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Bristol / Beaufort (Merlin) / 200 / 17,400 / 800 / 18,200 / 3,640,000
Castle Bromwich / Spitfire V or VI / 850 / 9,500 / 450 / 9,950 / 8,457,500 Castle Bromwich / Spitfire III / 150 / 10,500 / 600 / 11,100 / 1,665,000
De Havilland / Oxford / 600 / 6,800 / 400 / 7,200 / 4,320,000
De Havilland / Mosquito / 250 / 18,500 / 450 / 18,950 / 4,737,500
English Electric / Halifax / 200 / 42,000 / 1,750 / 43,750 / 8,750,000 Metropolitan Vickers / Lancaster / 250 / 43,600 / 1,750 / 45,350 /
11,337,500
Short / Stirling I / 120 / 49,800 / 2,500 / 52,300 / 6,276,000
Short Harland / Stirling I / 250 / 49,800 / 2,500 / 52,300 / 13,075,000
Short / Sunderland / 50 / 52,100 / 1,600 / 53,700 / 2,685,000
Short Harland / Sunderland / 25 / 60,100 / 1,600 / 61,700 / 1,542,500
Vickers Blackpool / Warwick / 400 / 36,100 / 2,000 / 38,100 / 15,240,000 Vickers Chester / Warwick / 400 / 36,100 / 2,000 / 38,100 / 15,240,000
Vickers Chester / Wellington / 400 / 26,400 / 1,300 / 27,700 / 11,080,000

Supply Board Memorandum 207/41 aircraft program review. Value is for
cancelled orders, All up +spare engines for current orders.
Aircraft / Company / No / Value / All up + Spare engines / Unit cost
Blenheim / Rootes / 170 / 2,324,000 / / 13670.59
Blenheim / Avro / 622 / 9,260,000 / / 14887.46
Hampden / English Electric / 130 / 3,129,000 / / 24069.23
Manchester / Avro / 500 / 22,568,000 / / 45136
Manchester / Metro-Vickers / 200 / 9,027,000 / / 45135
Lancaster / Avro / 450 / / 19,340,000 / 42977.78
Lancaster / Metro-Vickers / 257 / / 11,204,000 / 43595.33
Halifax / Fairey / 150 / / 6,572,000 / 43813.33333
Wellington / Vickers Blackpool / 250 / 6,875,000 / / 27500
Spitfire / Vickers Supermarine / 120 / 1,406,000 / / 11716.67
Tornado / Avro / 400 / / 5,760,000 / 14400
Typhoon / Hawker / 300 / / 5,010,000 / 16700
Defiant / Boulton Paul / 220 / 4,308,000 / / 19581.82
Mosquito / De Havilland / 50 / / 948,000 / 18960
Sunderland / Shorts Windemere / 25 / / 1,343,000 / 53720
Lysander / Westland / 490 / 5,285,000 / / 10785.71
Firefly / General Aircraft / 200 / 2,610,000 / / 13050
Barracuda / Westland / 250 / 3,360,000 / / 13440
Master / Phillps&Powis Reading / 500 / 3,765,000 / / 7530
Master / Phillps&Powis Doncaster / 300 / 2,259,000 / / 7530
Master / Phillps&Powis S. Marston / 400 / 3,063,000 / / 7657.5
Queen Bee / Morris Motors / 50 / 75,000 / / 1500
Anson / Avro / 700 / 5,688,000 / / 8125.71

