BRITAIN PREPARES FOR WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 17, 20 January 1940, Page 18

BRITAIN PREPARES FOR WAR

IT is not unusual to hear the claim that this or that factory is fitted with the latest machinery, and it is therefore refreshing to find that at works which are turning out stores for the fighting Services, while they have modern-plant in plenty, an important contribution is being made by old and trusted friends which refuse to be ousted by new gadgets, wrote a special correspondent of "The Times" recently. For instance, in the f carpenters' shop of a Royal ordnance' factory of the Ministry of Supply which I visited, they proudly pointed out a machine which has been revolving steadily in the service of the nation for eighty-five years. It is a five-spihdle-recessing machine, but it is referred to as "the bird cage," which is what it looks like. Everybody in the shop has a deep respect, even affection, for this veteran, which from war to war and in between wars has. gone on working and "never falling' down on the" job." But it is not sentiment which explains this long reign in a factory where efficiency is a: first demand on machines as oh men. The -reason is that nothing better is; even today available. "It never lets. us. down/ they stated in the shop, "and although: attempts have . been made, nothing to touch it has ever been produced/ ■ But> in, other parts of this vast factory one. found skilled engineers who were equally enthusiastic about the new machinery, they control. In the main machine shop more ' than 1000 machine tools are in use by day and night machining components of the Bren. guii. More than 3000 operations go io the making of the 172 parts from which* this intricate and efficient weapon. is assembled, and the expenditure of care, patience, and skill could not be higher. But although meticulous care •is taken to ensure accuracy, long and arduous tests await the finished product. Some 5000 gauges are needed in producing a Bren gun, and there is a section • where the gauges themselves undergo rigorous examination, and where they can measure to within three millionths of an inch. .•.■...>•■-. \ : The Bren gun and other small arms begin to take shape in the smithy, a dark cavern, lit brightly here and there by. furnaces, where workers in singlets and ~ leather aprons light-heartedly I throw, from one to another red-hot lengths of steel which before long are > taking on the rough form of I Firmly, clamped in long, tongs, the j glowing metal is swung beneath a twoton hammer which soon knocks it into I shape. But-this is not the end; the forgings go on. enduring ordeal'by fire: Up to a ton of them will undergo heat treatment together. For several hours they will be he&ted in a large gasfired furnace; then, red hot, they are removed in a charging machine, which travels along to a* tank of oil and drops its load into the oil, from which shoot flames and afterwards dense clouds of smoke. Nor is this hardening process the end; yet further heating is necessary before the steel is as tough as it must be to stand up to the stress to which guns are subjected in firing. .-.'■•■ These rough shapes are then passed from machine to machine, and come beneath the edge of a hundred and one cutting tools." Even stainless steel, a necessary material in one part of the gun, is effectively dealt with by these tools, and the accuracy achieved is such that complete interchangeability of parts is /certain by the time they reach the assembly shop. In, this machining lubrication is important, and in many of the machines a plentiful supply of homely soap and water meets the,heed. In the assembly shop we saw Bren guns being "run in" by machine, so that they shall; be ready for immediate use when issued to the troops. On the.-. ranges we watched Bren guns undergoing endurance trials; the gunners blazer away ceaselessly "until something goes.'V Valuable information is gained in this way. - At another point, with a line of sparrows perched cheekily and calmly on the high wall at one side, we saw guns of various: sorts;, and pistols being tested for accuracy. Targets were fired • at, but it was pointed, out that the aim is not to, register bulls but to discover how accurately a weapon is firing, and to see what adjustments are necessary. The British.Expeditionary Force went to France fully equipped with the Bren gun,„ and;; it may be taken for granted that it will prove a thoroughly efficient and reliable weapon.

The greater part of the factory's main block is' a series of huge workshops opening out one from the .other, each" filled with a taut "orchestration of clatter ? and a forest of belting, said the' "Manchester Guardian" correspondent in his^ account of the visit. So accurate are the machines that most of work is done by unskilled and semi-skilled workers, though there is censtant supervision by skilled mechanics.' Similar modern factory processes are applied to the new .38 revolver/ successor to the Webley, and preferred by the Army and the Navy to the automatic pistol carried by officers and n.c.o.s '_ of the Air Force. (Those who have fired with both will agree with the soldiers that the revolver suffers less from stoppages than does the automatic, and is a sweeter weapon to handle. Perhaps the Air : Ministry has seen too many American films.) The handsome walnut "furniture?' of rifles, revolvers, and Bren guns is also mass-produced.

