American logistics in the Normandy Campaign
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American logistics in the Normandy campaign played a key role in the success of
Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...
, the
Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
invasion of northwest Europe during World War II. The campaign officially commenced on
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
, 6 June 1944, and ended on 24 July, the day before the launch of Operation Cobra. The Services of Supply (SOS) was formed under the command of Major General
John C. H. Lee John Clifford Hodges Lee (1 August 1887 – 30 August 1958) was a career US Army engineer, who rose to the rank of lieutenant general and commanded the Communications Zone (ComZ) in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. A grad ...
in May 1942 to provide logistical support to the European Theater of Operations, United States Army. From February 1944 on, the SOS was increasingly referred to as the Communications Zone (COMZ). Between May 1942 and May 1944,
Operation Bolero Operation Bolero was the commonly used reference for the code name of the United States military troop buildup in the United Kingdom during World War II in preparation for the initial cross-channel invasion plan known as Operation Roundup, to be ...
, the buildup of American troops and supplies in the UK, proceeded fitfully and, by June 1944 1,526,965 US troops were in the UK, of whom 459,511 were part of the COMZ. The Overlord plan called for the early capture of
Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...
, and a rapid American advance to secure the Brittany ports and Quiberon Bay, which was to be developed as a port. Crucially, the logistical plan called for a one-month pause at the Seine River, which was expected to be reached 90 days after D-Day, before advancing further. The expectation of an advance at a prescribed rate, while necessary for planning purposes, built inflexibility into a logistics plan that already had little margin for error. Staff studies confirmed that Overlord could be supported if everything went according to plan. No one expected that it would. The First United States Army was supported over the
Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...
and Utah Beaches, and through the Mulberry artificial port at Omaha specially constructed for the purpose, but the American Mulberry was abandoned after it was damaged by a storm on 19–21 June. During the first seven weeks after D-Day, the advance was much slower than the Operation Overlord plan had anticipated, and the
lodgment A lodgement is an enclave, taken and defended by force of arms against determined opposition, made by increasing the size of a bridgehead, beachhead, or airhead into a substantial defended area, at least the rear parts of which are out of direct ...
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 bazookas, Browning automatic rifles (BARs), and M7 grenade launchers.


Background

During the 1920s and 1930s, the United States had developed and periodically updated
War Plan Black One of the United States color-coded war plans, War Plan Black was the name of an American military plan to fight Germany in the early 20th century. The best-known version was conceived as a contingency plan during World War I in case France ...
for the possibility of a war with Germany. Planning began in earnest at the ABC-1 Conference in Washington, DC, in January to March 1941, where agreement was reached with the UK and Canada on a Europe first strategy in the event of the US being forced into a war with both Germany and Japan. A US military mission to the UK called the Special Observer Group (SPOBS) was formed under the command of Major General James E. Chaney, a United States Army Air Corps officer who had been stationed in the UK since October 1940 to observe air operations. Chaney opened SPOBS headquarters at the US Embassy at
1 Grosvenor Square Macdonald House was a seven-storey Neo-Georgian style building on Grosvenor Square in Mayfair, London. It was part of the High Commission of Canada from 1961 to 2014. Macdonald House was used for the High Commission's cultural and consular f ...
, London, on 19 May 1941, and moved it across the street to 20
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two days later. Henceforth, Grosvenor Square would be the hub of American activity in the UK. In the wake of the American entry into World War II in December 1941, the War Department activated the
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(USAFBI) under Chaney's command on 8 January 1942. Under the ABC-1 and Rainbow 5 war plans, the United States would participate in the defense of the UK, but the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General
George C. Marshall George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Chief of Staff of the US Army under Pre ...
, had a larger role in mind. In April 1942, Marshall and
Harry L. Hopkins Harry Lloyd Hopkins (August 17, 1890 – January 29, 1946) was an American statesman, public administrator, and presidential advisor. A trusted deputy to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hopkins directed New Deal relief programs before servi ...
, the principal foreign policy advisor to the president, visited the UK, and obtained the approval of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the British
Chiefs of Staff Committee The Chiefs of Staff Committee (CSC) is composed of the most senior military personnel in the British Armed Forces who advise on operational military matters and the preparation and conduct of military operations. The committee consists of the Ch ...
for
Operation Bolero Operation Bolero was the commonly used reference for the code name of the United States military troop buildup in the United Kingdom during World War II in preparation for the initial cross-channel invasion plan known as Operation Roundup, to be ...
, the buildup of US forces in the UK with the aim of eventually mounting a cross-Channel attack. With this prospect in mind, Chaney asked the War Department for personnel to form a Services of Supply (SOS) command. Chaney's proposed SOS organizational structure did not meet with the approval of the War Department. On 9 March 1942, Marshall had conducted a sweeping reorganization that consolidated logistical functions in the US under the United States Army Services of Supply (USASOS), headed by Major General
Brehon B. Somervell Brehon Burke Somervell (9 May 1892 – 13 February 1955) was a general in the United States Army and Commanding General of the Army Service Forces in World War II. As such he was responsible for the U.S. Army's logistics. Following his death, ' ...
. Chaos had resulted during World War I because the organization of the SOS in France was different from that of the War Department, and an important lesson of that war was the need for the theater SOS organization to parallel that in the United States. Marshall and Somervell wanted it led by someone familiar with the new organization, and selected Major General
John C. H. Lee John Clifford Hodges Lee (1 August 1887 – 30 August 1958) was a career US Army engineer, who rose to the rank of lieutenant general and commanded the Communications Zone (ComZ) in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. A grad ...
, who had previously commanded the Pacific Ports of Embarkation in the United States. Each branch head in Somervell's headquarters was asked to nominate his best two men, one of whom was selected by Somervell and Lee for SOS headquarters, while the other remained in Washington. Lee held the first meeting of his new staff on 16 May, before departing for the UK on 23 May, and Chaney formally activated SOS the following day. On 8 June 1942, the War Department upgraded USAFBI to the status of a
theater of war In warfare, a theater or theatre is an area in which important military events occur or are in progress. A theater can include the entirety of the airspace, land and sea area that is or that may potentially become involved in war operations. T ...
, becoming the European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA). Chaney was recalled to the US, and replaced by the chief of the Operations Division at the War Department, Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Accommodation for the SOS headquarters was initially provided in an apartment building at No 1 Great Cumberland Place in London, but something larger was required. Brigadier General Claude N. Thiele, the SOS Chief of Administrative Services, found of office space in
Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...
. Intended as an evacuation point for the British War Office in the event that London had to be evacuated, the staff stationed there were in the process of moving back to London. The site had adequate road, rail and signal communications, but the distance from London was a disadvantage. Lee opened SOS headquarters in Cheltenham on 25 July. Lee announced a regional organization of SOS on 20 July. It was divided into four base commands corresponding to the British Army's territorial commands. The Northern Ireland Base Section, under Brigadier General Leroy P. Collins, with its headquarters at Belfast, included all of Northern Ireland; the Western Base Section, under Davison, had its headquarters at
Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
; the Eastern Base Section, under Colonel Cecil R. Moore, had its headquarters at Watford; and the Southern Base Section, under Colonel Charles O. Thrasher, had its headquarters at Wilton, Wiltshire. The London Base Command, created within ETOUSA in 1942 under the command of Brigadier General Pleas B. Rogers, was transferred to SOS on 21 March 1943 and renamed "Central Base Section" on 29 April. Over time each of the base sections acquired its own character, with the Western Base Section principally concerned with the reception of troops and supplies, the Eastern with supporting the Air Force, and the Southern with hosting marshalling and training areas. The doctrinal concept behind the base section concept was of "centralized control and decentralized operation", but reconciling the two proved difficult in practice. Central Base Section


