American services and supply played a crucial part in the World War II Siegfried Line campaign, which ran from the end of the pursuit of the German armies from Normandy in mid-September 1944 until December 1944, when the American forces were engulfed by the German Ardennes offensive. In August 1944, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, elected to continue the pursuit of the retreating German forces beyond the Seine and across France and Belgium to the German border instead of pausing to build up supplies and establish the line of communications as called for in the original Operation Overlord plan. The subsequent advance to the German border stretched the American logistical system to breaking point, and the advance came to a halt in mid-September.
Problems with port capacity and transportation created many shortages, but many others were the result of mismanagement and underestimating requirements. A critical shortage of winter clothing developed from a reluctance to accept new items and a failure to order adequate quantities in the mistaken belief that the war would end before they were required. The winter of 1944–1945 in Northwest Europe was unusually cold and wet, and American soldiers were not trained in how to avoid cold injury. The American forces suffered 71,000 casualties from trench foot and frostbite.
Artillery ammunition shortages that developed in the early days of the campaign increased casualties, delayed operations and lengthened the war. The specific causes of the shortage of artillery ammunition in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) in 1944 varied over time: between June and November, there was insufficient discharge capacity over the beaches and through the ports; between August and October, supply lines were overstretched and inadequate to move enough ammunition to the front lines; from November 1944 to April 1945, there was insufficient production of ammunition in the United States.
Background
In the first seven weeks after the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944, determined German opposition exploited the defensive value of the Normandy bocage country. The Allied advance was slower than the Operation Overlord plan had anticipated. Operation Cobra, which the First Army commenced on 25 July, effected a turnaround in the operational situation by achieving a breakout from the Normandy lodgment area. The 12th Army Group became active on 1 August, under the command of Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley. It initially consisted of the First Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges, and the Third Army, under Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr. The Ninth Army, under Lieutenant General William H. Simpson, joined the 12th Army Group on 5 September.
British General Sir Bernard Montgomery, the commander of the British 21st Army Group, remained in command of all ground forces, British and American, until 1 September, when the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, opened his Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in France, and assumed direct command of the ground forces. This brought not just the 12th and 21st Army Groups under Eisenhower's direct command, but also Lieutenant General John C. H. Lee's Communications Zone (COMZ). Until then, Bradley had exercised control over the Communications Zone as the senior American commander on the continent. As such, he had prescribed stock levels in the depots and priorities for the delivery of supplies, and apportioned service units between the armies and the Communications Zone. Bradley believed that as the senior operational commander he should exercise such authority, as was the case in the British forces but, under the American organization, COMZ headquarters also functioned as that of the European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA).
On 24 August, Eisenhower decided to continue the pursuit of the retreating German forces beyond the Seine. This stretched the logistical system to breaking point. Between 25 August and 12 September, the Allied armies advanced from the D plus 90 phase line, the position the Operation Overlord plan expected to be reached 90 days after D-Day, to the D plus 350 one, moving through 260 phase lines in 19 days. The planners had estimated that no more than twelve divisions could be maintained beyond the Seine, but by September sixteen were, albeit on reduced scales. Logistical forecasts were repeatedly shown to be overly pessimistic, imbuing a sense of confidence that difficulties could always be overcome.
The advance came to a halt in September. This was not a result of inadequate supplies or port capacity—there were still some of supplies stockpiled in the Normandy lodgment area two months later—nor solely of a shortage of fuel. Rather, the problem was the inability to deliver fuel and supplies. Railways could not be repaired and pipelines could not be constructed quickly enough. Motor transport was used as a stopgap, but there was a shortage of suitable vehicles owing to political interference and production difficulties. Too few heavy trucks had been manufactured in the United States, and this compelled the use of the smaller general purpose GMC CCKW 2½-ton 6×6 trucks for long hauls, for which they were unsuited. The roads often had shallow foundations, and soon deteriorated under sustained use by military vehicle traffic and autumn rains.
Logistical difficulties, in particular shortages of food, fuel, ammunition and spare parts, were indeed critical and constituted a drag on operations, but they were not the only factors that brought the Allied advance to a halt. The American forces also had to contend with rugged terrain, worsening weather and, above all, stiffening German resistance. American forces were widely dispersed and, with the logistical situation preying on his mind, a cautious Hodges ordered his corps commanders to halt when they encountered strong resistance. As American forces confronted the defenses of the Siegfried Line, priority shifted from fuel to ammunition.
Supply depots The comprehensive supply depot system envisaged by the Overlord planners did not exist in September 1944. The rapid advance led to the abandonment of Operation Chastity, the plan to develop Quiberon Bay as a port. In turn, this led to the scaling back of plans to develop a maintenance area in the vicinity of Rennes, Vitré, Laval, Segré and Châteaubriant. This left the maintenance area back in Normandy. A logical site further east would have been Paris, as it was a major communications hub, but SHAEF directed that a maintenance area should not be established around Paris. Eisenhower wanted to reserve Paris as a rest area for combat troops on furlough. He disapproved of the movement of COMZ headquarters to Paris, which was ordered by Brigadier General Royal B. Lord without Lee's permission. Soon COMZ headquarters occupied 167 hotels and the Seine Base Section another 129. By February 1945, 8,400 American and 700 British soldiers were arriving in Paris each day on 72-hour passes, but there were 21,000 troops stationed within of the city center, and another 140,000 in the Seine Department.
As a result, only some minor depots were established in the Paris area. The COMZ staff looked for suitable sites in the British zone around Antwerp in Belgium, but the British would not agree to this. In September, major depots were established around Liege to support the First and Ninth Armies and Verdun to support the Third Army; the COMZ staff would have preferred Nancy and Metz for the latter, but these areas were still in German hands. These depots began receiving supplies directly from the ports and the beaches in Normandy, and gradually became the base depots for Class I, II and V classes of supply (rations, clothing and equipment, and ammunition). They therefore acted simultaneously as base, depot and issue depots.
The opening of the port of Antwerp in November led to a flood of supplies that overwhelmed the depots around Liege and Verdun. To relieve the pressure on them, new maintenance areas were established around Mons and Charleroi. Major disruption of the supply system was caused by the German Ardennes offensive, which threatened the base depots. This prompted COMZ to halt the shipments to Liege and Verdun. Since cargo discharge operations had to continue at the port lest the tying up of shipping create a global shipping crisis, supplies piled up at the quays and on the rail lines. Representatives from the Army Service Forces (ASF) studied the situation in December 1944 and January 1945, and produced a series of recommendations. Lee took immediate action to establish the Class II and IV depots in Seine and Oise Base Sections and expand other depots in the Channel and Oise Base Sections. New depot areas were also established around Dijon and Nancy, and the supply depot system began moving towards the doctrinal ideal of a system of base, intermediate and advance depots.
Winter clothing
Development American troops stationed in the UK before D-Day led the life of garrison soldiers in a friendly country. Smart appearance was a priority, and the woolen serge service uniform was worn by headquarters staff and off-duty personnel. The jacket was hard to keep presentable in the UK where dry cleaning facilities were scarce, and pink trousers tended to show dirt, so many officers wore the dark olive drab ones instead. In particular, the M1941 field jacket came in for criticism because it required frequent washing, was difficult to iron, and the collar and cuffs tended to fray, resulting in a shabby appearance.
American officers were impressed by the British battledress. This paired high-waisted fishtail back trousers with a short jacket that fit snugly around the waist. As well as providing a smart military appearance, its heavy wool fabric was extremely durable, could be cleaned by scrubbing, and did not require ironing. A shrink-resistant cotton lining meant that it could be worn with or without undergarments. It was based on the British civilian custom of wearing trousers with a waistcoat, which differed from American civilian men's fashion with its low-cut trousers supported by a belt. Some American troops arriving in 1942 were issued with the British battledress, and it was well received. An American version was then developed in the UK, which became known as the ETO or Eisenhower jacket.
In March 1944, Eisenhower and Lee raised a requirement for 4,259,000 ETO jackets, of which 300,000 would be manufactured in the UK. The ETO quartermaster, Major General Robert McG. Littlejohn, met with Major General Lucius D. Clay at Army Service Forces headquarters. The British wool used in the ETO design was unobtainable in the United States, so the serge used in the enlisted men's service coat was substituted. This defeated the purpose of a jacket that could be used as both a field and a dress uniform. It retained the more complicated features, making it hard to mass-produce. Clay did not believe that more than 2.6 million could be delivered by the end of 1944, and offered Littlejohn 479,000 M1941 jackets as substitutes.
Meanwhile, in the United States, the Quartermaster Corps had designed an entirely new winter uniform, the M1943 Uniform, based on the layered clothing principle. The centerpiece was the olive drab, , cotton sateen M1943 field jacket. The M1943 field jacket was lighter than the M1938 field overcoat, but laboratory testing showed that it kept the skin just as warm at both and . Field tests were carried out in the Battle of Anzio.