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2 Logistics
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21 2 Logistics When action is proceeding as rapidly as it did across France during the hectic days of late August and early September every commander from division upward becomes obsessed with the idea that with only a few more tons of supply he could rush right on and win the war. Dwight Eisenhower The rest of our story is dominated by logistics—supply, transportation, and maintenance. Logistics define what is militarily possible. Tanks without gas cannot execute sweeping advances no matter how boldly the movement is drawn on the map. Artillery without ammunition generates no combat power. Even grunts need to eat. It has been said that “amateurs talks tactics, professionals talk logistics.” “Eisenhower allocated supplies, and that was his real power.”1 Logistics Described Admiral King is said to have remarked, “I don’t know what this ‘logistics’ that Marshall keeps talking about is, but I want to get some of it.” In order to understand the implications of three logistical considerations—transportation , ammunition, and port capacity—that heavily influenced the fall campaign, one needs to know a little about the arithmetic of logistics. As always, the devil is in the details. And logistics is an enormous, maddening mass of them. Logistics is “the science of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of forces.”2 “Logistics” is not some homogeneous bologna that can be sliced to order. To understand it a little better, logistics can be broken into four categories: 22 · The Battle for Western Europe, Fall 1944 supply maintenance transportation medical During World War II, supply was broken down into five categories:* Class I rations Class II organizational equipment Class III fuel and lubricants (petrol, oil, and lubricants—POL) Class IV non-organizational equipment and construction materials Class V ammunition Soldiers have a decided tendency to supplement their rations by scrounging . Small parties can live off the land for short periods. However, much of continental Europe was hungry in 1944. Soldiers gave away more than they took. Theater policy was not to acquire food on the continent unless a clear surplus existed in a locality. The American Army would need 3.5 billion lbs. of food by spring. Three hundred and forty liberty ships would be required to move it. Class II and IV are frequently listed together. Replacement weapons and vehicles are examples of Class II supply. Construction materials—bridging, lumber, gravel, barbed wire—often make up a large portion of Class IV tonnage moved. However, additional tenting, flamethrowers, and cookstoves were also be listed under Class IV in the 1940s. Construction consumed an enormous amount of tonnage. Seventythree thousand five hundred tons of bridging were needed. Eighty million board feet of lumber would be consumed.3 Reconstruction of the allcritical railroads required 47,000 tons of material.4 Don’t want to repair the railroads? You don’t have the trucks to move what will be left at the depots. Class III is principally gasoline. During World War II little gas was delivered below divisional level by bulk fuel tankers. Most was “decanted” into the familiar 5-gallon “jerry can.” It was a laborious process. A lot of gasoline entered the continent via a pipeline laid across the channel and terminating in Bayeux. However, technical problems delayed operation until late August. “Pluto” (pipe laid under the ocean) pipelines began to operate just about the time of the gas drought. *Five classes existed in World War II. Five additions exist in contemporary usage: VI—personal demand items (liquor, cigarettes, etc.), VII—major end items (tanks, bulldozers), VIII—medical, IX—repair parts, and X—non military. [3.238.62.124] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 03:20 GMT) Logistics · 23 First and Third Armies each burned about 400,000 gallons a day in their run across France. When set up, the Red Ball itself consumed 300,000 gallons a day.5 Fuel comprised about 25 percent of the tonnage landed in France.6 Petroleum tonnage is often excluded from port discharge totals because it is handled in segregated pumping facilities. The greatest percentage of ammunition tonnage goes to the artillery. In operations around Aachen, First Army fired 300,000 rounds of 105mm ammo. Each weighed about 60 pounds crated. That equals about two shiploads just for the 105s. And First Army’s fire plan during this period was constrained by shortage of available rounds. In a single month 6 million rounds of artillery and 2 million mortar rounds had been fired. Tank ammunition in armored...