ops in the field were furnished by the
French and the British until May, 1918. During that month and June the
eleven American divisions that sailed were provided with American-made
Vickers, although they still used the French-made Chauchat automatic
rifles. After June, all American troops to sail received a full equipment
of Brownings, both heavy machine guns and automatic rifles. Altogether
27,000 heavy Brownings and 29,000 light Brownings were shipped to the
American Expeditionary Force, sufficient by the time of the armistice to
equip completely all the American troops in France. They were not used in
combat until the Meuse-Argonne battle, where they amply justified the
faith of General Pershing.

The policy of delaying production in order to obtain the best quality was
not followed in the case of the rifle, and the results unquestionably
justified the plan, ultimately adopted, of accepting a slightly inferior
type which could be produced at once in quantity. The American army
rifle, the Springfield, was generally regarded as the most accurate the
world had seen. Unfortunately there was little hope of expanding the
production of Springfields sufficiently to meet the necessities of the
new National Army. For several years previous to 1917 the Government,
with myopic vision, had cut down expenditures for the manufacture of
small-arms and ammunition, with the result that artisans skilled in
making Springfields had been scattered. Even if the two factories that
had been turning out Springfields could be restaffed, their combined
production would be insufficient. Private plants could not be utilized
for early quantity production, because of the time that would be taken in
building up an adequate manufacturing equipment and training the
artisans. Fortune intervened. It happened that three large American firms
were about to complete important contracts for supplying Enfield rifles
to the British Government. Their plants and skilled labor might be turned
to account, but the Enfield was not regarded as satisfactory, principally
because its ammunition was inferior to that taken by the Springfield. The
War Department decided to attempt a change in the bore of the Enfield so
that it would use Springfield cartridges, and to make other minor
simplifications and improvements. The experiment proved successful to the
highest degree. The modified Enfields were reported to be only slightly
inferior to the Springfields and by the end of