THE RED BALL EXPRESS.

[Fernando Mendes]

THE RED BALL EXPRESS, 1944

After the breakout of Normandy in July 1944, an acute shortage of supplies on both fronts governed all operations. Some 28 divisions were advancing across France and Belgium, each ordinarily requiring 700-750 tons a day. Patton's 3rd Army was soon grinding to a halt from lack of fuel and ordnance.

The key to pursuit was a continuous supply of fuel and ordnance, thus leading to the Red Ball Express.

The Red Ball Express was conceived in a 36-hour brain-storming session. It lasted only 3 months from August to November, 1944, but without it, the campaign in the European Theater could have dragged on for years.

At the peak of its operation, it was running 5,938 vehicles carrying 12,342 tons of supplies to forward depots daily.



In The Beginning

At the onset, there were not enough trucks or drivers. The Army raided units that had trucks and formed provisional truck units for the Red Ball. Soldiers whose duties were not critical to the war effort were asked - or tasked - to become drivers. The majority of these were young African-Americans.


Red Ball Express trucks carrying ammunition,
line up for the run.



The first convoys quickly bogged down in civilian and military traffic. In response, a priority route was established - two parallel highways between the Normandy beachhead and the city of Chartres, France.

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“TROUBLE EN ROUTE”
Artist: Charles McBaron for the Center for Military History




Here, in a soggy field somewhere outside Versailles, a driver has pulled his disable truck out of a convoy. Determined non-repairable by a Red Ball maintenance crew, the truck’s cargo is transferred to a replacement vehicle. When the transfer is finished, the driver will take a position in another convoy and eventually rejoin his unit at the exchange point in Normandy.

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The rules were clear: Trucks were to travel only in convoys. Each convoy was to have no fewer than five trucks each. Each truck was marked with a number showing its position in the convoy, and the trucks were to stay 60 feet apart and travel at 35 mph.



After the invasion of Normandy, it was of paramount importance to move supplies north. An American infantry division required 150 tons of gasoline per day, and an armored division 350 tons per day.

Some of the supply lines were thousands of miles long, and the amount of provisions and munitions numbered thousands of tons. This was almost ten times that of World War I.






Trucks loaded with supplies assemble for convoys in northern France, 1944.









A convoy ready to go, waiting for word.



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October 1944

TO: The Officers and Men of the Red Ball Highway

1. In any war, there are two tremendous tasks. That of the combat troops is to fight the enemy. That of the supply troops is to furnish all the material to insure victory. The faster and farther the combat troops advance against the foe, the greater becomes the battle of supply.

2. Supplies are reaching the continent in increasing streams. But the battle to get those supplies to the front becomes daily of mounting importance.

3. The Red Ball Line is the lifeline between combat and supply. To it falls the tremendous task of getting vital supplies from ports and depots to the combat troops, when and where such supplies are needed, material without which the armies might fail.

4. To you drivers and mechanics and your officers, who keep the Red Ball vehicles constantly moving, I wish to express my deep appreciation. You are doing an excellent job.

5. But the struggle is not yet won. So the Red Ball Line must continue the battle it is waging so well, with the knowledge that each truckload which goes through to the combat forces cannot help but bring victory closer.



DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

General, U. S. Army

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