SMALL-ARMS AMMUNITION.
Prior to the war with Germany the Ordnance Department, in
providing .30-caliber ammunition for our Army rifles and machine guns,
had thought in terms of millions and had placed its ammunition orders
on that scale. But when hostilities were at hand and steel and walnut
were being assembled into rifles to arm the indefinitely increasing
millions of Yankee soldiers that we would send and keep on sending to
Europe until victory was ours, small-arms ammunition stepped out of the
million class and became an industry whose units of production were
reckoned by the billion.
The war increased the human strength of the American Army approximately
thirty times. That ratio of increase was carried over into a production
of ammunition for rifles and machine guns. The story of ammunition
in the war is the story of a three-billion output forced from a
hundred-million capacity. In this effort we find another of those
frequent industrial romances which the war produced in America; for,
when called upon to do more than an industrial possibility, as we
regarded such things in 1917, the contriving executive and organizing
ability and the skillful hands of the ammunition industry made good.
Our .30-caliber ammunition capacity in the United States prior to the
war was about 100,000,000 cartridges per year. We actually produced in
the war period the huge total of 3,507,023,300 small-arms cartridges.
Pushed at feverish haste, such expansion naturally recorded its
mistakes and its failures; but none of these was fatal or irremediable.
The fact will always remain that a difficult art was enlarged in time
to take care of every demand of the American Army for small-arms
ammunition, and that no military operation on our part was held up by
lack of this ammunition. Hence it is submitted that the production
of small-arms cartridges was one of the genuine achievements of our
Ordnance Department.
Let us consider first the production of the .30-caliber service
ammunition, which may be regarded as the standard product of the
ammunition industry. This was the ammunition used in our two service
rifles, the Springfield or United States model of 1903 and the United
States model of 1917, which is a modification of the British rifle,
pattern 1914, and in most of the machine guns which we fired in
France, although we used the 8-millimeter cartridge with the Chauchat
machine rifle. When the war broke out we had on hand approximately
200,000,000 rounds of .30-caliber cartridges. Most of these had been
manufactured by the Government at the Frankford Arsenal, which was,
in fact, practically the only plant in the United States equipped to
produce this ammunition in any appreciable quantities.
For some years prior to the war, however, the Government had adopted
the policy of encouraging the manufacture of Army ammunition in private
plants. This was done by placing with various concerns small annual
orders for this type of ammunition. These orders were usually in the
neighborhood of 1,000,000 rounds each. The purpose of such orders,
insignificant as they were, was to scatter throughout the principal
private ammunition factories the necessary jigs, fixtures, gauges, and
other tooling required in the production of cartridges for Army rifles
and machine guns. These small orders might also be expected to educate
the operating forces of the private plants in this manufacture. By this
means the Government hoped to have in an emergency a nucleus of skill
and equipment which could be quickly expanded to meet war requirements.
As a further means of stimulating interest in this peace-time
undertaking the Ordnance Department conducted each year a sort of
competition among the private manufacturers of small-arms ammunition.
The output of each factory accepting the Government orders was tested
for proper functioning and accuracy; and those cartridges which won in
this competition were used as the ammunition shot in the national rifle
matches. Thus the winning concern could use its achievement in its
advertising.
But these educational efforts on the part of the Government failed
to create a capacity that was anywhere near to being adequate to
meet the demands of such a war as that into which we were plunged
in the year 1917. We had built up no large reserves of ammunition,
and the orders placed with private manufacturers had been so small
that they had resulted in virtually no factory preparation at all
for great quantity production. To all practical purposes the entire
ammunition manufacturing capacity of .30-caliber cartridges in 1917 was
encompassed within the walls of the Frankford Arsenal.
There was, however, in the ammunition industry a fortunate condition
existing when we entered the war. For some time numerous American
concerns had been working on the manufacture of cartridges for both the
British and the French Governments. The cartridges being turned out
under these contracts were not suitable for our use, being of different
caliber than those taken by American weapons, and this meant that the
machinery in existence could not be converted to the production of
American ammunition without radical and time-consuming alteration of
tools, etc. However, cartridges are cartridges, regardless of their
size; and the manufacture which was supplying France and England had
resulted in educating thousands of mechanics and shop executives in the
production of ammunition. Consequently, when we went into the war, we
had the men and the skill ready at hand; we needed only to produce the
tools and the machinery in addition to the raw materials.
