15, there were constructed
three hundred and sixty pieces of heavy artillery. On August
first, 1914, we had only sixty-eight batteries. A year
later, to the day, on the first of August, 1915, we had two
hundred and seventy-two batteries of heavy artillery.

Now consider these figures, given out by M. Andre Tardieu, High
Commissioner of the French Republic at Washington, in a letter to the
Hon. Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War:

In the matter of heavy artillery, in August, 1914, we had
only three hundred guns distributed among the various
regiments. In June, 1917, we had six thousand heavy guns,
all of them modern. During our spring offensive in 1917, we
had roughly one heavy gun for every twenty-six meters of
front. If we had brought together all our heavy artillery
and all our trench artillery, we would have had one gun for
every eight meters in the battle sector.

In August, 1914, we were making twelve thousand shells for
the .75's per day, now we are making two hundred and fifty
thousand shells for the .75's and one hundred thousand
shells for the heavy guns per day.

If you wish to consider the weight of the shells which fell
on the German trenches during our last offensives, you will
find the following figures for each linear meter:

Field artillery 407 kilos
Trench artillery 203 kilos
Heavy artillery 704 kilos
High Power artillery 12 kilos
----
Total 1442 kilos

And these are the figures for the monthly expenditure in
munitions for the .75's alone:

July, 1916 6,400,000 shells
September, 1916 7,000,000 shells
October, 1916 5,500,000 shells

During the last offensive the total expenditure amounted to
twelve million projectiles of all calibers.

This incomparable war industry has permitted us not only to fight, to
defend ourselves and to attack the enemy, but also to supply our
friends, our Allies, with the munitions necessary to fight. Up to
January, 1918, these are the amounts of munitions France was able to
hand over to the nations fighting at her side in Europe:

1,350,000 rifles
800,000,000 cartridges
16,000,000 automatic rifles
10,000 mitrailleuses
2,500 heavy guns
4,750 airplanes

And to France ha