Name-Mount, Machine gun, Multiple Caliber .50, M45, M45C, M45F. Weight-M45-2400 lbs approximately Type of Fire-Primary role ground to air; secondary role: ground to ground Projectiles (Kind & Size) Caliber .50 Ball, AP, API, API-T, incendiary, tracer, headlight tracer, blank and dummy Rate of Fire 450-550 rpm per gun, total 1800-2200 rpm Maximum Range-7460 yards with caliber .50, Ball, M2 Type of Targets-Aerial and Ground Means of Transportation-Towed by 34-ton 4 x 4 Truck or in an emergency, by any suitable vehicle with a pintle tow hook. Name Gun, Self-Propelled, Full-Tracked, Twin 40mm, M42Ã1 with Gun, Dual, Automatic, 40mm, M2A1 and Sight, Computing, M38. Weight 49,500 lbs Automatic-Yes, and/or semi-automatic Type of Fire-Primary role: ground to air; secondary role: ground to ground Projectiles (Kind & Size) Shell, HE-T, 40mm, MK2, Assembly 3 Rate of Fire-120 rpm per gun, total 240 Name-Mount, Gun, 40mm, M3 (Deck Shell, HE-T, 40mm, MK2, Assembly 3 Maximum Range-5,200 yards (Limited by Type of Targets-Aerial and Ground The enormous demands for weapons and ammunition made by modern war are illustrated by the following table, which shows the principal items of Ordnance Corps procurement for World War II— Rifles, pistols, carbines, revolvers, submachineguns Machineguns, ground (other than anti-aircraft) 17,444,856 965,365 635,128 1,791,343 129,473 63,181 27,082 116,114 105,054 2,189 88,410 2,941,869 328,669,000 423,409,000 85,646,000 95,690,000 18,296,000 41,788,593,000 36,098,000 Aircraft bombs and bomb clustersb a Includes vehicles procured by the Quartermaster Corps before 1 September 1942, when procurement responsibility for transport vehicles passed to the Ordnance Corps. b Some bomb clusters contained as many as 24 small bombs. The above tabulation also illustrates the rapid progress in the development of new weapons, since it does not include various items which would be in demand today in case of a major war, such as guided missiles and atomic munitions. Chapter 10 SUPPLYING AND EQUIPPING THE ARMY; PURCHASES AND SALES NATURE AND SCALE OF THE PROBLEM The United States Army, with an active strength of less than a million men, is the most widely deployed military force on earth. To maintain it in being today, and to ensure its future success in either a limited or a general war, it must be supplied with a staggering amount and variety of equipment and expendable goods ranging from shoestrings to guided missiles and from axehandles to atomic cannon. These come from practically every productive activity in the nation and from numerous sources abroad. Their annual cost, even in peacetime, runs into billions of dollars. The current inventory of Army equipment and supplies is valued at nearly twenty billion dollars-a sum greater than the combined assets of several of our largest American corporations. In World War II the number of different items in the Army supply system attained a total of 1,750.000. Atpresent there are around a million. The difference reflects the continuing effort of the Department of the Army to reduce the variety of items, by standardization and other means. Currently, some 125,000 items are being screened out of the system every year. This gross reduction, however, is largely offset by the fact that about the same number of new items become necessary annually, as new equipment is introduced or existing equipment modernized. The growing complexity and specialized quality of modern military materiel is thus a bar to reducing the number of supply items below a certain level. For example-to take a few categories at random-the Army finds it necessary to carry, in its supply catalogs, 111 types of railroad cars; 958 types of trailers; 24,248 types of bearings; 2,985 sizes and types of male footwear; 2,978 separate garments for outer wear; and 102 types of religious equipment and supplies. The military supply system has a wide variety of customers. They include the active Army in the continental United States and overseas; the National Guard, Army Reserve, and Reserve Officer Training Corps; other military departments; other government agencies; our allies in the Mutual Assistance Program; and the general public upon occasions of disaster such as floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes. The problem is further complicated by the sudden and violent fluctuations which have occurred in recent years in the Army's workload. From fiscal year 1940, on the eve of World War II, to the peak of our war effort in 1945, annual Army expenditures increased over seventy-fold (from $668.000.000 to $49,689,000,000). When the war ended, the supply "pipelines" (meaning the complex of storage yards, depots, dumps, and supply-laden ships, trains, and trucks which intervened between the centers of production and the points of consumption) were full, and American factories were still producing 1 These were total expenditures; but the portion spent for supplies and equipment increased correspondingly. war goods on a large scale. This was unavoidable. No one could have predicted the precise date when German resistance would collapse in Europe. Still less could it have been predicted, with any assurance, that the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would put an abrupt end to a war that otherwise would have gone on for many months and cost hundreds of thousands of American and Japanese lives. We had to keep up our military effort to the last moment. But when victory did come, the Army was promptly reduced to a few scattered divisions, and was left with an immense surplus on its hands. Before this had been fully disposed of, the growing tension with the Communist powers developed into the "cold war"; shortly thereafter the Korean conflict started; the surplus became a shortage, and once again the Army had to enter the national market on a large scale. Extreme flexibility is therefore essential to the success of our military supply system. This will continue to be the case, for it is the logical outcome of America's basic international policy. A country dedicated to aggression and conquest can decide, far in advance, where and against whom it will make its next attack; it can make its preparations systematically, and strike when it is ready. But our basic strategy is defensive, which means that the time and place of any outbreak of military activity affecting our interests is to a large