Planning and preparations


Bolero

Bolero was derailed by the decision taken in July 1942 to abandon Operation Sledgehammer, the proposed 1942 cross-channel attack, in favor of
Operation Torch Operation Torch (8 November 1942 – Run for Tunis, 16 November 1942) was an Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of secu ...
, an invasion of French Northwest Africa. This made Operation Roundup, the prospective cross-channel attack in 1943, unlikely. Doubtful that sufficient shipping was available to support both Bolero and Torch, Somervell ordered all construction work in the UK to cease, except on airfields, but the British government went ahead anyway, using materials and labor supplied under Reverse Lend-Lease. After the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, American resources became available again, and eventually the works completed included of covered storage, of open storage and hardstands, and facilities for storage of of petrol, oil and lubricants (POL). Roundup was not carried out, but Bolero survived, strengthened by the decision at the 1943 Washington Conference (codenamed "Trident") to mount the cross-channel attack with a target date of 1 May 1944. The planners at Trident envisioned shipping 1.3 million US troops to the UK by that date. Effecting this required the ports in the UK to handle up to 150 ships per month. Progress was disappointing, but record shipments of men in the last quarter of the year boosted the strength of ETOUSA to 773,753 by the end of 1943, of whom 220,200 were in the SOS. To take advantage of the longer daylight hours of summer, a system of preshipment was instituted, whereby unit equipment was shipped to the UK in advance of the units. Rather than lose training time packing all its equipment, personnel could sail to the UK, and draw a new set of equipment there. The major obstacle to the idea was that not all commodities were available in surplus in the US. Indeed the
Army Service Forces The Army Service Forces was one of the three autonomous components of the United States Army during World War II, the others being the Army Air Forces and Army Ground Forces, created on 9 March 1942. By dividing the Army into three large comman ...
(ASF), as USASOS had been renamed on 12 March 1943, had difficulty filling the available shipping. Of of cargo space available in July, only were used; of available in August, only . Of the shipped in May through August, 39 percent was preshipped cargo. This rose to or 54 percent of the shipped in November, but most of this was consumed re-equipping three of the four divisions that were transferred from the North African Theater of Operations (NATOUSA). The main points of entry for US cargo were the ports on the Clyde and the Mersey, and those of the
Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...
; ports on the south and east coasts of the UK were subject to attack by German aircraft and submarines, and were avoided until late 1943, when shipments began to exceed the capacity of the other ports. The Clyde ports were remote from the main supply depots, but were used as the main debarkation points for US troops, accounting for 873,163 (52 percent) of the 1,671,010 US personnel arrivals, but only (8 percent) of cargo. The majority of troops travelled across the Atlantic on
ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...
s like the and . Making three round-trip voyages per month carrying up to 15,000 passengers each time, these two liners alone carried 24 percent of troop arrivals. They were supplemented by other liners, including the and , and the , and , which accounted for another 36 percent. The troops debarked into ship's tenders, and boarded quayside trains to their destinations. The Bristol Channel ports and the Mersey ports handled (70 percent) of the cargo brought to the UK, including most of the heavy items like tanks, artillery pieces and ammunition. This was not accomplished without difficulty; most of the cargo handling equipment was old and outdated, and it was not possible to follow the standard US practice of moving goods from the quayside on
pallet A pallet (also called a skid) is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a front loader, a jacking device, or an erect crane. A pallet is the structural foundat ...
s with
forklift A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various c ...
s. Trade unions opposed the use of military labor except when civilian labor was unavailable, but this ban was lifted when the volume of cargo became too great, and by May 1944 fifteen US port battalions were working the UK ports. SOS found the textbook concept of shipping cargo from the port to distribution centers, sorting it there, and despatching it to branch depots too extravagant in its use of scarce depot space and the overburdened British railway system. Moreover shipping manifests were often found to be incomplete, inaccurate or illegible, and despite being sent by air mail still frequently failed to arrive in advance of the cargo. SOS ultimately persuaded a reluctant ASF to accept a system whereby every item shipped was individually labelled with a requisition number that provided a complete UK destination address. SOS prevailed upon ASF to implement a system called "prestowage", under which ships were loaded in the United States with blocks of supplies that included rations, equipment and ammunition. These 54 ships acted as floating depots, and were retained in UK waters until called forward. By having only their deck cargo unloaded in the UK, they did not burden the UK ports, but the practice was frowned upon by ASF because it indefinitely tied up valuable shipping. Also, nearly 150 ships were despatched in May, June and July "commodity loaded"—loaded entirely with a single class of supply. Most were held in the UK without unloading until called forward, although some sailed directly to Normandy from the United States. The railways were used to move cargo wherever possible, as the narrow rural roads and village streets of rural England were not conducive to use by large trucks, but as cargo volumes increased, road transport had to be resorted to, and in the eight months from October 1943 to May 1944, trucks carried , or about a third of the cargo from the ports. The railways had challenges of their own, with limited head room and tunnel clearances that impeded the carriage of bulky items like tanks. Locomotives were in short supply and in 1942 the British railways arranged for 400 locomotives to be shipped from the US under Lend-Lease. The order was later increased to 900, and in 1943 they were arriving at a rate of fifty per month. The US buildup in the UK was largely accomplished in the first five months of 1944. In this period, another 752,663 troops arrived, bringing the total theater strength to 1,526,965. Of these, 459,511 were in the SOS. Some of cargo arrived in the same period. Clearing it involved running 100 special freight trains totalling to 20,000 loaded cars each week. The limit on ship arrivals was raised from 109 to 120 in March, then to 140. Shipments in excess of the previously agreed limits were possible only because of the postponement of the invasion date from May to June. This postponement, primarily to gain an extra month's production of landing craft for the enlarged landing plan, cost a month in which the weather over the English Channel was the best it had been in forty years. May was also the month when the Germans sowed Cherbourg Harbor with oyster mines. The pressure on the UK transportation system became acute in May when the troops began moving to their staging areas. By 18 May SOS was forced to inform the New York Port of Embarkation that no more than 120 ships could be accepted. By this time the New York Port of Embarkation had a backlog of of cargo and a deficit of 61 ships that were required to move it. This meant that the follow up force for the invasion, the Third Army, would have only 60 percent of its wheeled vehicles by the end of June.


