FULLY EQUIPPED

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3245, 29 March 1943, Page 3

FULLY EQUIPPED

ARMY IN AUSTRALIA CHANGE IN SITUATION STATEMENT BY MINISTER The remarkable change that has come over the war supply situation in Australia has been emphasised in the last week by two striking Ministerial announcements —the assurance of the Minister for the Army that the increasing output of arms will soon permit the diversion to the Volunteer Defence Corps of .new and modern weapons, and the revelation of the Minister of Munitions that the Army is, in some instances, now being supplied with more equipment than it can absorb, writes E. Axford in the Sydney Morning Herald. Memories of our supply weaknesses when Australia was in imminent danger of invasion 12 months ago are still painfully fresh. The Minister for the Army, Mr Forde, revealed some of them when addressing Parliament on the Militia Bill.

Two months before Japan struck at Pearl Harbour, he said, Australia had 'no fighter aeroplanes, only 15 rounds of anti-tank ammunition to a gun, less than a week’s supply of shells for field artillery, 60 per cent of the rifles we needed, 20 per cent of the tommyguns, and a serious shortage of machine guns.

In view of these shortcomings, the spectacle presented by the Minister of Munitions, Mr Makin, of a present surplus of military equipment is so novel that a public exhorted to greater efforts on the production front may well view the new situation with surprise. Peak Production It is decidedly heartening, if unexpected, to hear the Army il virtually complaining” of excessive quantities of certain kinds of equipment coming forward. ' Still more surprising is the spectacle of a Munitions Minister rising in the House to justify idle machines in war factories —idle because they have been producing too much. The situation which has arisen in Australia in the field of munitions production is wrapped up in three major considerations: (a) The virtual attainment of peak production in war factories;- (2) the creation of large reserves of arms and ammunition; (3) the failure of the Japanese so far to involve our land forces in resisting a full-scale invasion. Typical of the present position is the case of small arms ammunition. On February 4 Mr Makin said: “The full capacity we have for making the ordinary .303 ammunition is not b’ing used because stocks are regarded as far beyond immediate requirements.” Tn Other words, we are slowing down the production of small arms ammunition because we have been shooting it off in much smaller quantities than we anticipated, because we have built up reserves large enough to take care of the immediate future.

Thia is not unexpected. Soon after the war began Australia set aside millions of pounds for the construction of new small arms ammunition

factories. These factories, employing many thousands of hands, have beer producing .303 ammunition day and night for nearly three years. Some idea of the output of the factories may be gathered by the fact that as long ago as September, 1941, the Ministry of Munitions publicly announced that production was “considerably more than 1,000,000 rounds a day.” Current output is obviously not disclosed. This War and Last

Bullets of this type are fired from rifles, machine-guns and aircraft guns. In combination, these weapons can be extremely prodigal of ammunition, but so far only a small fraction of the immense stocks accumulated have been expended during the fighting in New Guinea and other battle zones north of Australia.

Nothing has occurred either in Malaya or Papua, for example, to compare with the battle of Hargicourt (September 18, 1918) when the Australians massed 256 Vickers guns on a front of 7000 yards. No machine-gun unit in Malaya or Papua is likely to

have approached the record of the 3rd Australian Machine-gun Company at Mouquet Farm on August 21, 1916, when 36,500 bullets were fired in three hours, and another 14,500 during the ensuing night.

Because opportunities for shotting off large quantities of .303 ammunition have been comparatively rare, it has been possible to build up substantial stocks. A contributing factor has been the fact that since Japan entered the war Australia has ceased to export this type of ammunition to Great Bri tain, India and other Empire coutb tries which formerly drew fairly heavily upon Australian supplies. To what extent we could" now resume such exports, particularly to nations confronting Japan,, raises some interesting speculations.

There is nothing alarming in the Ministerial disclosure that sections of plant used in the production of small arms ammunition have been closed down. Such stoppages are only temporary. Tools are carefully set aside, manpower is transferred to more urgent tasks. At any time they can be transferred back to .303 production.