extent in our opponent's hands. This statement refers not only to fullscale wars, but to developments that can occur in a period of what is technically peace. No longer ago than the autumn of 1957, Russia's launching of her earth satellites, and the implications behind that event, resulted in publicly-announced modifications in our research and development program which no doubt have already had their impact on the Army's supply system, and made further demands on its efficiency, versatility, and flexibility. SUPPLY AGENCIES Overall supervision of the Army supply system heads up to the Secretaries of Defense and of the Army, and to certain Assistant Secretaries and other officials on their civilian staffs. (For details see chapters 3 and 22.) Subject thereto, responsibility lies with the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics ("DCSLOG"), and with the technical services under his supervision. THE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR LOGISTICS. The position of DCSLOG was established in 1954. He is a senior officer reporting directly to the Chief of Staff, U. S. Army. His job is to supervise the procurement, storage, transportation, distribution, and maintenance of the weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and the multitude of other items needed by our Army in the continental United States and overseas; and also, except for maintenance, of those which go to the more than fifty nations associated with us in the Mutual Assistance Program. (In addition he has other important logistic functions.) DCSLOG functions both as a staff officer and as a commander. As a staff officer he is responsible for logistics planning, programming and budgeting; for the formulation of logistics policy, procedures, and systems; and for supervising the development of logistic doctrine and organization, and the conduct of logistics training. In addition, however, he directs and controls the activities of the chiefs of the technical services, including their missions, functions, organizations, precedures, channels of communication, manpower, and money; and reviews and analyzes their performance. This measure of direction and control is tantamount to command. THE TECHNICAL SERVICES. There are seven such services (see chapter 2). One of them, the Chemical Corps, has primarily a research and development mission. Four of them have important logistic missions other than supply, as follows The Corps of Engineers: construction, mapping, and other technical tasks. The Army Medical Service: hospitalization. The Signal Corps: signal communications and associated activities. The Transportation Corps: transportation. The remaining two, the Ordnance Corps and the Quartermaster Corps, are essentially supply services. All seven, however, have important supply functions, and all seven operate active research and development programs (see chapter 18). Subject to the direction and control of DCSLOG, the chiefs of these services retain their Army-wide technical staff status, and exercise, in varying degrees, control or supervision of the agencies, activities, and troop units pertaining to their respective services. CATEGORIES OF SUPPLY Items entering into Army supply may be classified on two different bases: by "classes" and by procuring agencies. CLASSES OF SUPPLY. This is the fundamental Army classification. There are five such classes, as follows Class I (Subsistence). Items consumed by personnel at an approximately uniform rate, irrespective of local changes in combat or terrain conditions. Example: rations. Class II. Supplies and equipment for which allowances are established by Tables of Organization and Equipment, Tables of Allowances or other allowance lists. Example: clothing, weapons, and mechanic's tools. Class III. Fuels and lubricants for all purposes except for operating aircraft, for medicinal products, or for use in weapons such as flame throwers. Examples: gasoline, kerosene, diesel oil, fuel oil, lubricating oil, greases, and solid fuels such as coal, coke and wood. Class IV. Supplies and equipment for which allowances are not prescribed, or which are not otherwise classified. Examples: construction and fortification materials, resupply of Class II items, fuel for aircraft. Class V. Ammunition. CHARACTERISTICS OF CLASSES. These classes have certain typical characteristics, including the follow ing Expendability. Items of Classes I, III, and V are expendable. Items of classes II and IV may or may not be expendable. Most nonexpendable items are in Class II. Basis of Issue. Class I: per man (or animal) per unit of time. Class II: per man, per unit, or per machine. Class III: per vehicle per unit of distance, or on some other reasonable basis. Class IV: per project, per mission, or on some other reasonable basis. Class V: per weapon; per unit or user; per area or mission; or on some other reasonable basis. Consumption. Items of classes I, III, and V are normally consumed soon after their issue to using troops; reissue is frequent and follows promptly on consumption. Nonexpendable items of classes II and IV normally have rather long useful lives, and reissue is intermittent. Expendable items of classes II and IV (for example, repair parts, road material) are usually consumed soon after issue, but reissue depends upon circumstances. PROCURING AGENCIES. Items of Army supply may also be classified on the basis of which service procures them. The principal characteristic fields of procurement of the technical services, omitting minor or special items, are given below. (See also chapter 2.) The Quartermaster Corps. Subsistence, petroleum products, clothing, individual equipment and supplies, furniture and office supplies, laundry and kitchen equipment, materials handling equipment. The Army Medical Service. All items of medical equipment and medical supplies, drugs, and medicinal chemicals. The Corps of Engineers. Equipment and materials pertaining to construction, fortifications, camouflage, demolition, mapping and surveying, and allied activities. The Chemical Corps. Chemical munitions and protective devices. The Ordnance Corps. Ammunition, weapons, armored vehicles, tactical and general purpose vehicles, fire control instruments. The Signal Corps. Communications and electronic equipment and related supplies, meteorological equipment, photographic equipment and supplies. The Transportation Corps. Army |