FRANCE
CONVOY CARRYING GASOLINE ALONG RED BALL HIGHWAY. These are 4–5-ton trucks (tractors) towing 2,000-gallon semitrailers (top). A 12-ton truck towing a 45-ton trailer loaded with ammunition, stops along Red Ball Highway (bottom). With the resistance offered by the retreating enemy at a minimum during this period, fuel was a more vital requisite than ammunition. Approximately a million gallons of gasoline were needed at the front every day to enable the armored columns to maintain their headlong rate of advance.
FRANCE
MILITARY POLICEMAN DIRECTS TRAFFIC ON RED BALL HIGHWAY. The three essential supplies were food, ammunition, and gasoline, and to get these to the armored spearheads as quickly as possible a system known as the Red Ball Express was instituted. By this, a circular one-way traffic route was established across France from the beachheads to the fighting zone and back again. All civilian and local military traffic was prohibited the use of the Red Ball Highway, and along it the convoys swept at high speed day and night.
FRANCE
