Over 40, truck tires were worn out and trucks constantly tipped over due to supplies being overloaded and stacked much too high. The Germans were reeling, and the Allies were chomping at the bit to deliver them the final blow. However, in late July the German lines ruptured and they began to retreat rapidly. The Allies were not simply marching from the beachheads of Normandy into occupied France — they were sprinting. The American General George S.
Patton was given permission to wheel some of his forces toward Paris in order to trap pockets of retreating Germans. The chase was on, but by late August the Allies were facing a logistical nightmare. According to the memoirs of General Omar Bradley, each army division required up to tons of supplies a day, and there were 28 divisions marching across France and Belgium.
Working railways were mostly non-existent — ironically bombed to pieces by the Allies prior to D-Day — and the Germans still held the major cargo ports of Le Havre and Antwerp. Getting fuel, food, and munitions to the front line was proving to be almost impossible. Patton stopped his advance not because he was stymied by the Germans, but for lack of gas.
Allied leaders conferred and developed the Red Ball Express, sometimes referred to as the Red Ball Line, which operated from August 25, until November 16, The name comes from an earlier logistical express used by the British.
Theoretically, trucks ran in convoys of no fewer than five, racing to the front to deliver materiel. Each truck was numbered for its position in the convoy and they were to stay sixty feet apart. It was a well thought out plan. However, at once the Red Ball Express bogged down in civilian and military traffic.
