



Produced by Richard Tonsing, Odessa Paige Turner, TIA and
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[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE.

"THE END OF THE WAR."

A GRAPHIC RECORD.

One minute before the hour.

All guns firing.

Nov. 11, 1918. 11 A.M.

One minute after the hour.

All guns silent.

    This is the last record by sound ranging of artillery activity
        on the American front near the River Moselle. It is the
        reproduction of a piece of recording tape as it issued
        from an American sound-ranging apparatus when the hour of
        11 o'clock on the morning of November 11, 1918, brought
        the general order to cease firing, and the great war came
        to an end. Six seconds of sound recording are shown. The
        broken character of the records on the left indicates great
        artillery activity; the lack of irregularities on the right
        indicates almost complete cessation of firing, two breaks
        in the second line probably being due to the exuberance
        of a doughboy firing his pistol twice close to one of the
        recording microphones on the front in celebration of the
        dawn of peace. The two minutes on either side of the exact
        armistice hour have been cut from the strip to emphasize
        the contrast. Sound ranging was an important means of
        locating the positions and calibers of enemy guns. A
        description of these wonderful devices, which were a secret
        with America and the Allies, is given in Book III, chapter
        4.]




                          America's Munitions
                               1917-1918


                                REPORT
                                  OF
                           BENEDICT CROWELL

                    THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF WAR
                         DIRECTOR OF MUNITIONS

                            [Illustration]

                              WASHINGTON
                      GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
                                 1919

                                 WASHINGTON, D. C., _December 24, 1918_.

DEAR MR. CROWELL: American munitions production, which for some time
has been in your charge, played an important part in the early decision
of the war, yet the very immensity and complexity of the problem has
made it difficult for this accomplishment to be adequately understood
by the public or in fact by any except those who have had occasion to
give the matter special study. As the whole people have been called
upon to make sacrifices for the war, all the people should be given an
opportunity to know what has been done in their behalf in munitions
production, and I therefore ask that you have prepared a historical
statement of munitions production, so brief that all may have time to
read it, so nontechnical that all may be able readily to understand it,
and so authoritative that all may rely upon its accuracy.

      Cordially yours,

                                                        NEWTON D. BAKER,
                                                     _Secretary of War_.

  Hon. BENEDICT CROWELL,
      _The Assistant Secretary of War_.

                                      WASHINGTON, D. C., _May 10, 1919_.

DEAR MR. SECRETARY: Responding to your request, I transmit herewith
a brief, nontechnical, authoritative history of munitions production
during the recent war. The several chapters have been prepared in the
first instance by the officers who have been directly responsible for
production, and have been assembled and edited, under my direction, by
Hon. Robert J. Bulkley, assisted by Capt. Robert Forrest Wilson and
Capt. Benjamin E. Ling. Capt. Wilson has undertaken responsibility for
the literary style of the report, and has rewritten the greater part of
it, consulting at length with the officers who supplied the original
material, and with officers of the statistics branch of the General
Staff, in order to insure accuracy.

Maj. Gen. C. C. Williams, Chief of Ordnance; Brig. Gen. W. S. Peirce,
Acting Chief of Ordnance; Maj. Gen. C. T. Menoher, Chief of Air
Service; Maj. Gen. W. M. Black, Chief of Engineers; Maj. Gen. W. L.
Sibert, Chief of Chemical Warfare Service; Maj. Gen. H. L. Rogers,
Quartermaster General; Mr. R. J. Thorne, Acting Quartermaster General;
Maj. Gen. G. O. Squier, Chief Signal Officer; Brig. Gen. Charles B.
Drake, Chief of Motor Transport Corps; and Maj. Gen. W. M. Ireland, the
Surgeon General, have cooperated in the preparation of the material
transmitted herewith.

Special acknowledgment for the preparation and correction of the
several chapters is due to the following officers:

The ordnance problem, Col. James L. Walsh.

Gun production, Col. William P. Barba.

Mobile field artillery, Col. J. B. Rose.

Railway artillery, Col. G. M. Barnes and Maj. E. D. Campbell.

Explosives, propellants, and artillery ammunition, Col. C. T. Harris
and Maj. J. Herbert Hunter.

Sights and fire-control apparatus, Col. H. K. Rutherford and Maj. Fred
E. Wright.

Motorized artillery, Col. L. B. Moody and Lieut. Col. H. W. Alden.

Tanks, Lieut. Col. H. W. Alden.

Machine guns, Col. Earl McFarland and Lieut. Col. Herbert O'Leary.

Service rifles, Maj. Lewis P. Johnson and Maj. Parker Dodge.

Pistols and revolvers, Lieut. Col. J. C. Beatty and Maj. Parker Dodge.

Small arms ammunition, Lie