CONSUMPTION OF SHELLS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1432, 3 August 1915, Page 4

CONSUMPTION OF SHELLS.

The colossal needs of modern warfare are shown by the use of between 35,000 and 40,000 shrapnel shells within 18 hours during the British attack on Neuve Chapelle ; whilst between a recent .Saturday and the following Tuesday night the British Bred 1,500,000 rounds of shell in the vicinity of Ypres, and a busy day in the Dardanelles accounted for 3000 shells used by the British Fleet. But, says an American writer, the allies “have not only their own undisturbed resources to draw from, but are able to place contracts in the United States for shot, shell and powder on such a scale that, whatever the prodigality of its use. no tactical advantage in the field need be neglected or postponed because the supplies of ammunition are running low.’’ The really big war orders which brought about an unprecedented industrial position in the United States date from January. But in the early part of autumn Mr Charles M. Schwab, the head of the Bethlehem steel works, had made two quick trips to Kurope, securing contracts “which subse queutly produced an earning capacity lor a concern that had never paid dividends, unequalled in the records of the iron and steel trade of the United States. His were the only plants modelled and designed for the exclusive manufacture of heavy guns and shrapnel,” To-day mills running at full capacity are employing t 5,000 men.