10 million tons for victory

The people of France who, today, are aware of the events of the Liberation in 1944, have, for the vast majority, no idea whatsoever of the scale of logistics which preceded and led to the success of operations in Normandy. Logistics in the dictionary is defined as "the art of combining all means of transport and supplies for the troops!". The Americans, who know how to do things in a big way provided General Eisenhower with incredible transport, equipment and reserve supplies for Operation Overlord, which were far beyond anyone's wildest dreams. If the truth be told, the quantity and quality of these supplies compensated for what both military experts and historians agree today to have been the "mediocre" combat value of their contingents who were, nonetheless, plethorical. Through the marvellous Memorial Museum which he founded in Bayeux, Dr. Benamou has had access to authentic highly confidential files, thus ensuring that this book is the fruit of the patient work of an archivist, who, for the first time, has shed some light on this aspect of the Allies efforts, until now left very much in the dark. The surprising iconography illustrates clearly the description of the piles of crates of equipment, rows of trucks stretching over miles, fields full of armoured tanks and vehicles.

In order to write this book, the work of art of a Benedictine, Dr. Benamou has studied the figures and data, which may seem extravagant. This avalanche of equipment was nonetheless only just sufficient for the Americans, Anglo-Canadians, Polish and other fighting French forces to combat the tenacity of the Armies of the Reich and the difficulties of weather conditions.

It is interesting to note that 80% of American forces were used for Allied logistics. We can but admire the administrative services who calculated, ordered, gathered and transported all the equipment, in a big way, American-style, and down to the finest detail: food, pipelines, fuel for planes with 2 million jerrycans, workshops, general campaign hospitals with blood banks... The numbers of staff are beyond all powers of the imagination, 3 million men and women in the UK and then on the continent. The reader is left somewhat dazed and even rather worried by the strength which is revealed here through the figures and minute research of a competent historian.

It is easy to tell the history of the Allied battles and victories. However, to describe how these victories were made possible is the true work of a Trojan. Dr. Benamou's true merit is in having opened the doors which enable you to have a view of the Titanic backstage efforts of the Allies until now totally unexplored and never to be equalled.

Pierre Clostermann

Front cover: The American depots and the barracks where the troops camped had famous names. The camps were laid out with pathways at right angles on the model of American cities.

2^nd and 3^rd page: Omaha, a few of the landing craft washed up on the shore after "the storm of the century".

4^th page: Endless piles of jerrycans in infinitely neat rows where columns of Class III supplies are lined up.