Organization

NATOUSA was created under Eisenhower on 6 February 1943, and Lieutenant General
Frank M. Andrews Lieutenant General Frank Maxwell Andrews (February 3, 1884 – May 3, 1943) was a senior officer of the United States Army and one of the founders of the United States Army Air Forces, which was later to become the United States Air Force. ...
succeeded him at ETOUSA. Andrews had SOS headquarters moved back to London, but his tenure in command was brief, as he was killed in an air crash on 3 May 1943. He was replaced by Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers. The British had already activated the
21st Army Group The 21st Army Group was a British headquarters formation formed during the Second World War. It controlled two field armies and other supporting units, consisting primarily of the British Second Army and the First Canadian Army. Established in ...
in July 1943, but several months passed before Devers prevailed on the War Department to authorize American counterparts. The First United States Army Group (FUSAG) was activated on 16 October 1943, with its headquarters at
Bryanston Square Bryanston Square is an garden square in Marylebone, London. Terraced buildings surround it — often merged, converted or sub-divided, some of which remain residential. The southern end has the William Pitt Byrne memorial fountain. Next t ...
in London. Devers had Lieutenant General
Omar N. Bradley Omar Nelson Bradley (February 12, 1893April 8, 1981) was a senior officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army. Bradley was the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and over ...
reassigned to ETOUSA to command it. Bradley commanded both the First Army Group and the First United States Army, which opened its headquarters in Bristol on 20 October, and assumed control of all US ground forces in the UK three days later. An outcome of the Casablanca Conference was that in April 1943 the British Chiefs of Staff designated British Lieutenant General
Frederick E. Morgan Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Edgworth Morgan, (5 February 1894 – 19 March 1967) was a senior officer of the British Army who fought in both world wars. He is best known as the chief of staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC), the ...
as the Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander, with the immediate mission of planning the cross-channel operation, codenamed
Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...
. The staff he gathered around him became known by his own abbreviation, COSSAC. Eisenhower returned to the UK on 16 January 1944, and became the Supreme Allied Commander. COSSAC was absorbed into his new headquarters, known as the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF th ...
(SHAEF). Eisenhower also took over ETOUSA, but tended to rely on his SHAEF staff. As a consequence, ETOUSA had lost most of its functionality, and was consolidated with SOS in January 1944. From then until June it had an organization and procedures closely resembling those described in the US Army manuals. This combined headquarters was increasingly referred to as the Communications Zone (COMZ), although this did not become official until 7 June. Eisenhower announced that until several armies were active on the continent, all ground forces on there would be come under the British 21st Army Group, now commanded by General
Bernard Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and t ...
. On 9 February SHAEF ordered FUSAG and COMZ to supply American liaison elements to the 21st Army Group. ETOUSA had already activated its element two days before as the Forward Echelon, Communications Zone (FECOMZ), with Brigadier General Harry B. Vaughan, the Western Base Section commander, in command, and Colonel Frank M. Albrecht as his chief of staff. Another organization was activated on 7 February: the Advance Section (ADSEC), under the command of Colonel
Ewart G. Plank Major general (United States), Major General Ewart Gladstone Plank (4 November 1897 – 2 September 1982) was a United States Army career officer who was a veteran of World War I and World War II. A graduate of the United States Military Academy ...
. Experience in the Italian campaign had demonstrated the value of a logistical agency that worked closely with the army it was supporting. ADSEC would take over the operation of base areas, supply dumps and communications from the First Army as it moved forward. In the initial stages of Overlord, ADSEC would be attached to the First Army. COMZ also began organizing base sections for service in France. In March the five districts of the Eastern Base Section were consolidated into one, which became the VIII District of the Western Base Section in April. On 1 May, Base Section No. 1 was activated under the command of Colonel Roy W. Growler, and held in readiness for service in Brittany. On 1 June Base Section No. 2 was activated under the command of Collins.


Planning

The logistical planners saw the campaign unfolding in three stages. In the first, an automatic supply system would be used, with materiel dispatched on a predetermined schedule. In the second stage, which would occur after a lodgment was secured and supply depots began functioning, the system would become semi-automatic, with items like ammunition shipped on the basis of status reports. In the third stage, which would occur when the major ports were opened and the supply system was functioning smoothly, all items would be sent on requisition. In the event, the war ended before the third stage was achieved. Since the first three months of supply shipments were determined in advance, and the first two weeks already loaded on ships, three expedients were prepared to cover unanticipated shortfalls. The first was codenamed the "Red Ball Express". Starting on D plus 3 (three days after D-Day), per day were set aside for emergency requests. Such shipments would be expedited. The second, codenamed "Greenlight", provided for of ammunition and engineer equipment to be substituted for scheduled shipments of engineer supplies. This would become available from D plus 14 onwards, and Greenlight supplies would take up to six days for delivery. Finally, supplies were packed with parachutes for aerial delivery to isolated units, and plans were made for the delivery of of supplies per day by air once airfields had been secured, with 48 hours warning. The Overlord plan called for the early capture of Cherbourg, and a rapid American advance to secure the Brittany ports and Quiberon Bay, which was to be developed as a port. Crucially, the logistical plan called for a one-month pause at the Seine River, which was expected to be reached by D plus 90, before continuing the advance to the German border. The expectation of an advance at a prescribed rate, while necessary for planning purposes, built inflexibility into a logistics plan that already had little margin for error. Staff studies confirmed that Overlord could be supported if everything went according to plan. No one expected that it would.


