Editing Red Ball Express

{{Short description|Allied truck convoy system during WWII}}
{{for|film|Red Ball Express (film)}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2015}}
[[File:RedBallExpress.jpg|thumb|right|[[Military Police Corps (United States)|Military policeman]] and sign posted along the Red Ball route]]

The '''Red Ball Express''' was a famed truck [[convoy]] system that supplied [[World War II allies|Allied]] forces moving quickly through Europe after breaking out from the [[D-Day]] beaches in [[Normandy]] in 1944.<ref name=Historynet>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historynet.com/red-ball-express|title=Red Ball Express {{!}} HistoryNet|website=www.historynet.com|language=en-US|access-date=2017-04-03}}</ref> To expedite cargo shipment 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.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}

Conceived in an urgent 36-hour meeting, the convoy system began operating on August 25, 1944.<ref name="ArmyMuseum">{{cite web|url=http://www.transchool.lee.army.mil/museum/transportation%20museum/redballintro.htm|title=The Red Ball Express, 1944|publisher=[[U.S. Army Transportation Museum]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180126045735/http://www.transchool.lee.army.mil:80/museum/transportation%20museum/redballintro.htm|archive-date=January 26, 2018|access-date=December 31, 2013}}</ref> 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.<ref name=ArmyMuseum/> It ran for 83 days until November 16, when the port facilities at [[Antwerp]], [[Belgium]], were opened, enough French rail lines were repaired,<ref name=BitterWoods/> 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 [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway|Santa Fe railroad]] began using it to refer to express shipping for priority freight and perishables.<ref name="Railroad gazette">{{cite journal|title=Handling Fast Freight on the Santa Fe|journal=[[The Railroad Gazette]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yJxMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA184|access-date=June 4, 2015|date=August 25, 1905|publisher=The Railroad Gazette|volume=39|number=8|pages=184–}}</ref> 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 theatre of World War II|European Theater]] following the successful [[Operation Overlord|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<ref name=BitterWoods>{{cite book |author-link=John S. D. Eisenhower |first=John S. D. |last=Eisenhower |title=The Bitter Woods |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=1995 |orig-year=1969 |isbn=0-306-80652-5 |pages=76-77 <!--|contribution=introduction |contributor-first=Stephen E. |contributor-last=Ambrose |contributor-link=Stephen E. Ambrose-->}}</ref> 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, {{convert|7.5|e6USgal|e6l|abbr=unit}} of fuel and 500,000 tons of supplies.<ref >{{cite web| title=The Clarence Ketterman Memorial Red Ball Express Information Page|url=http://skylighters.org/redball/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041122010737/https://skylighters.org/redball/|archive-date=22 November 2004}}</ref> Some 28 Allied divisions needed constant resupply. During offensive operations, each division consumed about 750 tons of supplies per day (about 100 pounds 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.<ref name=ArmyMuseum/><ref>[https://archive.org/details/realhistoryofwor00axel/page/318 <!-- quote=Red Ball 12,500 tons of supplies a day. --> ''The Real History of World War II: A New Look at the Past''] by [[Alan Axelrod]], Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2008, {{ISBN|1-4027-4090-5|978-1-4027-4090-9}}</ref> Colonel Loren Albert Ayers, known to his men as "Little [[George S. Patton|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.<ref name=ArmyMuseum/> Almost 75% of Red Ball drivers were black.<ref name="DOD">{{cite web|url=http://archive.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=43934|title=African Americans Gain Fame as World War II Red Ball Express Drivers|date=February 15, 2002|publisher=[[United States Department of Defense]]|author=Rudi Williams|access-date=June 17, 2017|archive-date=October 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001171816/https://archive.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=43934|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Over 36 hours of planning, 132 already existing military trucking operations were combined into a truck force composed primarily of [[GMC CCKW 2½-ton 6×6 truck|2.5 ton GMC “Jimmy’s”]] and [[Dodge WC series|1.5 ton Dodge]]s. The Dodge trucks had a reputation for reliability. The GMCs were prone to breakdown, but were available in greater numbers.<ref name="Esteve">{{cite book |last1=Esteve |first1=Michael |title=Sherman: The M4 Tank in World War II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_jtDwAAQBAJ&dq=red+ball+express+trucks+dodge+wc&pg=PA170 |date=July 30, 2020 |publisher=Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC |isbn=9781612007403 |access-date=21 January 2022}}</ref> 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).<ref name="Dickon">{{Cite book |last=Kirkels and Dickon |first=Mieke and Chris|title=Dutch Children of African American Liberators |publisher=McFarland Publications |year=2020 |isbn=978-1476676937}}</ref>