AVIA 10/267 As of 22 October 1942 Man hours absorbed in aircraft
Aircraft / Contractor / Date / Man hours / Note
Stirling I / Short Swindon / 201st Aircraft / 129,944 /
Lancaster I / Avro / 201st Aircraft / 74,319 /
Halifax II / Handley page / 201st Aircraft / 98,246 /
Wellington Ic / Vickers Weybridge / 19-Nov-41 / 53,969 /
Blenheim IV / Bristol / 22-Dec-39 / 34,813 /
Beaufighter I / Bristol / 31-Jul-41 / 36,615 /
Beaufighter II / Bristol / 31-Jul-41 / 37,933 /
Hurricane IID / Hawker / 22-Dec-41 / 19,560 /
Spitfire Vc / Supermarine / 23-Apr-42 / 19,086 /
Typhoon Ia / Hawker/Gloster / 26-Jan-42 / 28,756 / Preliminary estimate, assuming present methods of production
Typhoon Ia / Hawker/Gloster / 10-Jan-42 / 22,349 / Preliminary estimate, assuming full advantage is taken of best available manufacturing methods Beaufort I / Bristol / 5-Sep-40 / 40,418 /
Sunderland III / Blackburn Dumbarton / 28-Feb-42 / 123,556 / Preliminary estimate
Albacode / Fairey (Hayes) / 20-Aug-41 / 24,852 /
Barracuda / Fairey (Stockport) / 15-Jun-42 / 27,052 / Preliminary estimate Fulmar II / Fairey (Stockport) / 11-Apr-41 / 24,787 /

British Archives AIR 20/1981 has the Hurricane at approximately 8,000 pounds each in April 1942 and 21,000 pounds for a Beaufighter, and the Kittyhawk price, including freight from the US, as approximately 15,500 pounds, the Airacobra 16,700 pounds and Havoc 39,500 pounds. The expected pre war price for a round trip freight bill for 40 Ansons Britain to Australia and return (they were chartered and so were expected to return to Britain) came to
about 45,000 Australian pounds, so about 36,000 pounds sterling or 900 UK pounds per aircraft round trip, so 450 pounds 1 way.

Effort in man hours, Spitfire production, mark / design / jigging and
tooling Figures as of September 1943 for Supermarine works in Southampton.
I / 339,400 / 800,000
II / 9,267 / unknown
III / 91,120 / 75,000
V / 90,000 / 105,000
VI 14,340 / 50,000
IX 43,830 / 30,000
XII / 27,210 / 16,000
VII / 86,150 / 150,000
VIII / 24,970 / 250,000
XIV / 26,120 / 17,000
21 / 168,500 / unknown
PR XI / 12,415 / unknown
Seafire I / 10,130 / 18,000
Seafire II / 3,685 / 40,000
Seafire III / 8,938 / 9,000
Seafire XV / 9,150 / unknown
Spitfire on floats 22,260 / 35,000

Anther aircraft item picked up but no attribution The Blenheim in December
1939 cost 40,600 man hours, 25,510 for the airframe, 7,230 for the engines, 7,860 for the propellers, guns, turrets etc. (military equipment).

Other weapons,
In April 1938 the British presented Australia with a total cost of ownership
of warships, that is running cost, build and modernisation cost, and showed
it as an annual cost, Battleship 706,800 pounds (Nelson class), large
cruiser 323,600 pounds, small cruiser 225,400 pounds, Aircraft carrier with
36 aircraft, 894,000 pounds, with 15 aircraft 514,500 pounds, destroyer
66,000 pounds, 1,000 ton submarine 65,500 pounds. They were pushing the
idea of an RAN battleship, annual cost of aircraft set at 11,500 pounds. Australian Archives A5954 1024/10.

Australian Archives file A705 201/28/22 Part 1 p163
Cost of radar station in Australian pounds
5000 Site and accommodation and administrative buildings
1000 Technical buildings
7000 Equipment
2000 Power Supplies
3000 Communications (Say 10 miles of telephone line)
18000 Total
The above is probably for an Australian Light Weight Air Warning set (LW/AW) not the Chain Home which used 350 feet high transmitting and 250 feet high receiving towers.

Contract prices, pounds, British tanks,
Matilda 18,000
Crusader 13,700
Valentine 14,900
Churchill 11,150
Cromwell 10,000
Man hours per gun and carriage
2 pdr 2682
6 pdr 1293
17 pdr 2726
25 pdr 3085

WO 169/3861 (Eighth Army) G(AFV) Branch dated 'End Sept.' [1942] headed
"Tank Overhaul Programme." It gives the overhaul mileage limit/annual
mileage rate/time in workshops for overhaul (weeks) as:
Crusader 1200 / 3000 / 8
Valentine 2500 / 3000 / 8
Matilda 1000 / 3000 / 8
Stuart 3500 / 3000 / 4
Grant 1500 / 3000 / 8"

In August 1941 the US War Department let a $100-million order for 880 medium tanks, 2,300 light tanks and 1,090 armoured scout cars. In November
Chrysler was awarded $127 million to expand their facilities and produce
medium tanks. General Motors was awarded $25,780,000 to build the Flint
Arsenal and Ford was awarded $39-million for the building the Grand Blanc Arsenal.

