Zealous officers provided
dummy wooden guns for their men. All kinds of devices were tried. And
even when the guns themselves arrived, they came often without the
indispensable accessories--range-finders, directors, and the like.
It was a time of hideous anxiety for both Government and War Office. For
the military history of 1915 was largely a history of shortage of guns
and ammunition--whether on the Western or Eastern fronts. All the same,
by the end of 1915 the thing was in hand. The shells from the new
factories were arriving in ever-increasing volume; and the guns were
following.
In a chapter of _England's Effort_ I have described the amazing
development of some of the great armament works in order to meet this
cry for guns, as I saw it in February 1916. The second stage of the war
had then begun. The first was over, and we were steadily overtaking our
colossal task. The Somme proved it abundantly. But the expansion _still_
goes on; and what the nation owes to the directing brains and ceaseless
energy of these nominally private but really national firms has never
been sufficiently recognised.
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