Assault

The Southern Base Section consisted of four districts, numbered XVI, XVII, XVIII and XIX. The XVIII District was responsible for mounting the assault force for
Omaha Beach Omaha Beach was one of five beach landing sectors designated for the amphibious assault component of operation Overlord during the Second World War. On June 6, 1944, the Allies invaded German-occupied France with the Normandy landings. "Omaha" r ...
, while the XIX district handled the aone for Utah Beach. Together they contained 95 marshalling camps with a capacity for 187,000 troops and 28,000 vehicles. The other two districts, the XVI and XVII, were responsible for mounting the
glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...
-borne elements of the 82nd and
101st Airborne Division The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault operations. It can plan, coordinate, and execute multiple battalion-size air assault operati ...
s. In the opening phase of Overlord, supplies would arrive over the beaches. Operation of the beachheads was assigned to the engineer special brigades. Their name was misleading because, as well as three engineer battalions, each contained amphibious truck and port companies, and quartermaster,
ordnance Ordnance may refer to: Military and defense *Materiel in military logistics, including weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and maintenance tools and equipment. **The military branch responsible for supplying and developing these items, e.g., the Unite ...
, medical, military police, signals and
chemical warfare Chemical warfare (CW) involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare, biological warfare and radiological warfare, which together make up CBRN, the military acronym ...
units. Along with bomb disposal squads, naval beach parties, maintenance and repair parties and other troops attached for the mission, each had a strength of 15,000 to 20,000 men. Utah Beach would be operated by the 1st Engineer Special Brigade, under the command of Brigadier General James E. Wharton; Omaha by the Provisional Special Brigade Group, consisting of the 5th and 6th Engineer Special Brigades and the 11th Port, commanded by Brigadier General
William M. Hoge General William Morris Hoge (January 13, 1894 – October 29, 1979) was a United States Army officer who fought in World War I, World War II and the Korean War, with a military career spanning nearly forty years. Early life and military career ...
. The 11th Port had a strength of over 7,600 men; it included four port battalions, five amphibious truck companies, three quartermaster service companies, and three quartermaster truck companies. The engineers landing on Omaha Beach on
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
, 6 June, found the beach swept by artillery and automatic weapons fire that the infantry was unable to suppress, and the beach littered with disabled vehicles and landing craft. Only five of the sixteen engineer teams arrived at their assigned locations, and they had only six of their sixteen tank dozers, five of which were soon knocked out. They were only able to clear five narrow lanes through the obstacles instead of the planned sixteen gaps. As the infantry advanced, the engineers filled in
anti-tank ditch Anti-tank trenches, also called anti-tank ditches, are ditches dug into and around fortified positions to hold up the advance of enemy tanks. Anti-tank ditches were first used in World War I by Germany in an effort to protect their trenches again ...
es, cleared minefields, demolished obstacles, opened three exits, and established the first supply dumps. The first waves came ashore on Utah Beach about south of the intended landing beaches. The beach fortifications were much weaker than the intended beaches, but the distance between the low and high watermarks was much greater. Because the beach obstacles were fewer than expected, the engineers were able to clear the entire beach of obstacles rather than just gaps. Beach dumps could not be established as planned because the areas had not been captured. Individual riflemen arriving on the beaches were overburdened, carrying at least of equipment. This overburdening had been noted during landing exercises, but instead of reducing the load, another had been added. The inability of the troops to move quickly had lethal consequences, especially on the deadly Omaha beach. Unneeded equipment was often discarded. The demonstration of the Army's prodigality inculcated a culture of wastefulness that had undesirable consequences. The US Army was racially segregated during World War II, most African-Americans belonging to service units. Of the 29,714 troops that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, only about 500 were African-Americans; of the 31,912 who landed on Utah Beach, perhaps 1,200 were African-Americans. Their numbers increased over the following weeks as more service units arrived.


