When we began receiving our bids for 3-inch gun ammunition there were comparatively few factories in the United States that were able to turn out complete rounds of ammunition. There were many factories, however, capable of turning out one or more of the shell components. It was necessary to place orders for complete rounds of ammunition with those factories that could furnish them, and have the remaining components manufactured separately, and to provide assembling plants. To get as many factories as possible on a production basis in anticipation of the future large orders for ammunition that must necessarily follow with extension of operations by our field forces, orders for our initial quantities of ammunition were distributed as widely as possible. To prevent confusion and loss of time because of the scramble for steel forgings and other raw materials it was decided that the Government would purchase all raw materials as well as furnish components for ammunition. How successful we were in getting into quantity production on ammunition after the numerous and large obstacles in the early months of the war can be indicated best by the fact that of the 11,616,156 high-explosive shell for 75-millimeter guns machined up to November 1, no less than 2,893,367 passed inspection in October; while of the 7,345,366 adapters and boosters for 75-millimeter guns that had been machined up to the 1st of November, 2,758,397 passed inspection in October. The figures for the 4.7-inch and 155-millimeter guns and howitzers follow: ----------------------+----------------+--------------- | Machined | Machined | high-explosive | adapters and Kind of ammunition. | shell | boosters | accepted up | accepted up | to Nov. 1. | to Nov. 1. ----------------------+----------------+--------------- 4.7-inch | 994,852 | [20]636,096 155-millimeter | 2,083,782 | 2,516,216 ----------------------+----------------+--------------- [20] For use in 4.7-inch and other sizes. Ammonium picrate or explosive D upon which this country had depended almost entirely up to the time of our entry into the war was forced into the shell under hydraulic pressure. The adoption of the point-fused shell and an explosive for shell filling new to this country, namely, amatol, made necessary the provision of new methods for shell loading and the expansion of plant facilities for these new methods capable of loading the vast and tremendous numbers of shell required in modern warfare. As a result of reports, following investigations by our officers of methods used abroad, various new shell-loading plants were built in the United States. The names, location, and output of the shell-loading plants in our country are as follows: