World Battlefronts: Problem: Supplies

Liberated France was a tactician’s triumph but it was a supply officer’s nightmare. Paris alone (and in spite of her surprisingly chic appearance—see FOREIGN NEWS) needed 3,000 tons of fuel at once, 3,000 tons of food every day. Mountains of other supplies had to be moved on & off the Normandy beaches for the armies. By last week the Allies were hot & heavy after more ports to carry the load.

Chief of these objectives was Brest.

This week U.S. forces were going after Brittany’s chief port with everything they had. Waves of bombs broke over the harbor, destroyed a German light cruiser, heavily damaged a destroyer and 14 cargo ships. England’s ancient and honored battleship War spite, serenely standing 18 miles out, in 150 minutes plunked 212 rounds into Brest’s forts, knocked out four big-gun batteries.

Toward the other German-held Brittany ports—Saint-Nazaire and Lorient —U.S. soldiers plugged at a less spectacular pace. The British, ready to close on Le Havre, hoped it would not become another Brest. But they had little hope that the Germans, if they were squeezed out, would not first clog its deep port with destruction, as they had Cherbourg’s.

Last week, two months after the surrender, the first Allied ship was unloaded at a Cherbourg wharf. Its cargo: eight locomotives and 24 freight cars—to get more supplies moving.