Build-up


Shipping

Build-up priority lists had been drawn up months in advance that specified in what order units were to embark for Normandy during the first ninety days. To regulate the movement of ships and landing craft with maximum economy, a special organization was established called Build Up Control (BUCO). This operated under the tactical commanders, the First Army in the US case, on the British committee system, with representatives of the Allied Naval Commander, Ministry of War Transport and War Shipping Administration. BUCO was chaired by British Brigadier G. C. Blacker, with Lieutenant Colonel Eli Stevens as the head of the US Zone Staff. It had three subordinate agencies: Movement Control (MOVCO), which issued orders for unit movements; Turnaround Control (TURCO), which liaised with the Navy and engineer special brigades; and Embarkation Control (EMBARCO), which handled the location of units and the availability of space in the marshaling areas. The detailed shipping plan soon fell apart. Very little cargo was landed on the first day, putting Overlord behind schedule from the start. By midnight on 8 June, only of the planned had been discharged, just 26.6 percent of the planned total. This rose to of the planned , or 46 percent of the planned total by midnight on 10 June. Emergency beach dumps were established by the engineer special brigades on 7 and 8 June, and the planned inland dumps were opened over the next few days. The dumps were under sniper fire, and on 10 June artillery ammunition was taken from its boxes and carried by hand to the batteries. A consolidated ammunition dump was established at
Formigny Formigny () is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Formigny La Bataille. History *15 April 1450: Battle of Formigny. The battle of For ...
on 12 June, and the First Army immediately took change of it. The following day it assumed control of all dumps from the engineer special brigades. The standard cargo vessel, the Liberty ship, carried up to of cargo. It had five hatches; two had booms, and three with smaller booms. In their haste to unload the ships, the crews overloaded the booms, occasionally resulting in breakages. Cargo was not containerized, but transported in bulk in bags, boxes, crates and barrels.
Cargo net A cargo net is a type of net. It is usually square or rectangle, but sometimes round, made of thick rope, with cinch ropes extending from the corners, and in some designs, the edges. It is named for its use in transferring cargo to and from shi ...
s were spread out on the deck, and cargo piled on them. They were then lifted over the side on the ship's boom, and deposited in a waiting craft. One of the most useful unloading craft was the
rhino ferry A rhino ferry is a barge constructed from several pontoons which are connected and equipped with outboard engines, used to transport heavy equipment and people. Rhino ferries were used extensively during the Normandy landings and other theaters ...
, a powered barge constructed from
pontons Pontons is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Alt Penedès in Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute o ...
. The other mainstay of the unloading effort was the amphibious truck known as the DUKW (and pronounced "duck"). DUKWs were supposed to land on D-Day, but most were held offshore and arrived the following day. The Omaha and Utah beaches remained under artillery and sniper fire for several days, and as a result the naval officer in charge would not permit ships to anchor close to shore on the first two days. Some were as far as offshore. This increased turnaround time for the unloading craft, especially the DUKWs, which were slow in the water. In some cases, DUKWs ran out of fuel. When this happened, their pumps failed, and they sank. The unloading craft were frequently overloaded, increasing wear and tear, and occasionally causing them to capsize. Ideally, a DUKW reaching the shore would be met by a mobile crane that could transfer the load to a waiting truck that could take it to the dump, but there were shortages of both trucks and cranes in the early weeks. DUKWs therefore often had to take cargo to the dumps themselves. Insufficient personnel at the dumps for unloading further slowed turnaround, as did the practice of crews, whose priority was getting the ship unloaded, of unloading more than one category of supply at once, resulting in a trip to more than one dump. This was resolved only when the commodity loaded ships started to arrive on 15 June. Cargo was sometimes deposited on the beach at low tide, and if not swiftly cleared was likely to be swamped by the rising tide. The movement of troops into the marshaling areas had been pre-scheduled, and was already under way when D-Day was postponed for 24 hours. Troops continued to pour into the marshaling areas even though embarkation had halted, and they became overcrowded. This was exacerbated by the slow turnaround of shipping. The stowage and loading plans could not be adhered to when the designated ships failed to arrive as scheduled, and troops and cargo in the marshaling areas could not be sorted into ship loads. The situation became so bad that the flow of troops to the ports became insufficient to load the available ships, and on 12 June Stevens diverted idle shipping to the British so it was not wasted. Thereafter, troops and cargo moved to the ports and were loaded on the next available ship or landing craft. Loading plans were worked out on the spot. If the Germans had sunk a ship it would have been highly embarrassing to the War Department, as no proper embarkation records were kept for a time, and it would not have been possible to notify the next of kin. Some units became lost in the confusion. Major General
Leonard T. Gerow Leonard Townsend Gerow (July 13, 1888 – October 12, 1972) was a general in the United States Army who served with distinction in both World War I and World War II. A 1911 graduate the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Gerow served with the Uni ...
, the commander of
V Corps 5th Corps, Fifth Corps, or V Corps may refer to: France * 5th Army Corps (France) * V Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * V Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Army ...
, personally returned to the UK to locate a missing unit that the Southern Base Section had claimed had been shipped, but which was found still in its assembly area. A major problem was ships arriving without manifests. These were supposed to have been shipped in advance by air or naval courier, but aircraft could not always get through, and the courier launches were often delayed. Navy and Transportation Corps officers went from one ship to the next searching for items that were desperately required. The First Army staff would then declare what they wanted discharged. Selective unloading left half-empty ships with supplies not immediately required standing offshore, further exacerbating the problem of ship turnaround. Desperate measures were taken. The most controversial was ordering the "drying out" of Landing Ships, Tank (LSTs). This involved beaching the LST on a falling tide, discharging at low tide, and then re-floating the LST on the rising tide. The procedure had been performed successfully in the Mediterranean and the Pacific, but with the high tidal range and uneven beaches of Normandy, naval officials feared that the LSTs might break their backs. Drying out commenced tentatively on 8 June and soon became a standard practice. On 10 June, the First Army ordered the selective discharging of LSTs and Landing Craft, Tank (LCTs) to cease; this was extended to all vessels the following day. Discharge at night under lights began on 12 June despite the risk of German air attack. The backlog of ships was eventually cleared by 15 June. Nonetheless, the manifest problem persisted. When a critical shortage of 81 mm
M1 mortar The M1 mortar is an American 81 millimeter caliber mortar. It was based on the French Brandt mortar. The M1 mortar was used from before World War II until the 1950s when it was replaced by the lighter and longer ranged M29 mortar. General data ...
ammunition developed in July, all available ammunition was shipped from the UK, but the First Army did not know where the ammunition was or when it arrived. Ordnance personnel were forced to conduct searches of ships looking for it. Thus, a critical shortage continued even though of ammunition lay offshore. The first deep water port captured by the Allies was Cherbourg, which belatedly fell on 26 June. An advance party surveyed the port the following day. The
Cherbourg Maritime station Cherbourg's Gare Maritime or ''Gare Maritime Transatlantique'' was a railway station at the end of the railway line from Paris' Gare Saint-Lazare and of the short branch from Cherbourg's main station. Measurements The complex consisted of the t ...
, the main railway station, was badly damaged, as were the two main quays.


Mulberry harbor

The decision to land in Normandy meant that ports would not be captured quickly; the Brittany ports were not expected to be in operation until D plus 60. Until then, the Allied armies would have to rely on the beaches, but the weather forecast was not promising. Meteorological records showed that 25 days of good weather could be expected in June, but normally there were only two spells of good weather for four days running per month between May and September. The tidal range in Normandy was about ; low tide uncovered about of beach, and water deep enough for coasters, which drew of water, was another further out. The solution the COSSAC planners adopted was to build a prefabricated harbor. While ports like
Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
and Cherbourg were artificial in the sense that their sheltered harbors had been created through the construction of breakwaters, there was a significant difference between building Dover in seven years in peacetime, and prefabricating an artificial port in a matter of months, and erecting it in two weeks in wartime. Originally, there was to be one artificial port, at Arromanches in the British sector, but by October 1943 COSSAC added a second one at Saint-Laurent in the American sector. At this time the project acquired a codename: Mulberry, with the American port becoming Mulberry A and the British one Mulberry B. British
Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
Sir William Tennant was in charge of the operation, and the American
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
A. Dayton Clark in charge of Mulberry A. The Mulberry harbor had three breakwaters. The outermost was made up of bombardons, long cruciform floating steel structures. These were laid out in a straight line. Then came the phoenixes, concrete
caissons Caisson (French for "box") may refer to: * Caisson (Asian architecture), a spider web ceiling * Caisson (engineering), a sealed underwater structure * Caisson (lock gate), a gate for a dock or lock, constructed as a floating caisson * Caisson (pe ...
that weighed between . These were sunk in about of water to form an inner breakwater. Finally, there was the gooseberry, an inner breakwater formed by sinking obsolete vessels known as corncobs in about of water. Plans called for Mulberry A to have three piers, two of capacity, and one of . Towing the mulberries' components was estimated to require 164
tug A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...
s, but only 125 were available, and 24 of these were temporarily diverted to tow barges. The target date for completion of the mulberries was therefore pushed back from D plus 14 to D plus 21. Along with old merchant ships, the corncobs included four old warships: the old
battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
, the , and the
cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...
s and . Clark arrived off Omaha beach with his staff on 7 June, and the first three corncobs were scuttled under fire that day. The gooseberry was completed by 10 June, and by 17 June all 24 of the bombardons and 32 of the 51 phoenixes were in place, and the central LST pier was in use. On its first day of operation, a vehicle was unloaded over the pier every 1.16 minutes. Seabees (naval construction personnel) completed the first of the ponton causeways on 10 June, and the second five days later. The planned harbor installation at Utah Beach was much smaller, consisting of just two ponton causeways and a gooseberry with ten corncobs. The corncobs began arriving on 8 June, and came under fire from German artillery. Two were hit, and sank, but in approximately the intended position, albeit spaced too far apart. A third also sank slightly out of position when the tug towing it cut it loose to avoid the shelling. The remainder were scuttled in the correct locations, and the gooseberry was completed on 13 June. The first ponton causeway was opened that day, followed by the second three days later. By 18 June, of supplies had been landed, 72.9 percent of the planned , although only 40,541 (66 percent) of the planned 61,367 vehicles had arrived. The First Army estimated that it had accumulated nine days' reserves of rations, and five days' of POL. On the other hand, 314,504 (88 percent) of the planned 358,139 American troops had reached the beaches, representing eleven of the intended twelve divisions. In addition, 14,500 casualties had been evacuated by sea and 1,300 by air, and 10,000 prisoners had been shipped back to the UK. On 19 June, the Normandy beaches were hit by a storm that lasted for four days. Although the worst June storm in forty years, it was not a severe one; waves reached , with wind gusts up to , and therefore never reached gale force. Nonetheless, the damage was considerable. Nearly a hundred landing craft were lost, and only one of the twenty rhino ferries remained operational. Damaged craft were strewn over the beach, partially blocking every exit. The storm interrupted unloading for four days, resulting in the discharge of only of stores instead of the planned , and 23,460 troops instead of the 77,081 scheduled. The American Western Naval Task Force commander,
Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
Alan G. Kirk Alan Goodrich Kirk (October 30, 1888 – October 15, 1963) was a United States Navy admiral during World War II and diplomat. Biography He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1909 and served in the United States Navy during World ...
, surveyed the damage. The bombardons had failed completely, while the piers and phoenixes had been unable to withstand the pounding of the waves, and had been heavily damaged. Kirk decided that Mulberry A was a total loss, and should not be rebuilt, although the gooseberry should be reinforced with a dozen more blockships. Many American officials had been skeptical about the value of the artificial port concept from the beginning, but held their tongues, knowing that it had high-level official support. The British Mulberry B had not been as badly damaged, as the Calvados Rocks had given it some further protection, and the British still were determined to complete their artificial port to a standard that could withstand the autumn gales. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
, assured Eisenhower that the project still had his full support. Mulberry B was repaired and reinforced, in some cases using components salvaged from Mulberry A. Expected to handle per day, Mulberry B actually averaged per day over three months, accounting for 48 percent of the tonnage unloaded in the British sector. This left the American forces dependent on some small ports and unloading over the beaches. By 30 June, 70,910 of the planned 109,921 vehicles (64.5 percent) had been landed, and 452,460 (78 percent) of the planned 578,971 troops. The deficit in personnel consisted mainly of service and support troops; only eleven divisions had arrived instead of twelve, but the two airborne divisions which were to have been withdrawn to the UK had been retained in France.


Air supply

Air supply was handled by the
Allied Expeditionary Air Force The Allied Expeditionary Air Force (AEAF), also known as the Allied Armies’ Expeditionary Air Force (AAEAF), was the expeditionary warfare component of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) which controlled the tactical ai ...
(AEAF). The Combined Air Transport Operations Room (CATOR) was established as a special staff section of AEAF Headquarters in
Stanmore Stanmore is part of the London Borough of Harrow in London. It is centred northwest of Charing Cross, lies on the outskirts of the London urban area and includes Stanmore Hill, one of the highest points of London, at high. The district, which ...
, and it took bids for air transport on a priority basis. The first major use of air supply was in support of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions on 7 June, when 208 aircraft were despatched. Of these, 64 had to return to the UK without dropping their loads owing to bad weather. Of the of supplies despatched were dropped, of which 90 percent was recovered. In the following week, supplies were airdropped to the 101st Airborne Division on request. A misreading of ground panels by reconnaissance aircraft led to the delivery of 118 planeloads of cargo that were not required. Some supplies and equipment such as 105 mm howitzers were delivered by glider. Emergency airdrops were made to a field hospital on 8 June, and to an anti-aircraft unit isolated by the 19 June storm. Only one administrative airfield was available by the end of July, at
Colleville-sur-Mer Colleville-sur-Mer (, literally ''Colleville on Sea'') is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandie region in northwestern France. History It was originally a farm owned by a certain ''Koli'', a Scandinavian settler in the Middle Ag ...
near Omaha Beach. Nonetheless, cross-Channel air flights commenced on 10 June. Air supply was heavily used during the week after the storm, with of supplies, mostly ammunition, landed. By the end of July, had been delivered by air. In addition, 25,959 casualties were evacuated by air in June and July, compared to 39,118 by sea.


