Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Suponski
I wonder how many were scraped during the WW2 era metal drives. My guess on remaining Parkers would be about 1/3 total production.
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I have wondered the same thing myself, by 1942 ammo and gun manufacturer warnings on shooting Damascus and Twist barrels guns were well established. There was a promotional effort to make people believe such guns were essentially decorative items, most thought they were obsolete and dangerous. By that time the Dam/Twist guns were most likely in the hands of 2nd and 3rd owners. Patriotism was especially strong, people wanted to contribute to the war effort, sacrafice was the order of the day, rationing of gas, rubber, butter, sugar. I believe many Dam/Twist guns, hammer and hammerless, maybe a majority of them, were melted down to help produce the arsenal of democracy. Attrition of fluid steel guns is probably substantial but less than composite barrel guns.
From an article on the WWII scrap drives:
Many of the other materials collected couldn't readily be recycled either. Many who lived through the war remember collecting old newspapers, but apart from using them as packing material and such there was little to be done with them. A 1941 aluminum-scrap drive to help the plucky Brits pulled in 70,000 tons of aluminum pots and pans, but only virgin aluminum could be used to manufacture aircraft.
Iron and steel were a different story. These metals could be easily melted down and used for munitions. It's not as if the U.S. lacked domestic sources of iron ore, though. The real challenge was gearing up American industry for war production. That meant everything from increasing steel-making capacity to building more factories and designing better weapons. Recycling of steel and iron unquestionably helped. One campaign netted five million tons of steel in just three weeks, and scrap-metal drives continued for most of the war.Useful though recycled steel and iron were, some scrap drives went overboard. In addition to old streetcar tracks, wrought iron fences, church bells, and the like, people carted off relics of previous wars, including cannons, park statues, and other memorials. When the memorials were being rebuilt after the war, many wished they hadn't been so hasty.