" The shells were not there. The men at the front were not to blame. The generals were not to blame. The blame lay entirely with the system, which had governed the supply of munitions." - David Lloyd George, House of Commons Speech, 1915

During the shell crisis of 1915, arms manufacturers were private with limited government oversight. An issue was raised concerning the thirty percent of shells that did not explode. Effective artillery bombardments were vital to winning the war. If a shell did not explode, trenches were not destroyed, which enabled the enemy to regroup and counterattack. Without effective shelling during an attack, troops faced more casualties. An example is the Battle of Loos. The economy was also affected because of the cost of raw materials, including manpower and metals. Additional costs were in the logistics of the war, where the transportation, labor, and handling of shells that were duds cost millions of dollars. Therefore, Britain established the Ministry of Munitions, which brought labor, scientists, and engineers to help solve problems in the supply chain.