To keep supplies flowing without delay, two routes were opened from Cherbourg ([[Cherbourg-en-Cotentin]] since 2016) to the forward [[logistics]] base at [[Chartres]]. The northern route was used for delivering supplies, the southern for returning trucks. Both roads were closed to civilian traffic.<REF NAME='logsupport'>{{cite book| author=Roland G. Ruppenthal| title=The European Theater of Operations: Logistical Support of the Armies Vol 1| publisher=[[US Army Center of Military History]] |location=Washington, DC| year=1995| page=560}}</ref>

{{quote|The highways in France are usually good, but are ordinarily not excessively wide. The needs of the rapidly advancing armies, consequently, promptly put the greatest possible demands upon them. To ease this strain, main highways leading to the front were set aside very early in the advance as "one way" roads from which all civil and local military traffic were barred. Tens of thousands of truckloads of supplies were pushed forward over these one way roads in a constant stream of traffic. Reaching the supply dumps in the forward areas, the trucks unloaded and returned empty to [[Arromanches]], [[Cherbourg]] and the lesser landing places by way of other one way highways. Even the French railroads were, to some degree, operated similarly, with loaded trains moving forward almost nose to tail.<ref>{{cite book |last=Daniel |first=Hawthorne |year=1948 |title=For Want of a Nail: The Influence of Logistics on War |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89094692084&view=page&seq=0 |location=New York |publisher=Whittlesey House |oclc=1296750 |pages=[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89094692084&view=page&seq=296 270–271]}}</ref>|''For Want of a Nail: The Influence of Logistics on War'' (1948) by Hawthorne Daniel}}

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.<ref name="Dickon" />

Only convoys of at least five trucks were allowed,<ref name=ArmyMuseum/> 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 [[Governor (device)|governors]] to travel faster than {{convert|56|mph|kph}}.<ref name=ArmyMuseum/>

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.<ref name=Historynet />

The most problematic natural enemy of the Express was mud. The trucks used {{convert|11|in|cm|adj=on}} 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==
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
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]]
File:Corporal Charles H. Johnson of the 783rd Military Police Battalion, waves on a "Red Ball Express" motor convoy... - NARA - 531220.tif|Corporal Charles H. Johnson of the 783rd Military Police Battalion, waves on a "Red Ball Express" motor convoy.
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Portal|United States}}
* [[Military history of African Americans]]
* ''[[Red Ball Express (film)|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 ===
{{Reflist}}

=== General and cited references ===
* {{cite book | author = David P. Colley | year = 2000 |title = The Road to Victory: The Untold Story of World War II's Red Ball Express | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781574881738 | publisher = Potomac Books | isbn = 1-57488-173-6}}
* {{cite book |author=Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Leigh |year=1945 |title=48 Million Tons to Eisenhower: The Role of the SOS in the Defeat of Germany |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b746100&view=1up&seq=9 |location=Washington |publisher=The Infantry Journal Press }}<!--cited in bibliography of John S. D. Eisenhower, The Bitter Woods, Da Capo Press, 1995 paperback, isbn 0-306-80652-5-->

==External links==
{{Commons category|Red Ball Express}}
* [http://www.skylighters.org/redball/ Red Ball Express] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202005302/http://www.skylighters.org/redball/ |date=December 2, 2008 }}

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