Ordnance

The nature of the fighting in the Normandy bocage country created shortages of certain items. A heavy reliance on M1 mortars not only led to a shortage of ammunition, but a shortage of the mortars themselves as the Germans targeted them. On 3 July, the First Army ordered tank, armored field artillery, and tank destroyer battalions to turn in their mortars for reallocation to infantry units. A shortage of bazookas was similarly addressed by taking them from service units and redistributing them to the infantry. The Germans made a special effort to eliminate men carrying the
Browning automatic rifle The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) is a family of American automatic rifles and machine guns used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the . ...
(BAR), and 835 BARs were lost in June. Since each infantry regiment had 81 BARS, that was enough to equip ten. Another item with a higher than expected loss rate was the M7 grenade launcher. When this device was attached to the M1 Garand rifle, it disabled the rifle's semi-automatic function, so the rifle could not be fired normally when it was in place. Accordingly, they were quickly discarded after use in combat, resulting in a high loss rate. By mid-July, the First Army reported a shortage of 2,300 M7 grenade launchers. Although ammunition expenditure did not exceed expected usage, it did not arrive at the planned rate either, resulting in shortages. The First Army gave high priority to the unloading of ammunition. The hedgerow fighting soon generated shortages of small arms ammunition and hand grenades. These were alleviated in the short term by emergency shipments by air, and in the medium term by allotting ammunition the highest priority for shipment instead of POL. On 15 June the First Army imposed restrictions on artillery ammunition, limiting the number of rounds per gun per day that could be fired. In part this was because deliveries consistently fell short of targets, but the main problem that the First Army sought to address was excessive and unreported stocks held by artillery units, which reduced the reserves held at Army level. The 19 June storm prompted emergency action. The First Army limited expenditure to a third of a unit of fire per day, arranged for per day to be delivered by air for three days, ordered coasters carrying ammunition to be beached, and called forward five Liberty ships in UK waters that had been prestowed with ammunition. A unit of fire was a somewhat arbitrary measurement for accounting purposes, and was different for each type of ammunition. It was 133 rounds for the 105 mm howitzer, 75 rounds for the 155 mm howitzer, 50 rounds for the 155 mm gun, and 50 rounds for the 8 inch howitzer. The divisions responded to the restrictions on the use of field artillery by employing tank destroyers and anti-aircraft guns as field artillery, as their ammunition was not rationed. On 2 July, the First Army imposed a new set of restrictions: expenditure was not to exceed one unit of fire of the first day of an attack, half a unit of fire on the second and subsequent days of an attack, and a third of a unit of fire on other days. Consumption in excess of the limits had to be reported to the First Army, with an appropriate justification. In practice, ammunition usage continued to be heavy, exacerbated by wasteful practices like unobserved firing and firing for morale effect by inexperienced units. By 16 July, the First Army stocks of 105 mm ammunition were down to 3.5 units of fire, and 81 mm mortar ammunition was at a critically low 0.3 units of fire. Ammunition was being unloaded at a rate of per day, which was insufficient, resulting in the First Army stocks being depleted at a rate of 0.2 units of fire per day. The First Army once again imposed strict rationing on 16 July, but expenditure was well below the limits owing to most of the tubes going silent as they moved into new gun positions for Operation Cobra, the attempt to break out from Normandy. The limitations of the M4 Sherman tank's 75 mm gun had already been recognized to some extent, and the theater had received 150 Shermans armed with the high-velocity 76 mm gun. A few weeks of combat in Normandy laid plain that the Sherman, even when equipped with the 76 mm gun, was outclassed by the German Tiger I, Tiger II and Panther tanks. The chief of the ETOUSA Armored Fighting Vehicles and Weapons Section, Brigadier General Joseph A. Holly, met with commanders in the field on 25 June, and then went to the United States in July to urge the expedited delivery of Shermans armed with the 105 mm howitzer, and of the new
M36 tank destroyer The M36 tank destroyer, formally 90 mm Gun Motor Carriage, M36, was an American tank destroyer used during World War II. The M36 combined the hull of the M10 tank destroyer, which used the M4 Sherman's reliable chassis and drivetrain combine ...
, which was armed with a 90 mm gun. In the meantime, 57 recently received Shermans armed with the 105 mm howitzer were shipped to Normandy from the UK. Consideration was given to obtaining the British Sherman Firefly, which mounted the powerful
17-pounder The Ordnance Quick-Firing 17-pounder (or just 17-pdr)Under the British standard ordnance weights and measurements the gun's approximate projectile weight is used to denote different guns of the same calibre. Hence this was a 3-inch gun, of which ...
anti-tank gun, but the British were overwhelmed with orders for them from the British Army. American propaganda declared that the American fighting man was the best equipped in the world, and when confronted with evidence to the contrary, there was widespread disillusionment, disappointment and disenchantment.


Subsistence

American soldiers were also skeptical of the claim that they were the best-fed soldiers of all time. The US Army's standard garrison ration was called the
A-ration A-ration is a term used in the United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space ...
. The
B-ration The B ration (or Type B Ration) was a type of field ration used in the United States military. Field rations such as the A ration, B ration, and emergency rations consisted of food items issued to troops operating in the field.Ration Breakdown P ...
was the A-ration without its perishable components. The
C-ration The C-Ration, or Field Ration, Type C, was a prepared and canned wet combat ration intended to be issued to U.S. military land forces when fresh food ( A-ration) or packaged unprepared food ( B-ration) prepared in mess halls or field kitchens w ...
consisted of six cansthree of which contained meat combinations (meat and vegetable hash, meat and beans, or meat and vegetable stew), and the other three biscuitshard candy, cigarettes, and a beverage in the form of instant coffee, lemon powder or cocoa. The better-packaged
K-ration The K-ration was an individual daily combat food ration which was introduced by the United States Army during World War II. It was originally intended as an individually packaged daily ration for issue to airborne troops, tank crews, motorcycle co ...
was designed to be an emergency ration. It contained three meals: a breakfast unit with canned ham and eggs and a dried fruit bar; a supper unit with luncheon meat; and a dinner unit with biscuits and cheese. It also contained
Halazone Halazone (4-(dichlorosulfamoyl)benzoic acid) is a chemical compound whose formula can be written as either or . It has been widely used to disinfect drinking water. Other names for this compound include ''p''-sulfondichloramidobenzoic acid, 4- ...
water purification tablets, a four-pack of cigarettes, chewing gum, instant coffee, and sugar. The
D-ration Military chocolate has been a part of the standard United States military ration since the original Ration D or D ration bar of 1937. Today, military chocolate is issued to troops as part of basic field rations and sundry packs. Chocolate ratio ...
was a chocolate bar. The compactness of the K-ration made it the preferred choice of the foot soldiers, but troops with access to transport and heating preferred the C-ration. Finally, there was the 10-in-1, an American version of the British 12-in-1, which was intended to feed ten men. It could be used by field kitchens, and offered the variety of five different menus. The lemon powder in the C- and K-rations was their primary sources of vitamin C, but it was particularly unpopular with the troops, who frequently discarded it, or used it for tasks like scrubbing floors. This resulted in cases of scurvy among troops subsisting on C- and K-rations. There were also cases of
riboflavin Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, is a vitamin found in food and sold as a dietary supplement. It is essential to the formation of two major coenzymes, flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide. These coenzymes are involved in ...
and thiamine deficiency due to deficiencies in the B-ration, which were largely corrected by October 1944 through the addition of fresh produce and enriched flour. The troops landing on D-Day each carried one D-ration and one K-ration; another three rations per man in the form of C- and K-rations were carried with their units. For the first few days all rations landed were C- or K-rations. During the four weeks of Overlord, 60,000,000 rations were delivered to Normandy in vessels pre-stowed in three to eight blocks at the New York Port of Embarkation. This facilitated the shift to 10-in-1 packs over the less popular C- and K-rations; 77 percent of rations in the first four weeks were in the form of 10-in-1s. By 1 July, a static bakery was in operation at Cherbourg, and there were also seven mobile bakeries, permitting the issue of freshly baked white bread to commence. By mid-July, 70 percent of the troops were eating B-rations.