Yet this in itself was a problem. How should we meet it? Three courses
seemed to be possible for the Government. In the first place, we could
build from the ground up an immense Government arsenal having an annual
capacity of 1,000,000,000 rounds, or ten times that of the great
Frankford Arsenal. Or we could interest manufacturers in a project of
building a private cartridge factory capable of producing 1,000,000,000
rounds per year. Both of these methods were predicated on the
assumption that the existing cartridge factories had their hands full
with orders. The third plan was to place our cartridge demands with the
existing ammunition plants and let them increase their facilities to
take care of our orders.
As soon as the early orders had been given and all available capacity
had been set going, this problem engaged the study and attention of
the Ordnance Department. In the early fall of 1917 a meeting of the
manufacturers of small-arms ammunition was held in Washington to
discuss the matter. Principally on account of the difficulties in
providing a trained working force for a new Government arsenal or
private plant, the opinion was unanimous that the existing concerns
should expand in facilities and trained personnel to handle the
cartridge project. Out of this meeting grew the American Society of
Manufacturers of Small Arms and Ammunition. Thereafter until the close
of the war this society or its committees met about once every two
weeks to discuss problems arising in the work. The officers of the
Ordnance Department in charge of the ammunition project attended all
of these meetings. The result of such cooperation was gratifyingly
shown not only in the standardization of manufacturing processes in the
various plants but also in the output of cartridges.
The success of this effort is best shown in the production figures
in the period from April, 1917, to November 30, 1918. In that time
the United States Cartridge Co. turned out 684,334,300 rounds of our
caliber-.30 service ammunition; the Winchester Repeating Arms Co.,
468,967,500 rounds; the Remington Arms-Union Metallic Cartridge Co.,
1,218,979,300; the Peters Cartridge Co., 84,169,800; the Western
Cartridge Co., 48,018,800; the Dominion Arsenal, 502,000; the Frankford
Arsenal, 76,739,300; and the National Brass & Copper Tube Co.,
22,700,400.
This production record to some extent was made possible by a leniency
on the part of the Ordnance Department which we had not displayed
before the war. When we could take plenty of time in ammunition
manufacture our specifications for cartridges were extremely rigid. It
soon became apparent that if we adhered to our earlier specifications
we would limit the output of cartridges. It was found in a joint
meeting of ordnance officers and ammunition manufacturers that certain
increased tolerances could be permitted in our specifications without
affecting the serviceability of the ammunition. Consequently new
specifications for our war ammunition were drawn, enabling the plants
to get into quantity production much more quickly than would have been
possible if we had not relaxed our prewar attitude.
The ordinary service cartridge consists of a brass cartridge case, a
primer, a propelling charge of smokeless powder, and a bullet made with
a jacket or envelope of cupronickel inclosing a lead slug or core.
Cupronickel is a hard alloy of copper and nickel. Steel would be the
ideal covering for a bullet because of its cheapness and availability,
but steel has not been used because it is liable to rust and to destroy
the delicate rifling of the gun barrel. Cupronickel is a compromise,
being strong enough to hold the interior lead from deforming, but not
so hard as to wear down excessively the rifling in the gun barrel.
Even as we entered the war the long continued fighting in Europe had
created a shortage in cupronickel, and by the time the armistice came
it was apparent that this shortage would soon become so acute that we
would have to find a substitute for cupronickel. This shortage had
already occurred in Germany, where the enemy ordnance engineers had
produced a bullet incased in steel which in turn was clothed with a
slight covering of copper. The soft copper coating kept the steel
from injuring the gun barrel. We ourselves were experimenting with
copper-coated steel bullets when peace came, and would have been
prepared to furnish a substitute had cupronickel failed us.
Some of the earliest ammunition sent to our forces in France developed
a tendency to hang fire and to misfire; and a liberal quantity of
it, amounting to six months' production of the Frankford Arsenal,
was condemned and withdrawn from use. This matter was aired fully in
the newspapers at the time it occurred. It developed that the faulty
ammunition had been produced entirely in the Frankford Arsenal and that
the cause of the trouble was the primer in the cartridge.
The primer in a cartridge performs the same function that the flint
did on the old-fashioned squirrel guns--it touches off the explosive
propellant charge. But whereas the flint sent only a spark into the
powder, the modern primer produces a long, hot flame.