In September 1942 the 8th Report of the Army Service Forces Army Supply
Plan, including the then current estimated costs, on "important" items of equipment. US prices are for the tank without armament and usually without
the various items that were added as stowed equipment prior to unit issue. Tank, Light, M3, M3A1, M5, M5A1 - $50,000
Tank Medium, M3 and M4 - $82,723
Tank, Heavy (undesignated) - $152,346

Gun, Tank, 37mm M5 and M6 - $1,425
Gun, Tank, 57mm - $5,500
Gun, Tank, 75mm M2 and M3 - $3,350
Gun, Tank, 76mm M1 - $3,500
Gun, Tank, 3" Heavy - $8,600

To compare the gun prices to the guns with carriage for use as antitank
guns:
37mm - $3,480
57mm - $9,420
76mm - $21,300

Others are:
Gun, 40mm AA, mobile - $17,830
Gun, 3" AA, mobile - $37,500
Gun, 90mm AA, mobile - $43,800
Gun, 90mm AA, fixed Anti-MTB Mount - $23,000
Gun, 4.7" (120mm) AA, mobile - $151,000

Machine gun cost estimates were:
MG, calibre .30, M191A4 (fixed and flexible) - $350
MG, calibre .50, M2 HB (fixed and flexible) - $1,050

The "Gun, Tank 3" Heavy" was a "one-off" adaptation of the old 3" AA gun and only seven were completed. The 76mm AT gun was the designation for an uncompleted design study for a completely new weapon.
A summary of equipment costs dated 29 April 1944 gives the following representative costs:
Tank, Light, M5 and M5A1 - $37,560
Tank, Medium, M4 - $58,197
Tank, Heavy (undesignated) - $325,368

The "Tank, Heavy" was the M1, later re-designated as the M6. Only 40 were completed.

Aircraft Cannon, 75mm - $4,500
Gun, 40mm AA, with carriage - $13,100
Machinegun, calibre .30 - $147
Machinegun, calibre .50 - $323

Unit prices given for VJ-Day 1945 in a 1951 Army summary of costs were:

Tank, Medium, M4A3 - $47,339
Tank, Medium, M4A1 - $55,145
Tank, Light, M24 - $39,652
Tank, Medium M26 - $81,324

The following is taken from the 1944/45 Australian yearbook, production
costs of manufacture in Australia, lowest price obtained during the war.
Note the original table was in pounds, shillings and pence, I have converted
it to dollars following the rules used when Australia converted to decimal currency in the 1960s. The decimal currency conversion rules were 1 pound equals 2 dollars, 12 pence equals 10 cents. I think it was 1 pence equalled
1 cent, 2 pence equalled 2 cents, 3 and 4 pence equalled 3 cents, 5 pence =
4 cents, 6 pence = 5 cents, with a similar arrangement for 7 to 12 pence equalling 6 to 10 cents. So the prices below have to be multiplied by
between 1.5 and 2 in order to put them into US dollars at the then rate of exchange. The average weekly wage at the time was around $12.
$3,000.00 Machine gun carrier L.P. number 2
$12,000.00 3.7 inch AA gun, ordnance and mounting
$9,000.00 25 pounder gun, ordnance, carriage and trailer
$6,600.00 25 pounder short gun, ordnance and carriage
$8,000.00 17 pounder gun, ordnance and carriage
$8,000.00 4 inch naval gun mark XIX including mounting
$3,500.00 2 pounder AT gun, ordnance and carriage
$300.00 3 inch mortar
$218.00 Vickers machine gun, excluding mounting
$292.00 Bren Machine gun, excluding mounting
$24.70 0.303 inch rifle
$2.31 Bayonet
$0.97 Scabbard
Ammunition, filled and packed unless otherwise stated.
$0.0188 0.303 inch ball bullet (or 1.88 cents)
$0.0392 0.303 inch tracer bullet
$0.0363 0.303 inch armour piercing
$0.0483 0.303 inch incendiary
$0.0142 9 mm bullet