Petrol, Oil and Lubricants

Initially fuel arrived packaged in
jerrican A jerrycan (also written as jerry can or jerrican) is a robust liquid container made from pressed steel (and more recently, high-density polyethylene, high density polyethylene). It was designed in Germany in the 1930s for military use to ho ...
s. This was a German invention copied by the British; in the US Army it supplanted the drum. The jerrican had convenient carrying handles, stacked easily and did not shift or roll in storage, and floated in water when filled with MT80 ( 80 Octane gasoline). The British version was an exact copy of the German model; the American version, called an Ameri-can by the British, was slightly smaller, with a screw cap onto which a nozzle could be fitted to deal with American vehicles with flush or countersunk fuel tank openings. If a nozzle was not available, the original can with its short spout was much preferred. A US jerrican weighed empty, and when filled with MT80, so 56 filled cans weighed . For Overlord, 11,500,000 jerricans were provided. Of these, 10,500,000 were manufactured in the UK and supplied to the US Army under Reverse Lend-Lease, while the rest came from the US. Jeeps arrived at the beachhead with full tanks and two jerricans of fuel; weapons carriers and small trucks carried five; 2½-ton trucks carried ten; and DUKWs carried twenty. The standard operating procedure (SOP) with respect to fuel containers was that empties should be returned and swapped for full ones, but the engineer special brigades had no refilling facilities, and did not wish to have the beach supply dumps cluttered with empties, so the First Army issued an order that empties not be returned. Instead, they went to divisional or corps collection points. The relaxation of the full-for-empty SOP was to have undesirable effects later on in the campaign. Bulk POL started to arrive at Isigny on 22 June, and at Port-en-Bessin and
Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Aure sur Mer. History World War II On 13 September 1942 13 British ...
the following day. It had been expected that only the east mole at the Port-en-Bessin terminal could be used, and only by small tankers with a capacity of up to , but it was found that both the east and west moles could be used, and by tankers up to . This allowed one mole to be allocated to the British and one to the Americans. The POL supply situation was satisfactory throughout June and July, mainly because the rate of advance was much slower than anticipated, resulting in shorter supply lines and lower fuel consumption. The First Army's daily MT80 consumption in July was around . Steady progress was made on construction of the Minor System pipeline, which ran from Port-en-Bessin and Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to Saint Lo, and the
tank farm Tank Farm (sometimes Tuff Crater) is the name of a volcanic explosion crater (or maar) on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand, near the approaches to the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Geology Part of the Auckland volcanic field, it was crea ...
at Mont Cauvin received its first bulk MT80 on 25 June. The delay in the capture of Cherbourg led to the extension of the Minor System beyond what had originally been planned, and eventually of pipeline were laid instead of the planned . The pipeline carried both MT80 and
avgas Avgas (aviation gasoline, also known as aviation spirit in the UK) is an aviation fuel used in aircraft with spark-ignited internal combustion engines. ''Avgas'' is distinguished from conventional gasoline (petrol) used in motor vehicles, w ...
(100 octane aviation gasoline) to Saint-Lô, and later to Carentan. Intended to deliver per day, it was delivering twice that by the end of July. Storage was similarly greater than planned, instead of the planned . Decanting of bulk fuel into jerricans began on 26 June, and by July were being decanted each day. By the time Operation Cobra was launched on 25 July, Overlord was running nearly forty days behind schedule, and no part of the planned Major System pipeline was in operation. As it was expected to have received of POL by then, receipts lagged considerably. Nonetheless, stocks were roughly what had been intended, because consumption had been much lower. In June, the First Army consumed around , an average of about per day, or per division slice (this being the number of soldiers divided by the number of divisions – about 35,000 in the ETO). This rose to , an average of about per day, or per division slice in July, but still remained far below the expected figure of per division slice.


Outcome

The biggest defect in the Overlord logistical plan was the failure to anticipate the nature of the fighting in the '' bocage'' country. This resulted in larger than anticipated expenditure and shortages of certain items, particularly artillery and mortar ammunition, and calls for the introduction of new model tanks and the upgrading of existing ones. The plan called not just for the maintenance of the divisions ashore, which required about per division slice daily, but also for building up 21 days' reserves of most classes of supplies by D plus 41, which required the landing of half as much again. When supplies for the air forces, civil affairs and overheads such as materials for the repair of roads, rehabilitation of ports and construction of pipelines were taken into account, some had to be landed each day. When the Normandy campaign officially ended on 24 July, the lodgment area covered about , about a tenth of what was anticipated, but troops continued to arrive at a rate only slightly less than scheduled. The delay in the capture of Cherbourg meant that the build up of stockpiles had proceeded slower than expected, only about 62 percent of the intended volume of supplies being landed. This was offset by the congestion of the lodgment area. Every field seemed to be taken over by a dump or depot or service or combat unit. Covered storage was unavailable except at Cherbourg and
Montebourg Montebourg () is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France. Geography Montebourg is located southeast of Cherbourg. Heraldry International relations Montebourg is twinned with: * Walheim,*, Germany (1960) * Stur ...
, so supplies were stacked in open fields, where they were exposed to the elements. The congestion was of particular concern for the storage of ammunition, which had to be dispersed; an explosion and fire at the large ammunition depot in Formigny destroyed of the of ammunition stored there. Plans to move supplies by rail were disrupted by the late capture of Cherbourg, and the first train did not depart from there until 11 July. In the meantime, supplies were moved by road, and some intersections saw a thousand vehicles passing through each hour. This heavy vehicle traffic soon took its toll of the road network. Although the supply system was functioning satisfactorily on the eve of the launch of Operation Cobra on 25 July, the outlook was uncertain. It was apparent that the Brittany ports would not be taken on schedule. Brigadier General
Royal B. Lord Royal Bertrand Lord (19 September 189921 October 1963) was a United States Army general who served in World War II. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, ranked 4th in the class of 1923, Lord served as an ins ...
, the chief of staff of COMZ, informed Major General
Leroy Lutes Lieutenant general LeRoy Lutes (October 4, 1890 – January 30, 1980) was a decorated American military officer who was in critical staff and supply positions during and after World War II. His last assignment was a commanding general of the Four ...
, his counterpart at ASF, that he expected that Cherbourg would eventually be able to handle a day, but others regarded this forecast as optimistic, and even with Quiberon Bay in operation, there might not be enough port capacity to maintain the planned troop numbers until D plus 180.


See also

*
American logistics in the Northern France campaign American logistics in the Northern France campaign played a key role in the Allied invasion of northwest Europe during World War II. In the first seven weeks after D-Day, the Allied advance was slower than anticipated in the Operation Overlord ...
* British logistics in the Normandy campaign


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:United Statues Logistics in the Normandy Campaign Operation Overlord Military logistics of the United States Military logistics of World War II