An Army Without Shells?

Are the U.S. armed forces running short of ammunition? The U.S. people, scanning the headlines, listening to the radio, might have got this impression last week.

P: In a story widely reprinted in the U.S., the London Daily Mail's Noel Monks quoted a U.S. infantry officer who had just survived a counterattack by German tanks: "My men are getting cut up for want of a few more American shells."

P: Grey, intense Lieut. General Brehon Somervell, boss of the Army Service Forces, made headlines for two days. He warned the Senate's Mead Committee of a potentially dangerous shortage in military production. In Manhattan, he exhorted N.A.M. conventioneers (see BUSINESS) : "American industry and American workers must rededicate themselves, here and now, to an upsurge of production. . . ."

P: Twenty-seven U.S. soldiers, furloughed from foreign battlefronts, began a tour of U.S. plants to spur workers on to greater efforts. Sample platform testimony: "At Eupen, after heavy firing, we ran out of ammunition. I think we could have kept the Germans on the run if we hadn't."

These were the strongest statements yet issued in the month-long battle (TIME, Nov. 27), directed from Washington, to raise U.S. production. Taken at face value, they looked like real cause for alarm. But the simple fact was: the U.S. has not yet lost a battle for want of supplies. General Somervell was careful to make this point plain: "Make no mistake about it; no one so far has suffered. . . . Our problem is to keep us from suffering. . . ."

The U.S. Army still had enough ammunition to last until spring--or maybe "six months from now." There might be minor shortages in specific spots from lack of transport. But this is not surprising, considering the fact that U.S. soldiers are firing, every minute of every day, more than two tons of steel at the Germans. There would certainly be rationing of ammunition, as there has always been in every war. Any artillery or infantry commands which did not ration their fire would be guilty of a tactical error.

The U.S. production problem was simply to make certain that, with an ever-increased rate of firing, there is no ammunition shortage in 1945.

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