CHAPTER IX.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 waterbecame 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 inthe 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 WarDepartment 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 bythat 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.

BROWNING MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1917.

MARLIN TANK MACHINE GUN.

COLT MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1917, CALIBER .30.

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.

BENÉT-MERCIÉ MACHINE GUN.

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.

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.

VICKERS MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1915, CALIBER .30.

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:

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.

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.

BROWNING AUTOMATIC RIFLE EQUIPMENT.

LEWIS AIRCRAFT MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1917, CALIBER .30.

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.

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.

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 ofthe 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 typeexclusively. 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.

BROWNING EXPENDABLE CARTRIDGE BELT BOX, MARK I, MOUNTED ON A BROWNING MACHINE GUN TRIPOD, MODEL 1917.

BELT-FILLING MACHINE FOR BROWNING MACHINE GUN, MODEL 1917.

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