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The Red Ball Express was a famed truck convoy system that supplied Allied forces moving quickly through Europe after breaking out from the D-Day beaches in Normandy in 1944. [1] To expedite cargo shipment to the front, trucks emblazoned with red balls followed a similarly marked route that was closed to civilian traffic.
During the first seven weeks after D-Day, the advance was much slower than the Operation Overlord plan had anticipated, and the lodgment area much smaller. The nature of the fighting in the Normandy bocage country created shortages of certain items, particularly artillery and mortar ammunition, and there were unexpectedly high rates of loss of ...
Before D-Day, the British government set aside civilian-operated cold storage facilities in the UK for American needs. When the first commodity-loaded reefer ships arrived from the US carrying perishables earmarked for American troops on the continent, they were unloaded in the UK and transferred to refrigerated coasters for the trip to France.
Red Ball Express is a 1952 American World War II war film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Jeff Chandler and Alex Nicol, featuring early screen appearances by Sidney Poitier and Hugh O'Brian. The film is based on the Red Ball Express convoys that took place after the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944.
From 16 September to 12 October, eight companies, six of which were equipped with 2½-ton 6×6 trucks and two with 10-ton semi-trailers, were withdrawn from the Red Ball Express to run a series of Red Lion convoys. These delivered 18,000 long tons (18,000 t) to the 21st Army Group, half of which went to the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions.
On an average day the Red Ball Express dispatched 8,209 long tons (8,341 t) in 1,542 trucks carrying an average load of 5.3 long tons (5.4 t) per truck per round trip that averaged 714 miles (1,149 km). [107] Fortunately, the road network in northern France and Belgium had not been badly damaged, and required little maintenance effort.
D-day assault routes into Normandy "Overlord" was the name assigned to the establishment of a large-scale lodgement on the Continent. [56] The first phase, the amphibious invasion and establishment of a secure foothold, was code-named Operation Neptune [49] and is often referred to as "D-Day".
Overlord would constitute the largest amphibious operation in military history. [22] After delays, due to both logistical difficulties and poor weather, the D-Day of Overlord was moved to 6 June 1944. Eisenhower and Bernard Montgomery, commander of 21st Army Group, aimed to capture Caen within the first day, and liberate Paris within 90 days. [22]