I may quote my own words in _England's Effort_ (October, 1916): "The total amount of heavy guns and ammunition manufactured in Great Britain in the first ten months of the war would not have kept the British bombardment on the Somme _going for a single day_." And now?
On that first day of the Somme Battle, July, 1916, says the Despatch, "13,000 tons of ammunition were fired by us on the Western front.

On the _31st of July_, 1917, in the Third Battle of Ypres, _the British Armies used_ 23,000 _tons of ammunition_." _Last year_, from August to November, 700,000 _tons of ammunition_ were expended by the British Armies on the Western front.

On the days of most active fighting 20,000 _tons a day_ was a common ration.

The supply never failed.

In the three months' offensive of last autumn all the Army Commanders had to think of in the matter of artillery and ammunition was transport and distribution.