon as they had seen them
in action. The best proof of this is that in the summer of 1918 the
British, Belgian, and French Governments all made advances to us as
to the possibility of the United States producing Browning automatic
rifles for their respective forces. On November 6, a few days before
the end of hostilities, the French high commissioner requested that we
supply 15,000 light Browning rifles to the French Army. We would not
make this arrangement at the time because we thought it inadvisable to
divert any of our supplies of these guns from our own troops until the
spring of 1919, when we expected that our capacity for making light
Brownings would exceed the demands of our own troops. Our demand for
the lighter guns, incidentally, was far greater than we had originally
expected it to be. As soon as the Browning rifle was seen in action the
General Staff of our Expeditionary Forces at once increased by 50 per
cent the number of automatic rifles assigned to each company of troops,
and we were manufacturing to meet this augmented demand when the war
ended. By spring of 1919 we expected to be furnishing light Brownings
to the British and French Armies as well as to our own.
[Illustration: FIAT (ITALIAN) MACHINE GUN AND TRIPOD.]
[Illustration: CHAUCHAT MACHINE RIFLE, MODEL 1915, CALIBER, 8
MILLIMETERS.]
[Illustration: GERMAN 08/15 (SPANDAU) MACHINE GUN.]
Both types of Browning guns proved to be unqualified successes in
actual battle, as numerous reports of our Ordnance officers overseas
indicated. The following report from an officer, in addition to
carrying historical information of interest to those following our
machine-gun development, is typical of numerous other official
descriptions of these weapons in battle use:
The guns [heavy Brownings] went into the front line for the
first time in the night of September 13. The sector was quiet
and the guns were practically not used at all until the
advance, starting September 26. In the action which followed,
the guns were used on several occasions for overhead fire,
one company firing 10,000 rounds per gun into a wood in which
there were enemy machine-gun nests, at a range of 2,000 meters.
Although the conditions were extremely unfavorable for machine
guns on account of rain and mud, the guns performed well.
Machine-gun officers reported that during the engagement the
guns came up to the fullest expectations and, even though
covered with rust and using muddy ammunition, they functioned
whenever called upon to do so.
After the division had been relieved, 17 guns from one company
were sent in for my inspection. One of these had been struck
by shrapnel, which punctured the water jacket. All of the
guns were completely coated with mud and rust on the outside,
but the mechanism was fairly clean. Without touching them or
cleaning them in any way, except to run a rod through the bore,
a belt of 250 rounds was fired from each without a single
stoppage of any kind.
It can be concluded from the try-out in this division that the
gun in its operation and functioning when handled by men in the
field is a success.
The Browning automatic rifles were also highly praised by our officers
who had to use them. Although these guns received hard usage, being
on the front for days at a time in the rain and when the gunners had
little opportunity to clean them, they invariably functioned well.
On November 11 we had built 52,238 Browning automatic rifles in this
country. We had bought 29,000 Chauchats from the French. Without
providing replacement guns or reserves, this was a sufficient number
to equip over 100 divisions with 768 guns to the division. This meant
light machine guns enough for a field army of 3,500,000 men. In heavy
machine guns at the signing of the armistice we had 3,340 of the
Hotchkiss make, 9,237 Vickers, and 41,804 Brownings, or a total of
54,627 heavy machine guns--enough to equip the 200 divisions of an army
of 7,000,000 men, not figuring in reserve weapons.
The daily maximum production of Browning rifles reached 706 before
our manufacturing efforts were suddenly stopped, and that of Browning
heavy machine guns 575. At the peak of our production a total of 1,794
machine guns and automatic rifles of all types was produced within a
period of twenty-four hours.
Based upon our output in July, August, and September, 1918, we were
producing monthly 27,270 machine guns and machine rifles of all types,
while the average monthly production of France was at this time 12,126
and that of Great Britain 10,947.
In total production between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918, we
had turned out 181,662 machine guns and machine rifles, as against
229,238 by France and 181,404 by England in that same period.
One of the important features which contributed to the success of the
machine-gun program was the cordial spirit of cooperation which the
War Department met from the machine-gun manufacturers. Competitive
commercial advantages weighed not at all against the national need,
and the Department found itself possessed of a group of enthusiastic
and loyal partners with whom it could attack the vast problem of
machine-gun supply. Without these partners and this spirit, the problem
could not have been solved. The United States, starting almost from
the zero point, developed in little more than a year a machine-gun
production greater than that of any other country in the world,
although some of those countries had been fighting a desperate war for
three years and building machine guns to the limit of their capacity.
_Acceptances of automatic arms, by months, in United States and
Canada on United States Army orders only._
-------------------+------+-----------------------------------------
| | 1918
| +------+------+------+------+------+------
| To | | | | | |
| Jan. | | | | | |
| 1. | Jan.| Feb.| Mar.| Apr.| May.| June.
-------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
_Ground machine | | | | | | |
guns._ | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
Browning heavy | | | | | 12| 922| 2,620
Vickers field | 2,031| 1,021| 951| 1,386| 1,341| 1,208| 1,349
Colt | 2,500| | | | | | 305
Lewis field | 2,209| 291| | | | |
Lewis caliber .303 | 750| | | | 300| |
| | | | | | |
_Aircraft machine | | | | | | |
guns._ | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
Browning | | | | | | |
Marlin | 12| 3,134| 3,850| 3,419| 5,750| 6,250| 219
Lewis flexible | 6| 540| 1,085| 1,568| 1,333| 2,629| 4,342
Vickers caliber .30| | | | | | |
Vickers 11-mm | | | | | | | 72
| | | | | | |
_Tank machine | | | | | | |
guns._ | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
Browning | | | | | | |
Marlin | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
_Automatic rifles._| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
Browning light | | | 15| 548| 363| 1,822| 3,876
+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
Total | 7,508| 4,986| 5,901| 6,921| 9,099|12,831|12,783
-------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
-------------------+-----------------------------------------+--------
| 1918 |
|------+------+------+------+------+------+
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| July.| Aug.| Sept.| Oct.| Nov.| Dec.| Total.
-------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+--------
_Ground machine | | | | | | |
guns._ | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
Browning heavy | 4,225| 9,182| 8,838|14,639| 6,654| 9,516| 56,608
Vickers field | 1,565| 789| 381| 103| | | 12,125
Colt | 11| | | | | | 2,816
Lewis field | | | | | | | 2,500
Lewis caliber .303 | | | | | | | 1,050
| | | | | | |
_Aircraft machine | | | | | | |
guns._ | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
Browning | | | | 211| 363| 6| 580
Marlin | 6,356| 7,269| 1,691| 50| | | 38,000
Lewis flexible | 4,338| 5,595| 3,973| 5,857| 3,792| 4,142| 39,200
Vickers caliber .30| | | 307| 575| 373| 1,221| 2,476
Vickers 11-mm | 263| 95| 254| 117| 161| 276| 1,238
| | | | | | |
_Tank machine | | | | | | |
guns._ | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
Browning | | | | | 3| 1| 4
Marlin | [25]103| [25]9[25]316[25]460[25]582[25]1,470
| | | | | | |
_Automatic rifles._| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
Browning light | 8,196|12,517| 6,896|13,687|11,368|10,672| 69,960
+------+------+------+------+------+------+--------
Total |24,954|35,447|22,340|35,239|22,714|25,834| 226,557
-------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+--------
[25] Modified from aircraft, not included in total.