Under the Gun: Understanding America’s Defense Spending Paradox

On May 9, 1915, more than 11,000 British troops were killed or wounded in a single day during an ill-fated assault on an entrenched German position in Aubers, France. The reason for the disaster: a shortage of artillery shells to support the assault, particularly the high-explosive shells best suited for trench warfare. The resulting “Shell Crisis of 1915,” led to a major reorganization of the British government’s defense production system. It still wasn’t enough to prevent the fall of Prime Minister H.H. Asquith a year later. The shell crisis of World War I reminds us just how hard it is…