$1.58 20 mm HE Hispano shell
$1.73 20 mm HE Oerlikon shell

$5.37 Cartridge, Q.F. HE 18 pounder shell S.L.
$14.31 Cartridge, Q.F. 3.7 inch gun HE shell
$6.75 Cartridge, Q.F. 6 pounder, 7 hundredweight, AP shot
$25.05 Cartridge, Q.F. 4 inch mark XIX gun, HE shell (plugged)
$32.15 Cartridge, Q.F. 4 inch mark XIX gun, star shell (plugged)
$5.43 Cartridge, Q.F. 2 pounder, HE shell high velocity, includes link
belting
$4.76 Cartridge, Q.F. 2 pounder, HE shell low velocity, includes link
belting
$2.54 Cartridge, Q.F. 25 pounder
$5.00 Shell, Q.F. HE 25 pounder S.L. (Fused 117)
$2.23 Cartridge, Q.F. 4.5 inch howitzer
$6.64 Shell Q.F. HE 4.5 inch howitzer fused
$5.97 Shell, smoke 4.5 inch howitzer (plugged)
$2.26 Cartridge B.L. 6 inch howitzer.
$13.30 Shell, B.L., HE, S.L., 6 inch howitzer (filled, plugged and
grummeted)
$5.56 Cartridge B.L. 6 inch gun, cordite S.C, 103 Mark I foil, 11 lb 10.5 oz $14.66 Cartridge B.L. 6 inch gun, cordite S.C, 150 Mark I foil, 33 lb 12
drms.
$45.39 Shell B.L., CPBC, 6 inch gun mark XXXIB (filled, plugged, grummeted) $13.71 Shell B.L., HE, 6 inch gun mark XXVIIIB (filled, plugged, grummeted) $5.08 Cartridge, B.L., 60 pounder
$9.45 Shell B.L. HE 60 pounder (filled, plugged, grummeted)

$2.92 Bomb, M.L. 2 inch mortar HE
$3.99 Bomb, M.L. 3 inch mortar HE 10 pound (fused 152)
$12.45 Bomb, S.B.B.L. 4.2 inch mortar HE

$0.50 Grenade, hand, number 36M
$0.78 Grenade, rifle, number 36M
$0.68 Grenade, number 63
$2.48 Grenade, number 69
$2.60 Grenade, number 73
$1.83 Grenade, number 77

$4.47 contact AT mine mark II
$2.55 contact AT mine mark V

$48.94 Bomb, Aircraft, HE Anti submarine, 250 pound
$32.20 Bomb, Aircraft, HE general purpose 250 pound
$1.41 Bomb, Aircraft, practice 8.5 pound

$42.20 Depth Charge case filled with Amatol
$18.40 Depth Charge pistol
$5.30 Depth Charge primer
$1.03 Depth Charge detonator

$188.00 Naval mine (empty)

$0.35 signal cartridge, 1.5 inch, red
$0.35 signal cartridge, 1.5 inch, green
$28.00 Aircraft 4.5 inch reconnaissance flare
$3.25 Landing wing tip flare
$8.25 Marker, sea, aluminium
$7.40 marine signal, distress
$24.07 smoke float.

In the book Panzertruppen by Jentz, in one of the pre war reports on performance of the various German tanks it makes the point a Panzer III at 150,000 Reichmarks cost 3 times the price of a Panzer I, so was it better to have the three or the one? Machine tools to convert a factory from another tank to Panzer III production are costed at 20,000,000 Reichmarks, another thing to consider when chopping and changing the tank orders, on top of the loss of production during the change over.

The US Maritime Commission notes the average price for a Liberty ship was $1,822,000 per shipsworth, where a shipsworth equals 1 if the ship was fully completed and a fraction if delivered incomplete. There were 20 yards that built Liberty Ships, lowest average cost yard was $1,544,000 highest was $3,923,000.

Geoffrey Sinclair
Remove the nb for email.

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