[u-89]

I agree with your assertions but I did not want to get sidetracked onto the topic. Not saying the poster I addressed would have but I have had enough experience on FR to know that a small but contentious point can be used to distract away from the larger issue. Therefore I left the subject open ended rather than conclusive.

I don't have the formual handy but there are statistics as to how many hundreds of rifle bullets are fired before one enemy soldier is killed. I do remember that the Lusitania had enough rounds on it to kill over an entire German Regiment's worth of troops. What I always found ironic was that we shipped so much ammo to the Allies even before we were involved and then once we were in it we had to have them supply us with artillery pieces and even rifles (not to mention planes and tanks). I understand that we were not on a war economy before April 1917 and it takes time to gear up but it is ironic.

[Burkeman1]

That is true. Our troops had to use British rifles and the atrocious French "Chau Chau" light machine gun (perhaps the worst weapon ever issued to soldiers in modern warfare according to the History Channel). Even though the BAR had already been developed by WWI and was accepted by the military it never made it to the troops in WWI. Let's not even get into the fact that US pilots were given planes that the French pilots had long since stopped using. The war economy was managed quite badly by Wilson. But then again- he did not even think an army would have to be sent to Europe other than token forces when he asked Congress for a declaration of war.

As a sidenote- 25,000 US troops died in hastily set up "Training camps" due to influenza in the United States. This was well before the 1918-1919 world wide Flu Pandemic. That is enough to make Wilson the worst President of all time in my book.