Watching "the Crimson Chorus of the guns" playing to the enemy

Artillery played a most important part in all the major operations of the western front. As the war continued this branch of the army grew steadily in strength, efficiency and importance. Both sides possessed terrific weapons but on the whole the allies could claim to be superior in their gunnery. The Germans had an advantage in their semi-mobile howitzers and the long-range guns of which “Big Bertha” was their super giant. But the allies scored in other pieces. The British introduces drumfire at Neuve Chanpelle ; the French developed first the stationary and then the creeping barrage at Verdun. The French also discovered a means of locating the guns by sound, and the allies were the first to make use of long-range guns mounted on railroad cars. Out of every hundred days that the American combat divisions were in France they were supported by their own artillery for seventy-five days, by British artillery for five days, and by the French for one-half day. Of the days remaining eighteen and one-half days that they were without artillery eighteen days were in quiet sectors and only one-half of one day in each hundred was in active sectors. The American army in France had 3,500 pieces of artillery, of which nearly 500 were made in America. The number of pieces used in the firing line were 2, 250. These pieces were all made to conform to the French and British standard calibres