Red Ball Express

The Red Ball Express was an American truck convoy system that supplied Allied forces moving through Europe after breaking out from the D-Day beaches in Normandy in the summer of 1944. To expedite cargo shipments to the front, trucks emblazoned with red balls followed a similarly marked route that was closed to civilian traffic. The trucks also had priority on regular roads.

Conceived in an urgent 36-hour meeting, the convoy system began operating on 25 August 1944. Staffed primarily with African-American soldiers, the Express at its peak operated 5,958 vehicles that carried about 12,500 tons of supplies a day. It ran for 83 days until 16 November, when the port facilities at Antwerp, Belgium, were opened, enough French rail lines were repaired, and portable gasoline pipelines were deployed.

History

Use of the term "Red Ball" to describe express cargo service dated at least to the end of the 19th century. Around 1892, the Santa Fe railroad began using it to refer to express shipping for priority freight and perishables. Such trains and the tracks cleared for their use were marked with red balls. The term grew in popularity and was extensively used by the 1920s.

The need for such a priority transport service during World War II arose in the European Theater following the successful Allied invasion at Normandy in June 1944. To hobble the German army's ability to move forces and bring up reinforcements in a counter-attack, the Allies had preemptively bombed the French railway system into ruins in the weeks leading up to the D-Day landing.

At the time of the landing, traditional French ports were mostly inoperable and, after supporting the troops of the Allied invasion, the Normandy beaches needed to then become the makeshift port that would supply the march toward Germany. The temporary piers and docks known as Mulberry harbours that would create the port had been towed from England and had, by the end of June, unloaded 170,000 vehicles, of fuel and 500,000 tons of supplies. Some 28 Allied divisions needed constant resupply. During offensive operations, each division consumed about 750 tons of supplies per day (about per man) totaling about 21,000 tons in all. The only way to deliver them was by truck – thereby giving birth to the Red Ball Express.

At its peak, it operated 5,958 vehicles and carried about 12,500 tons of supplies per day. ''The Real History of World War II: A New Look at the Past''
by Alan Axelrod, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2008, Colonel Loren Albert Ayers, known to his men as "Little Patton", was in charge of gathering two drivers for every truck, obtaining special equipment, and training port battalion personnel as drivers for long hauls. Able-bodied soldiers attached to other units whose duties were not critical were made drivers. Almost 75% of Red Ball drivers were black.

Over 36 hours of planning, 132 already existing military trucking operations were combined into a truck force composed primarily of 2.5 ton GMC "Jimmys" and 1.5 ton Dodges. The Dodge trucks had a reputation for reliability. The GMCs were prone to breakdown, but were available in greater numbers. The larger concept of the Express and its routing would be the work of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, based on a French model (and would be an influence in Eisenhower’s role in the development of the U.S. Interstate Highway System in the 1950s).

To keep supplies flowing without delay, two routes were opened from Cherbourg (Cherbourg-en-Cotentin base at Chartres. The northern route was used for delivering supplies, the southern for returning trucks. Both roads were closed to civilian traffic.

The Red Ball was at the center of a number of other named supply tracks. The Green Diamond operated in the region of Cherbourg; the White Ball from Le Havre to Paris; the Lions Express between Bayeux and Brussels; and the ABC Express eastward from Antwerp.

Only convoys of at least five trucks were allowed, escorted in front and behind by a jeep. In reality, it was common for individual trucks to depart Cherbourg as soon as they were loaded. It was also common to disable the engine governors to travel faster than .

Convoys were a primary target of the German Luftwaffe but by 1944 German air power was so reduced that even these tempting and typically easy targets were rarely attacked. The biggest problems facing the Express were maintenance, finding enough drivers, and lack of sleep for the overworked truckers.

The most problematic natural enemy of the Express was mud. The trucks used wheels that could be easily overwhelmed, and efforts to escape could burn out transmissions while dried mud could immobilize their brakes.

To control traffic and provide security for the route, the 793rd Military Police Battalion, activated December 1942, was sent to the Red Ball from August through December 1944. The early beginnings of the battalion are commemorated on the distinctive unit insignia, with two red balls on a diagonal line of yellow, with a field of green behind (green and gold are the colors of the U.S. Army Military Police).

Gallery

File:Red Ball Express Regulating Point.jpg, Red Ball Express trucks moving through a Regulating Point, 1944
Image:Red Ball Express - Truck in the mud.jpg, A Red Ball Express truck stuck in the mud, 1944
File:Red Ball Express Loading.jpg, Soldiers of the 4185th Quartermaster Service Company loading Red Ball Express truck, Liège, Belgium, 1944
Image:La Queue-lez-Yvelines Red Ball Express crop.jpg, Commemorative stone in the village of La Queue-lez-Yvelines

See also

* Military history of African Americans
* ''Red Ball Express'', a 1952 film loosely based on the Red Ball Express
* '' Roll Out'', a 1973–74 television series based on the Red Ball Express

References

Citations

General and cited references

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External links

Red Ball Express
({{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202005302/http://www.skylighters.org/redball/ , date=December 2, 2008 )

African-American history of the United States military
Allied logistics in the Western European Campaign (1944–1945)
Military history of the United States during World War II
Military logistics of World War II
Military transport
United States Army in World War II
Western European Campaign (1944–1945)