Invasion’s greatest problem was shipping of huge supplies
700,000 separate items needed, many of these in millions; planning began here and in London two years ago
London, England – (June 6)
The battle now raging on the beaches of Western Europe was fought – and its planners believe won – in the war rooms of London and Washington two years ago.
For the U.S. Army, now attacking side by side with the British in the greatest military venture of all time, this is the beginning of the end for Adolf Hitler, just as the turning of the tide in North Africa in 1942 was the end of the beginning for the Allies.
Plans for this operation were roughed out while we were still young in this war. It was recognized then that the difficult problem would not be men. Our commanders knew they could raise and train enough troops and that they could count on a certain high standard of skill and courage. The great problem was furnishing supplies and getting them to the battlefield with the men.
When Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called Lt. Gen. John C. H. Lee to be deputy commander in the European Theater of Operations and head of service of supply over here, he handed him the biggest job of its sort that has ever fallen on the shoulders of any man.
As our operations on the continent progress and expand we in time will have fighting forces there that will dwarf the American Expeditionary Force of the last war and this machine age war requires double the amount of materiel for each man needed in the last war.
It requires, for example, 700,000 separate items, ranging from tanks to watch-springs and many of these must be provided in millions. For instances, there is one vehicle to each six men.
Counting in everything, such as trucks, clothes and weapons, it takes ten tons of organic equipment to get one man into the European Theater of Operations and it takes 60 pounds of supplies per day to keep him here. Under combat operations, each man will need one ton of supplies a month, ammunition, clothing, food, medical supplies, etc.
In combat, one pair of shoes lasts on the average only two weeks and clothes are quickly torn to rags,
So overshadowing is the logistical factor in warfare that Gen. Lee believes that when Germany collapses it will be a logistical breakdown.
The landing on the continent was originally conceived on a large scale. But as Gen. Eisenhower got down to detailed work on it, he enlarged its power and rate of acceleration. A year ago, supply services were called on to step up greatly their preparations to keep up with the greater tactical demands. It has been stepped up since then and undoubtedly will be again.
Lest anyone in America think that now that we are breaching Hitler’s fortress we can let down, it is worth knowing that our commanders here recognize that our needs in most items will become greater and our supply problems more difficult in direct ratio to the progress of our invasion.
Gen. Lee and his subordinates have left nothing to chance and have calculated all quantities of the myriad items needed to a scientific nicety, based on statistics of past operations and allowing a liberal safety margin. Cargo ships have brought supplies to these islands according to a rigid timetable and they have been handled at ports with a celerity that has given them a remarkably quick turnaround.
British railways have operated with similar precision and so have truck convoys, which day and night one sees or hears rumbling through the highways. Gradually a surplus was built up in depots scattered everywhere, on which the Armed Forces can draw in an emergency.
Until now, streams of supplies from the United States have been funneling into this country. They will now be siphoned out onto continental beaches.
With the invasion comes a radical shift in the whole supply line. As soon as we are well established and have continental ports functioning the bulk of supplies will go directly from American ports to the continent, bypassing Britain.
This correspondent spent a considerable time in the period just preceding D-Day at Service of Supply headquarters, watching Gen. Lee and his key men handling their gigantic affairs. Their officers were going 24 hours a day.
Messages came and orders were dispatched and officers moved in and out on vital errands. Yet there was no tearing of hair, no shouting. Everybody was abreast or ahead of his job and they even had time to tell how they were doing it.
At the end of one especially strenuous day, Brig. Gen. Royal B. Lord, Gen. Lee’s Chief of Staff, relaxed and said:
Yes, each problem does look formidable when you first approach it. But I try not to see it as one big problem but as a combination of a number of little ones, each of which is easy enough to solve.
U.S. chiefs show optimism on push
Marshall, King and Arnold at White House for conference with the President
Washington – (June 6)
While giving out no fresh information on the progress of the invasion, the reaction of both the War and Navy Departments today was that the first phases seemed to be “going well.”
Gen. George C. Marshall (the Chief of Staff), Adm. Ernest J. King (the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations) and Gen. H. H. Arnold (Air Forces commanding general), the “big three” of the American invasion planners on this side of the Atlantic, were summoned to the White House this morning for an hour and a half conference with President Roosevelt.
They exchanged greetings with newsmen as they left the White House, but outside of a remark by Adm. King that the big push is “doing all right so far” they made little pertinent comment.
Navy’s prayers with boys
At his morning press conference, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal said, “The Navy’s prayers and hearts are with the boys who are doing the job over there.”
At the Pentagon, a formal request of War Department correspondents for some comment from Gen. Marshall was answered by Maj. Gen. A. D. Surles, Director of Public Relations, with the following note:
In view of the fact that neither the Secretary of War nor the Chief of Staff has anything to add to the news coming from Supreme Allied Headquarters for the present, neither will hold a press conference today.
Secretary of War Stimson, passing a correspondent in the corridor, remarked that the first reports indicated the invasion was “going very well.”
Informed military sources here seemed convinced that the progress of the Allied armies would become more difficult as the Germans were able to oppose their full available strength against the sectors where we are advancing. No one holds out any hopes of easy going.
Big Allied force indicated
There was encouragement in the reports from Allied headquarters that indicated we had followed what some military men call “Rule No. 1” for a successful invasion: We had applied sufficient force to the points where we made our initial landings. The tremendous numbers of ships, landing craft and planes employed, implying the movement of a sizable number of men and the materiel with which to back them, indicates that this was the large-scale venture that will be necessary for victory.
Observers conceded there was nothing in the first reports to indicate that all the pressure would be applied in the section of northern France where the landings were made, but they discouraged excessive speculation on this point.
The War and Navy Department’s officials promised to supply as much background as possible on the invasion, although they have stressed that the main news will break from Europe. The background supplied today was more in the nature of description of preparations rather than interpretation on what is taking place, although spokesmen admittedly were handicapped by a lack of information.
At the War Department, Brig. Gen. John Magruder, newly-appointed press spokesman, made plans to see reports between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. ET each day to attempt to explain developments.