As the title states logistics and supply played major roles in every aspect of battles during WW2 and often determined who was victor and who was the loser. I have heard that the allies in Europe had an issue in that they had massive amounts of logistics and supplies but struggled to get that to the front lines which caused major headaches for the allied armies is there truth to this and if so how did they deal with it?
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They had to stop advancing
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After the success of “SPOILERS” Operation Neptune, the Allies had to supply themselves with using makeshift “Mulberry” harbours that were brought into the landing beaches. However these were only meant to be a short term solution until a proper port could be had. The American capture of Cherbourg was a major help, but just by looking at a map you can see that Cherbourg is to the WEST of the landings, while everyone is heading East. After the Battle of Normandy and the Liberation of Paris, the First Canadian Army was given the task of trying to capture the French costal towns to try and relieve some of the logistical pressure, but Hitler ordered all these towns to be fortresses to be defended to last. Some were more successful than others; Canada got some revenge by capturing Dieppe, while not even trying to capture Dunkirk since the harbour was too small and shallow to be of any use. As such the Germans stationed there were (ironically) put under siege and would hold out until the end of the war. The big prize would end up being Antwerp, Belgium since it’s one of the biggest deep water ports in Western Europe. While it was captured in early September, the Scheldt Estuary (the canals and islands leading out of it) were not, Antwerp was useless until it was cleared. Monty however didn’t put much effort into this though since what few spare allied reserves were left were being put into Operation Market Garden. After that plan fell flat on it’s face, the Canadians were tasked for clearing the Scheldt, with fewer supplies than they should have been given because of Market Garden. The Battle of the Scheldt became one of the bloodiest Canadian battles of the war, to the point that mental breakdowns by Canadian soldiers skyrocketed since the First Canadian Army had been in combat for 3 months straight and helped kick off the Conscription Crisis of 1944. Starting in October, the Estuary wouldn’t be cleared until November, with Antwerp not being open to shipping until almost December. By this point winter had set in with little chance of advance. The American sectors meanwhile created The Red Ball Express, essentially a relay race of trucks hauling supplies a certain distance to another truck relay and so on until they reached the front. This worked well at first and helped Patton’s 3rd Army make insane advances, but like the Mulberry harbours this was only a short term solution. Eventually as the front moved further east the trucks started using up as much fuel as were meant to be delivered and the Express was called off. TLDR; Unexpectedly stiff German resistance, poor strategic mistakes and some short term solutions effectively caused to Allies on the Western Front to (quite literally) run out of gas.
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War of Supply: World War II Allied Logistics in the Mediterranean
by David D. Dworak
University Press of Kentucky, 2022.