Bullets By The Billion

by Wesley W. Stout

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

90 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2007

Reviews

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple enough concept, here we have a factory (Chrysler of Evansville, Indiana) giving a summary of its accomplishments during the second world war.

It started with pistol caliber cartridges, moved onto rifles. Then as the War and Ordnance Departments needs changed it continued switching its production line. Some of the changes seemed small such as switching from brass to steel casings based on what was available- but even these needed machines to be retooled and testing to be done to ensure the same standard of reliability. They even had to devise an underwater conveyor system to put the ammunition cases through to ensure they were water proof (for shipment to areas where humidity was a factor).

The large scale changes were ending cartridge production and changing the factories layouts to allow for the refitting of tanks and trucks before they were sent overseas.

I think anyone who has seriously studied the second world war knows at least these two things, that the United States took about a year (From December of 1941) to ramp up its military strength (which includes logistics, supplies, training, etc.), and that American industry, being un-harassed by bombings or sabotage, was able to perform impressive feats in a short timeframe, ensuring that there was always more equipment being manufactured (bullets, bombs, trucks and planes, etc.) than there were losses to offset.

This book is a short evening read, and virtually every page contains a photo of the plants processes in action, or an illustration. Its a splendid little view into the home front.

[Nathan]

This is a brief corporate history of the Chrysler Corporation's factory in Evansville, Indiana that churned out literally billions of small arms rounds during WWII; late in the war, when ammunition stockpiles were sufficient, it switched to overhauling tanks and trucks. It's written at a middle-school level, and is a great example of the sort of "booster" literature that was parodied in Sinclair Lewis's *Babbit*.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the story of the Chrysler Corporation's Evansville, Indiana plant. A plant that manufactured billions of .45 and .30 caliber ammunition.