The nearest that this factory can show to old-fashioned hand-made work is its relatively small production of- the water-cooled Vickers gun. This is'made in its familiar form as an Army weapon to fire .303 ammunition, and also -as an anti-tank gun firing a

half-inch bullet. The Navy has a| special anti-aircraft version, heavier! to take ■ a heavier missile* and with brass mountings. - The Navy likes a bit of brass to polish, the shop foreman told us. Here', as in: other factories, the inspection department is busy throughout the production of each weapon,. Every weapon is tested piece by piece, then, as a whole, then fired, and then tested again. Today, for example, we saw Bren guns being tested on the long range for strength of components and on a shorter range for accuracy. In a;, special enclosure they were being fired almost /vertically upwards and almost-vertically downwards, for any small fault in ■a ■ gun will be exaggerated when the moving parts that normally work horizontally are helped or hindered: to an ; extreme degree by the force of gravity.' ; Fifty-one years ago some soldiers in the" Egyptian .campaign grumbled because: itheir.' .- bayonets bent.. The Small ■ Arms - Inspection Department was formed •as 'a , of -. their complaints. .' -.« Any,/ of , them that are still alive-7-there:~- may:>be • some .in their seventies—would :,be, awed at the outcome of * their grousing. British, Dominion, arid neutral journalists 'recently visited one of the greatest, of the Royal Ordnance factories, all of whichl are now controlled directly by the Ministry of Supply, said a writer in the "Manchester Guardian" a day earlier. It was the first of a number of such visits, so the factory chosen was onewhich is concerned not with mass but with prototype production. Other factories, * whether they are- under the Ministry's direct, control or are civil-ian-owned units turned over to war production, can learn here the standard, methods for the making of guns, small arms, and ammunition of every kind. The visitors saw shells forged and, turned, heavy guns—mostly for the ' Navy—made and repaired, and the career of small-arm cartridges from the melting-pot.to the bandolier. Methods more closely resembling those of industrial mass-production were met with' in the inspection department. . Controlling officers from the'Navy-and the Army, helped by specially-recruited examiners, inspect and either .reject or pass to their services the various arms and ammunition manufactured. In, the case of guns and their mountings inspection is carried on throughout'the process of manufacture by the analysis of, metal samples and by; the application of testing machinery to the mechanism.l When a gun is completed it is fired in the proof butts, both with service charges and with charges greater than the gun would experience in. its service life. Electrical devices check muzzle velocities and chamber pressures, and wear on gun linings is measured. On this visit we saw a 14-inch naval gun proved at the butts. It is one of the most massive weapons, and each test tore from it a great tongue of flame and an earth-shakine roar.

At this factory is one of. the main centres for Hflie, inspection of small arms ammunition.. British methods

differ, it is said, from that of other countries in that: every finished cartridge is tested , before it reaches the man with the rifle or the machinegun. In Germany, for example, we know. that only component parts • are examined, and that the cartridge, once assembled, is sent to the, troops! with no further examination. Here ammunition, from. Government and civilian factories, is tested for weight, size, | and in every other detail, by fascinatingly finicking automatic ma- i chines. . ..' j These delicate : instruments—there are hundreds of them—sort out bullets and ■ cartridges, throwing ■ those that are too heavy to one side, those that I are too light to. another. Other. machines test for size' and finish. Final details are checked at the hands of picked experts. Even boxes, bandoliers, and wrappings are checked, arid samples picked from batches of am- { munition are fired from weapons 'of every degree of wear likely to be in use. . ■ ' - . _ • •'' •' • ! The armaments : inspection , department, which. is. sending out instructions to Canada and : which. has pupils in England:from the other' Dominions, has to see that every fighting vman has the best weapon and/ammunition that the country/ can produce,, and it takes its duty seriously. ,