Book Review — Red Ball Express by Pat Ware

The Red Ball Express is a legend of the Normandy invasion, but a subject that hasn't been covered in such detail beyond academic studies. The Allies needed thousands of tons of supplies fuel and ammunition every day if they were to move out of the beachheads and ultimately push towards Germany.

Pat Ware’s detailed and highly readable study is a truly excellent book.

Well researched and presented as you would expect from this author, Red Ball Express is lavishly illustrated with carefully sourced pictures from British, French and US sources.

As well as detailing the vehicles that were used on the Red Ball Express, the author gives details of the routes and the tonnages moved on a daily basis on the various Red Ball routes.

 

Without a doubt, until you read this book, most people will have only really a cursory knowledge of the Red Ball Express - the sheer logistics and intensity of the operation make this a book one to read from cover to cover.

There are fascinating anecdotes of fatigue, accidents, determination and varying degrees of driver skills. Training appears to be minimal - as basic as just sitting the man in the driver seat and let him get on with it! We discover that as in any vast operation, the less scrupulous seize opportunities to profit and a black market operation soon emerged on the Red Ball Express with whole truck loads of fuel and supplies being diverted......

As a Normandy resident, I was delighted to discover that I live just 5 minutes drive from what was one of the largest Red Ball Supply Depots - sadly nothing remains and there isn't a memorial to these unsung heroes of WW2 - many of whom were African Americans.

It is a delight to read and highly recommended for all levels of interest. Whilst all the black and white photographs are original and mostly new to us, Pat has balanced this with some colour pictures of re-enactors which works well.

I do hope this book inspires some of the military vehicle owners to retrace the routes in 2009 - 65 years after the planners of the American High Command created the greatest convoy of all time - running 24 hours a day - literally on a mission.

Red Ball Express - by author Pat Ware - is available from MILWEB Shop.