The production of completed rounds of artillery ammunition was gaining rapidly, beginning with the early summer of 1918, and in the month of October was approaching half the rate of manufacture in Great Britain or in France. Figure 6 shows graphically the rate at which the artillery ammunition deliveries were expanding. [Illustration: FIGURE 6. COMPLETE ROUNDS OF ARTILLERY AMMUNITION PRODUCED FOR THE ARMY EACH MONTH DURING 1918 (FIGURES IN THOUSANDS OF ROUNDS). Jan. == 130 Feb. == 138 Mar. ====== 500 Apr. =========== 906 May. ============ 1034 June. ================ 1319 July. ============= 1051 Aug. ======================== 1984 Sept. ============================== 2548 Oct. ==================================== 3026 Nov. =============================== 2570 Dec. ======================== 2024] In artillery proper the war ended too soon for American industry to arrive at a great production basis. The production of heavy ordnance units is necessarily a long and arduous effort even when plants are in existence and mechanical forces are trained in the work. America in large part had to build her ordnance industry from the ground up--buildings, machinery, and all--and to recruit and train the working forces after that. The national experience in artillery production in the great war most like our own was that of Great Britain, who started in from scratch, even as we did. It is interesting, then, to know how Great Britain expanded her artillery industry, and the testimony of the British ministry of munitions may throw a new light on our own efforts in this respect. In discussing artillery in the war the British ministry of munitions issued a statement from which the following is an excerpt: It is very difficult to say how long it was before the British army was thoroughly equipped with artillery and ammunition. The ultimate size of the army aimed at was continually increased during the first three years of the war, so that the ordnance requirements were continually increasing. It is probably true to say that the equipment of the army as planned in the early summer of 1915 was completed by September, 1916. As a result, however, of the battle of Verdun and the early stages of the battle of the Somme, a great change was made in the standard of equipment per division of the army, followed by further increases in September, 1916. The army was not completely equipped on this new scale until spring, 1918. [Illustration: FIGURE 7. COMPLETE UNITS OF MOBILE ARTILLERY PRODUCED FOR THE ARMY EACH MONTH DURING 1918.