America's Munitions 1917-1918United States. War Department
History
America's Munitions 1917-1918
United States. War Department
United States. Army -- Supplies and stores; Weapons; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States -- Equipment and supplies
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:
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