The primers in the ammunition manufactured at the Frankford Arsenal
had given ordinarily satisfactory results in 12 years of peace-time
use. The flame charge in this primer contained sulphur, potassium
chlorate, and antimony sulphide. Produced under normal conditions, with
plenty of time for drying, this primer was satisfactory. But sulphur
when oxidized changes to an acid extremely corrosive to metal parts,
and oxidized primers are liable not to function perfectly. Heat and
moisture accelerate the change of sulphur to acid; and if there happens
to be bromate in the potassium chlorate of the priming charge, the
change is even more rapid.
An investigation of the Frankford Arsenal showed that these very
elements were present. Because of the haste of production of
cartridges, too much moisture had been allowed to get into the
arsenal dry houses. The potassium chlorate was also found to contain
appreciable quantities of bromate.
The condition was remedied by adopting another primer composition. And
then, to play doubly safe, the Government specifications were amended
to prevent the use of potassium chlorate containing more than 0.01 per
cent of bromate.
However, this condemned ammunition was but a trifling fraction of the
total output or even of the production then going on. The primers
used by the various private manufacturers of ammunition functioned
satisfactorily.
While we were not rigid in our specifications for the bulk of the
service ammunition, in one respect we were most meticulous, and this
was in respect to the ammunition used by the machine guns mounted on
our airplanes. For these weapons we created an A-1 class of
service .30-caliber cartridges, since it was highly important that
there be no malfunctioning of ammunition in the air. Every cartridge of
this class had to be specially gauged throughout its manufacture. This
care resulted in a slower production of airplane cartridges than that
of those for use on the ground, but we always had enough for our needs.
Until we went to war with Germany our Army had known only the cartridge
firing the hard-jacketed lead bullet. But we entered a conflict in
which several novel sorts of small-arms projectiles were in familiar
use; and it became necessary for us to take up the manufacture of these
strange missiles at once. These included such special types as tracer
bullets to indicate the path of fire in the air, incendiary bullets for
setting on fire observation balloons, hostile planes, and dirigible
airships, and, finally, armor-piercing bullets for use against armor
plate with which airplanes and tanks are equipped. We had developed
none of these in this country before the war, except that in the
Frankford Arsenal our designers had done some little experimental work
with armor-piercing ammunition, in fact carrying it to the point of an
efficient design.
One of the first acts of the Ordnance Department was to send an officer
to visit the ammunition factories of France and England to study
the methods of manufacturing these special types of bullets. These
friendly nations willingly gave us full information at first hand with
respect to this complicated manufacture, which we were thus enabled to
begin in September, 1917. Special machinery was required for loading
the tracer bullet and also for producing the incendiary projectile.
We adopted British practice for both of these. We ourselves were well
equipped to begin the production of armor-piercing bullets, for which
we had previously solved the problems of design; yet the production of
metals to be used in this missile required some further experimental
work. By February, 1918, however, our production of armor-piercing
bullets was well under way and by the time the war came to an end we
had produced nearly 5,000,000 of them.
The tracer bullet which we manufactured contained a mixture of barium
peroxide and magnesium and in flight burned with the intensity of
a calcium light. These bullets were principally used by machine
gunners of aircraft, since in the air it is impossible to tell where
machine-gun projectiles are going unless there is some device enabling
the gunner to see the trajectory of the bullets. This is done by
inserting tracer bullets at intervals in the belts of cartridges fed
into the machine gun. The common conception of a tracer bullet is one
that leaves a trace of smoke in its flight; whereas the truth is that
our tracer and the British tracer were practically smokeless, the
gunner observing the direction of aim by following the bright lights
of the tracer bullets with his eye. These lights were plainly visible
in the brightest sunlight. Although the slight quantity of the flaming
mixture burned but a few seconds, it was sufficient to trace the flight
for 500 yards or more from the muzzle of the machine gun.
The tracer bullet consisted of a cupronickel shell, the nose of which
contained a leaden core to balance the bullet properly. The rear
chamber of the bullet held a cup containing the mixture of barium
peroxide and magnesium. The rear end of the bullet was left slightly
open, and through this opening the mixture was ignited by the hot flame
of the propelling powder discharge.
An entirely different principle was used in the construction of the
incendiary bullet. This bullet was also incased in cupronickel; but the
incendiary chemical, which was phosphorus, was contained in a chamber
in the nose of the bullet. A serrated plug held the phosphorus in its
chamber, and behind this plug was a solid plug of lead coming flush
with the base of the bullet and soldered thereto. On one side of the
missile was a hole drilled through the cupronickel into one of the
grooves of the serrated plug. This hole was stopped by a special kind
of solder. The heat of friction developed in the infinitesimal space of
time while the projectile was passing through the gun barrel served the
double purpose of melting out the solder from the hole and igniting
the phosphorus within the chamber. Thereafter the centrifugal force of
the revolving bullet whirled the burning phosphorus out through the
unplugged hole. Seen in the air the fire of the phosphorus could not be
discerned, but the burning chemical threw off considerable smoke, so
that the eye of the gunner could follow the blue spiral to its mark.
Our incendiary bullet had an effective range of 350 yards, after which
distance the phosphorus was burned out.
[Illustration: 8-MILLIMETER FRENCH CARTRIDGE, .303 BRITISH
CARTRIDGE--(MACHINE GUN), 11-MILLIMETER FRENCH INCENDIARY BULLET, AND A
SHOTGUN SHELL.]
[Illustration: LEFT TO RIGHT--ARMOR PIERCING, TRACER, INCENDIARY,
ORDINARY.]
[Illustration: UPPER ROW--.30 CALIBER RIFLE CARTRIDGES WITH BULLETS
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, AS FOLLOWS: ARMOR PIERCING, TRACER, INCENDIARY,
ORDINARY.
LOWER ROW--.45 CALIBER AMMUNITION IN CLIP FOR REVOLVER--.45 CALIBER
AMMUNITION FOR PISTOL.]
Equally interesting was the construction of the armor-piercing bullet.
Heavy and solid as the jacketed lead bullet used in our service guns
seems to be, when fired against even light armor plate it leaves only
a small mark upon its objective. As soon as the cupronickel jacket
strikes the armor plate it splits and the lead core flattens out and
flies into fragments. The armor plate may not even be dented by this
impact. Yet change the core of this missile from lead to hardened steel
and an entirely different result is produced. Our armor-piercing bullet
was made with a cupronickel jacket for the sake of the gun barrel. The
inner side of this jacket was lined with a thin coat of lead which was
made thicker in the nose of the bullet. Finally a core of specially
heat-treated steel completed the construction of the projectile. When
this missile is fired against armor plate the jacket splits and the
lead lining virtually disappears from the impact, but the pointed steel
core keeps on and bores a hole through the plate as it might through
soft wood.
The production figures show the degree of success which we attained
in the manufacture of this special ammunition. Up to November 30,
1918, the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co. had produced 6,057,000 tracer
cartridges of .30 caliber and 1,560,000 incendiary cartridges of
the same size. The Frankford Arsenal turned out 22,245,000 tracer
cartridges of this size, 14,148,000 incendiary cartridges, and
4,746,900 armor-piercing cartridges. We placed an additional order for
armor-piercing projectiles with the Dominion arsenals, which delivered
to us 1,980,000 of such cartridges.
We also set out to develop new manufacturing facilities for the
production of this special aircraft ammunition. Excellent tracer
bullets were produced by the National Fireworks Co., of West Hanover,
Mass., and that company was getting into a satisfactory production
stride when the armistice was signed. The Hero Manufacturing Co.,
of Philadelphia, Pa., also was turning out an approved incendiary
bullet when peace came. These various special bullets were loaded in
cartridges at the Frankford Arsenal.
When the fighting ceased we were working on the development
of armor-piercing bullets that would also be incendiary; and
armor-piercing bullets that would also contain a tracing mixture. It
was thought that bullets of these types would be particularly valuable
for aircraft use. While we had done considerable experimenting along
both lines, no satisfactory types had yet been developed.
There was another class of small arms for which we also had to produce
ammunition on a war scale. Our automatic pistols and revolvers
demanded .45-caliber ball cartridges. In normal times the Frankford
Arsenal had been almost our sole producer of these cartridges, and it
had attained an annual output of approximately 10,000,000 rounds of
them. This quantity was nowhere nearly adequate for our war needs,
especially after the decision to equip our troops much more numerously
with pistols and revolvers than had formerly been the case.
Consequently it was necessary for us to develop additional
manufacturing facilities for .45-caliber ammunition. We did this by
placing orders with some of the same manufacturers who were developing
the .30-caliber production. Because it was necessary for us to give
preference always to the rifle and machine-gun ammunition, the
manufacture of pistol cartridges was not carried through as rapidly as
some other phases of the ammunition program. However, a satisfactory
output was reached in time to meet the immediate demands of our forces
in the field, and this production was expanding and keeping ahead
of the increased needs for this sort of cartridges. The total war
production of .45-caliber ammunition by the various factories was as
follows:
United States Cartridge Co. 75,500,000
Winchester Repeating Arms Co. 46,446,800
Remington Arms-Union Metallic Cartridge Co. 144,825,700
Peters Cartridge Co. 55,521,000
Frankford Arsenal 12,349,200
Early in 1918 our Air Service field forces saw the need of a machine
gun of larger caliber than the quick-firing weapons in general use. The
flying service of the principal allies had developed an 11-millimeter
machine gun for use in attacking the captive balloons of the enemy.
This gun fired a projectile only slightly less than one-half inch in
diameter. To meet this new demand our Ordnance Department found at the
Colt factory about 1,000 Vickers machine guns which were being built on
order for the former Russian Government. The department took over these
guns and modified them to take 11-millimeter ammunition, and that step
made it necessary for us to produce machine-gun cartridges for these
new weapons.
We at once developed a modified French 11-millimeter tracer incendiary
cartridge, which in later use proved to be highly satisfactory. In
an experimental order the Frankford Arsenal turned out about 100,000
of these cartridges, while at the time the armistice was signed the
Western Cartridge Co. was prepared to produce this class of ammunition
on a large scale.
[Illustration: VIEW SHOWING SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE
PRIMER BULLET AND CLIP FOR .30 CALIBER, MODEL OF 1906, AMMUNITION.
The top row shows the development of the primer cup and
anvil. The second and third rows show the development in the
manufacture of the cartridge case. The fourth and fifth rows
show the development in the manufacture of the bullet jacket
and the lead slug that fits into the jacket and finally the
finished cartridge. The bottom row shows the development in the
manufacture of the cartridge clip.]
[Illustration: LEADING ENDS OF CARTRIDGE BELTS: BROWNING AT TOP, COLT
IN CENTER, AND VICKERS AT BOTTOM.
In the belts, the bullets in black cases are loaded with tracer
ammunition, those with black noses with incendiary ammunition,
those having a ring just above the bullet casing with
armor-piercing ammunition, while the rest are ordinary service
cartridges.]
Certain American concerns before April, 1917, had been producing
8-millimeter ammunition for the French government for use in its
machine guns. When we entered the war our Ordnance Department found
it necessary to continue the manufacture of these cartridges for the
machine guns obtained from the French. Up to November 30, 1918, a total
of 269,631,800 rounds had been produced under our supervision. These
cartridges were manufactured by the Western Cartridge Co. and by the
Remington Arms Co. at its Swanton plant.
How well and amply we were producing ammunition for our machine
guns and rifles is indicated by the fact that our average monthly
production, based upon our showing in July, August, and September,
1918, was 277,894,000 rounds as against a monthly average for Great
Britain of 259,769,000 rounds and for France of 139,845,000.
Our total production of machine-gun and rifle ammunition during the
19 months of warfare was 2,879,148,000 rounds, while in that period
England produced 3,486,127,000 rounds and France 2,983,675,000, but
it must be remembered that they had been keyed up to that voluminous
production by three years of fighting and that our monthly production
rate indicated we would soon far surpass them in quantities.
The following table shows how our total production of ammunition for
all small arms, including machine guns, rifles, pistols, and revolvers,
grew month by month during the war:
Rounds.
Nov. 30, 1917 156,102,792
Dec. 31, 1917 351,117,928
Jan. 31, 1918 573,981,712
Feb. 28, 1918 760,485,688
Mar. 31, 1918 1,021,610,956
Apr. 30, 1918 1,318,298,492
May 31, 1918 1,616,142,052
June 30, 1918 1,958,686,784
July 31, 1918 2,306,999,284
Aug. 31, 1918 2,623,847,546
Sept. 30, 1918 2,942,875,786
Oct. 31, 1918 3,236,396,100
Nov. 30, 1918 3,507,023,300
Dec. 31, 1918 3,741,652,200
Jan. 31, 1919 3,940,682,744