Bob Smart

Since I now can post on this forum, I'll add my own commentsto the discussion. What surprised me about the 37mm amounts was that from other research I've become accustomed to seeing production and usage of American weapons really pick up in 1944. Until then the 'Arsenal of Democracy' was still ramping up production. This trend has been pretty consistent in Shipbuilding, Aircraft production, vehicle production, etc. By 1944 the 37mm had become a secondary weapon. It was still used in the M5 tank and the M8 armored car but I think the 37mm A/T gun was generally replaced (at least in Europe). I was surprised that the 75mm (tank & antitank) entry to be larger. As I remember it was about 49,000,000 ( The book is at home, I'm at work). By the way there are seperate entries for 37mm (aircraft) and 37mm (antiaircraft) production. Does anyone know if these guns actually used different rounds that were not compatable or was it primarily a packaging issue? I assume that the aircraft rounds came linked ( for the P-39 & P-63) but how would the AA gun rounds be packaged? The main use of them would be on the M-15 halftrack I believe. How was ammo on that mount handled? clips? Bob Smart (bsmart@xecu.net)